\u00a0 \u00a0 That was the message to parliamentarians from Martin Dean, managing director of Go-Ahead Group\u2019s regional bus business, who also pointed out that the \u00a3260m a year the bus industry needs to keep networks at pre-pandemic levels is \u201cbarely enough to build a mile of HS2\u201d.<\/p>\n Writing in The House<\/em> magazine<\/a> earlier this month, prior to the government\u2019s announcement of a \u00a3500m two-year funding settlement for buses in England, Dean welcomed the enhanced interest in buses among policy-makers. \u201cA politician on a bus used to be as rare as a four leaf clover,\u201d he observed. \u201cBut that\u2019s changing. These days, most MPs are eager to put on a hi-vis vest for a tour around a bus depot, and few can resist a photo opp behind the wheel of a double-decker.\u201d<\/p>\n A colleague of mine met an influential parliamentarian on transport recently expecting to talk trains \u2013 only to be told \u2018we don\u2019t want to talk about trains \u2013 our priority is buses\u2019<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cA colleague of mine met an influential parliamentarian on transport recently expecting to talk trains \u2013 only to be told \u2018we don\u2019t want to talk about trains \u2013 our priority is buses\u2019. So it\u2019s a puzzle, amid all this goodwill, that our industry is at the brink of a financial precipice.\u201d<\/p>\n In the medium term, Go-Ahead sees a path to industry growth. \u201cCar ownership is falling among younger people, and environmental awareness \u2013 of the benefits of public transport \u2013 is on the up,\u201d he said. However, he called for a long term funding deal of around \u00a3260m a year to support the bus industry in England, arguing that \u201cthe private sector brings a great deal to buses in marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship \u2026 but the market cannot conquer all\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout long-term funding, as many as 15% of bus routes nationwide could be cut,\u201d Dean warned. \u201cThis is not a party political issue \u2013 it would be a crying shame in communities of all political hue. It\u2019s time to look beyond public, private, franchised and commercial models and simply do what\u2019s right to protect our local bus services.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00a0 DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post Cost of preventing bus service cuts is \u2018tiny\u2019<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Go-Ahead\u2019s Martin Dean tells parliamentarians that \u00a3260m a year to keep networks at pre-pandemic levels is \u2018barely enough to build a mile of HS2\u2019 \u00a0Martin Dean \u00a0 Bus services need continued post-Covid support and in terms of the Department for Transport\u2019s \u00a33bn annual budget the amount of money required to maintain a comprehensive network is \u201ctiny\u201d. That was the message…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Martin Dean<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBus services need continued post-Covid support and in terms of the Department for Transport\u2019s \u00a33bn annual budget the amount of money required to maintain a comprehensive network is \u201ctiny\u201d.<\/p>\n
This story appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n