Charge us a fair fare on Bristol buses
Like Ann Street (Open Lines), I discovered that when two or three are gathered together, the taxi is cheaper than the bus.
Long ago, three of us left the pub too late for the special to Ashton Gate, and said "hang the expense, we'll get a cab". It was, of course, cheaper than the bus.
-
I had high hopes of my near namesake who is now in charge of the council's transport policy, but he seems to be obsessed with bicycles to the exclusion of all other forms of transport.
What the council needs to do in the short term is to grab First Bus by the hand, or some other suitable body part, and persuade them to charge more reasonable fares. In the long term it must look at light and heavy rail, even if it means returning some cyclepaths to their original use, putting pressure on National Rail and Train Operating Companies and, most difficult of all, working with other local councils in a co-ordinated transport policy.
The improved service on the Severn Beach Line is an excellent example of what can be achieved with a lot of effort from activists, welcome support from the council and a surprising amount of imagination from First Great Western.
I'm not holding my breath, but if the council wants the advice of a lifelong pedestrian and public transport user, I'm available.
John Michael Rogers, Horfield.
2 Comments
by Steve, Central Bristol
Thursday, October 22 2009, 5:19PM
“" force First to charge less on the buses"
When will people who write letters to these pages begin to understand that the Council has NO LEGAL POWERS TO FORCE FIRST TO DO ANYTHING?”
by Paddy, Walking faster than a bus
Wednesday, October 14 2009, 8:19PM
“All needs to be done in the right order. First thing is to force First to charge less on the buses to give people a viable, realistic and fair option for when the congestion charge is introduced. Yes, then introduce the congestion charge to make single car occupancy less desirable. At the moment, once you've paid all your fixed charges to run a car (insurance etc) you want to get your money's worth by using it and petrol can cost less on a journey than the bus fair. It's a joke. Sdaly the option of driving into the centre needs to be made more expensive to persuade people not to, but not until a cheap and effective publice transport system is in place. Once this process is in place then the roads will be less congested and the bus service will get better and more reliable. At the moment I wouldn;t get on a bus as I can;t afford it and don't see the point as they sit in congested traffic or get stuck behind cars parked in bus lanes with no one letting them pull out.”