Le bus

It’s a sharp, cold day in March. “In like a lion, out like a lamb” my Mum used to say. Still does in fact, she said it last night when I spoke to her on the phone. As an epithet it offers us hope that spring is only just around the corner. As a fact it means that it’s damn cold, the streets and pavements are covered in rock salt that makes my shoes go all white and crusty, and my lips are permanently chapped and cracked.

Adding to my woes is the dreadful state of public transport these days where a safe, reliable, convenient and affordable bus service seems to have gone the same way as the Meadow Pippit. What exactly is the problem with the UK and public transport? I simply cannot fathom why we have consistently as both a country of nations and a United Kingdom we have failed to get this sorted once and for all.

What exactly is the problem? Provide and enforce clearways for buses. Make them cheap, regular, clean and comfortable. Err, that would seem to be it wouldn’t it?

Having spent an enjoyable long weekend in Paris recently I speak as someone with recent memories of a transport system that works for and with the inhabitants of a large metropolitan city. The operation of the Metro, the RER and the various bus lines provides a complex yet understandable and logical matrix of transport possibilities beyond the sophistication of anything I have yet to come across in the UK. Fares are integrated, transfer is easy and you can use mobile phones on the tube – what gives?

Of course none of this comes without a price. But whereas the French authorities believe that a publicly supported integrated transport system brings with it economic, social and environmental benefits, we are still battling with conglomerates at one end of the spectrum in an open and privatised transport policy framework to one-man businesses stealing what little business they can from the dominant companies by running their tired and dreary mini-buses into the ground.

There seems to be a dramatic lack of imagination and indeed drive (if you’ll excuse the pun) that goes into supporting the transport services directly, but more significantly is the unfathomable lack of vision that would provide for a truly open and accessible transport infrastructure. What I mean is let’s not just make it less and less attractive to take the car, so that somehow getting the bus becomes the lesser of two evils, let’s instead make it a genuinely more attractive option to use public transport. It should be naturally more convenient, more reliable and cheaper than other options available. Different forms of pubic transport should integrate seamlessly and for pity’s sake, when will we stop having to pay our fairs to the bus driver and instead pre-purchase commonly exchangeable travel tokens like in almost any other European city.

I’m also impressed that in France, public transport serves a single function; it gets people from one place to the next. They are not smoking dens. They are not nightclubs, nor are they video-jukeboxes. I had the misfortune only this morning to travel into the centre of Glasgow on a bus equipped with a video screen and speakers. For the entire 30 minute journey (which would only take 20 if the route was properly managed) I endured inane advertising features, film trailers and music videos from a bygone age (presumably cheaper than showing those from any of the currently popular beat combos). Having done some research into this matter I can advise you that these screens are intended to distract the local Neds (Chavs for those south of the Scottish border) from vandalising the bus. Whatever happened to policing?

Frankly on this experience I despair for the future of public transport in this country. France has bravely taken the opportunity to serve its people with a transport infrastructure served by policy that genuinely takes account of needs. It allows people to move freely and comfortably. It challenges accepted models of service and allows for genuine innovation (TGV anyone) and what’s more it’s better for us all. Fewer cars, cleaner air, better cities. And in many cases you can buy travel tickets at bars – now how cool is that.