Buses are by far the most used form of public transport in the country, but the Conservative deregulated bus system has led to thousands of vital services being axed across the country, failing communities and the millions of people who depend on public transport.
Eight bus services in Bedford Borough have been cut since 2022.
The route cut I’ve had most correspondence about recently is the number 2 Stagecoach service to Flitwick which was axed earlier this year leaving passengers without an integral public transport connection to Kempston Retail Park.
Stagecoach said it was not a commercially viable route and that the Grant Palmer Number 42 Service from Bedford to Dunstable covers it.
But tell that to my constituents who work in the retail park or in the industrial units out in Kempston Hardwick who can no longer get to and from work on time.
The journey from Dunstable has a bus leaving at 7am but there is currently no equivalent for users travelling in the opposite direction. The first bus leaving Bedford is at 08:50, which is useless for a 9am or earlier start.
The timetables do not reflect the needs of passengers, it’s always profit before people.
Perhaps if the bus companies put passengers before profit and scheduled buses that reflect the needs of passengers, they would increase usage and profitability.
While services have been improved to Bedford Hospital with faster routes between Bedford St Neots and Cambridge, and an earlier start for the MK1 to Milton Keynes on term time weekdays and a new route linking Stevenage and Bedford, other routes have been downgraded.
Plan for Better Buses
For too long the Tories have allowed local bus services to be driven into the ground. Across our network, this has led to routes being slashed, delays and cancellations becoming ever more common, and fares soaring.
That’s why Labour has announced its Plan for Better Buses – the biggest reform to England’s buses in forty years, which would put power back where it belongs: in the hands of the communities who depend on buses the most.
Labour’s plans mean strengthening enhanced partnerships, safeguarding local networks and introducing a better minimum standard of bus services wherever you live.
Britain is one of the few places in the developed world that hands operators the power to slash bus services and hike fares, with little say for the communities who depend on them.
Decades of failed deregulation have left communities with little say over the essential services they rely on.
Labour will bring bus services back under public control with a Take Back Control Act which will allow local authorities to reinstate cancelled routes, set affordable fairs, and deliver the fully joined-up bus network that passengers in Bedford deserve.
This is a monthly guest column provided by
Mohammad Yasin, Labour MP for Bedford & Kempston.
It is published unedited and does not
reflect the views of the Bedford Independent.
