RolloTreadway on Nostr: Disappointed but not surprised that everything I see about the bus price cap is about ...
Disappointed but not surprised that everything I see about the bus price cap is about the cost and never about the huge number of people that are effectively excluded from it.
I assume this is because most people who are excluded don't live in big cities and we don't really count.
In most of the country (local authorities may vary in some big cities) your £2 bus ticket allows you to travel on one bus. Need to change buses? £4. Or £6. And so on. Effectively there's no cap at all because you're just going to be buying the regular uncapped tickets at that point. Only if you live on a direct route do you get a £2 cap.
And guess who's disproportionately affected by this? People in rural areas and people in former industrial areas that are badly served by public transport. If you're lucky enough to have a bus service near you - one that actually runs! - then chances are you have to make a connection. If there used to be a direct route, it's likely gone (personal experience of that one!) - huge numbers of such routes have been dropped in the past decade.
This is the real problem here. It's people who don't live in big cities or wealthy areas being completely ignored by a system that *literally charges them more than everyone else*. That's a lot of overwhelmingly poor people being cut out of a vital costsaving measure.
(So most of them will have to buy a car, whether they want to or not, and that's not exactly cheap either.)
Anyway, my new MP seems very enthusiastic about access to services in rural areas (it's a huge rural constituency) so I've written to him about this. Will report back if he replies.
But yes, reminder to everyone with any interest in solidarity and whatnot: just because you can get a £2 bus ticket to get you where you need to go, doesn't mean there aren't a huge number of us out here getting stiffed.
(And yes, of course complain about the 50% increase, not saying it's wrong to do so, just remember how lucky you are that you got to enjoy the cap in the first place.)
I assume this is because most people who are excluded don't live in big cities and we don't really count.
In most of the country (local authorities may vary in some big cities) your £2 bus ticket allows you to travel on one bus. Need to change buses? £4. Or £6. And so on. Effectively there's no cap at all because you're just going to be buying the regular uncapped tickets at that point. Only if you live on a direct route do you get a £2 cap.
And guess who's disproportionately affected by this? People in rural areas and people in former industrial areas that are badly served by public transport. If you're lucky enough to have a bus service near you - one that actually runs! - then chances are you have to make a connection. If there used to be a direct route, it's likely gone (personal experience of that one!) - huge numbers of such routes have been dropped in the past decade.
This is the real problem here. It's people who don't live in big cities or wealthy areas being completely ignored by a system that *literally charges them more than everyone else*. That's a lot of overwhelmingly poor people being cut out of a vital costsaving measure.
(So most of them will have to buy a car, whether they want to or not, and that's not exactly cheap either.)
Anyway, my new MP seems very enthusiastic about access to services in rural areas (it's a huge rural constituency) so I've written to him about this. Will report back if he replies.
But yes, reminder to everyone with any interest in solidarity and whatnot: just because you can get a £2 bus ticket to get you where you need to go, doesn't mean there aren't a huge number of us out here getting stiffed.
(And yes, of course complain about the 50% increase, not saying it's wrong to do so, just remember how lucky you are that you got to enjoy the cap in the first place.)