Congratulations to Grant Shapps Secretary of State for Transport for announcing a £2 cap on single bus fares, to be introduced for a 3 month trial period funded by government. At last, a belated realisation that genuine modal shift away from cars will only be achieved if fares are set to realistic levels. The initiative will be particularly welcomed in the north where bus fares are extortionately high compared to London. Why only 3 months though? Well, it’s reasonable to trial something first, but perhaps Mr Shapps has a premonition he won’t be in post tomorrow, so is leaving room for his successor to pursue a different direction. Welcome as the initiate is, it will of course distort the rail market, where busses operate between the same town as trains, such as Morpeth or Cramlington to Newcastle. But with the rail industry currently in disarray due to industrial action, it would have been foolhardy for Mr Shapps to have included local rail journeys in his initiative right now, even if he had wanted to, and it was technically possible to do so. So time for the rail industry to sort itself out and for management and unions to be saying jointly “we are open and ready for business”. NB: Watch out for bus companies chopping routes in half to make £4 out of what was previously a single journey.
