Bus Industry
Debate between Andrew Turner and Iain Wright(12 years, 11 months ago)
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Mr Wright
My hon. Friend makes an important point, and my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton referred to the same issue. Economic activity is very much contingent on the availability of good transport and connectivity. Concerns have been raised with me both by constituents living in the urban part of Hartlepool and by constituents living in outlying areas, who say that they cannot take up a job because they cannot get to the place of work as a result of the absence or removal of the bus service.
Another of my constituents cited in the Select Committee report is Mrs Powers, who states:
“Since the removal of the bus service my daughter…has NO way of getting to and from college…Is she surely not entitled to the education she deserves? My daughter works very hard and gets excellent grades and I feel appalled that her future education is being jeopardised in this way!”
It is important to mention the importance of access to education in rural areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South (Susan Elan Jones) will be concerned about that as well.
It is clear that competition in the bus market in Hartlepool has failed. Deregulation since the mid-1980s has not proved to be a success. The market is characterised by too dominant a player, making excessive profits by cherry-picking the busy and popular routes and ensuring that passenger choice is left behind. For those services that remain, punctuality rates are behind what should be expected, because operators do not fear that another company might come along and provide a better service that takes away their market share.
Mr Andrew Turner
It is not the case that things have been tested and found to fail—they have not been tested. We have to try the competition route, which should be given the chance to work under the new system. We have to make it work, rather than pretending that it has already happened and been found to fail.