Creating a Fuss

Don’t know why, all of a sudden, everyone seems to have gotten all worked up over half price coach travel. By the time it’s removed at the end of October, operators will have known about this for just over a year. Perhaps it’s got something, everything, to do with a looming deadline, potential deprivation to older people and the hungry media.

A small number of NatEx routes or locations may be under threat following the withdrawal of coach BSOG, believed to include London to Cromer and Hastings, two provincial areas renowned for their older demography
And, surely, in the face of continued economic uncertainties, there are far more difficult decisions being taken by governments national and local… like the withdrawal of rural bus mileage… and the reduction by 20 per cent of genuine BSOG in six months’ time.

By far the main beneficiary of the payment that sees coach BSOG (or CSOG) paid to operators offering half-price English coach travel for those over 60 is National Express. It has emailed all and sundry to try to get them to lobby the government to delay or u-turn. NatEx must know it’s on the back foot, though. For proof, look no further than NX’s recent advertising campaign on 50- & 60-something orientated Radio Gold and, for all I know, elsewhere, suggesting that if eligible listeners book by the October 2011 deadline, they can enjoy half fares till October 2012. Clearly, NX isn’t one to waste an opportunity either way.

There’s no denying that there will be people who genuinely benefit from the fares reduction but we also need to get some perspective:

• Half fares on coaches is a relatively new idea. Time was when NatEx offered a third off but that’s been dead for, what, nearly 10 years. Such a reduction was commercially driven (and there’s no reason why it couldn’t be in the future. The word is that it will be, of some sort).


• Express coaches are still the cheapest form of long distance travel, by far, certainly when compared to rail.


• Older people will still prefer the level of comfort they get from the coach—by “comfort” I mean reassurance.


• It seems probable that express operators will still be able to claim genuine BSOG for those substantial elements of the network that are registered as local bus services. This includes parts of the Oxford Tube, with inserted stopping points less than 15 miles apart, for the purpose. On all these, it was once possible to get free travel but (a) few knew this and (b) operators traded it in for C-BSOG.


• Most (many?) express journeys are discretionary and not essential. Compare this to free bus travel where, aside from honeypots, it’s the reverse. Express travel’s more leisure based.


• Nice idea but in view of the discretionary nature of journeys, should the government have funded this in the first place? Has it simply raised expectations that bit too far? Has it simply offered a media hostage to fortune because people are over 60?

NatEx suggests that one reason why the concession should remain is because the folks north of the border will retain *free* rather than half-price express travel. There’s policy drift in a whole host of areas when you compare London with Edinburgh, Scotland. We mustn’t forget that many, though certainly not all, Scottish express services also act as limited stop local bus rather than pure coach services, for some communities. That’s not really the case in England.

But perhaps the real inequity in these environmentally conscious times is that jet fuel still comes with no duty whatsoever.