BUS FARES ROCKET AS PROFITS SOAR

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2013 :: RMTnews 14 J ust like the scandal over rail privatisation and profiteering, RMT has uncovered how the same big five transport companies are exploiting bus passengers and workers to profit from the essential public service they provide. In the last five years bus fares in Britain have risen by 32 per cent and operating profits of the big five private bus companies have increased, on average by over seven per cent every year for the last 20 years. Just like the railways, the National Bus Company was sold to the private sector for a song – the taxpayer making a net gain of only £89 million. Since 2000 alone, the big five bus operators have dished out dividends to their shareholders worth a mammoth £2.44 billion, a sum that would cover the cost of the existing pensioner bus pass and introduce free travel for under- 16s in England, Scotland and Wales. RMT members working for First Group, Arriva, Go Ahead, National Express or Stagecoach will be well aware, low pay is a feature of the working in the bus industry. Average wages for a bus worker fell by five per cent in the last year and the median gross weekly wage for a bus worker is £430, some £68 lower than the average across all industries. Profiteering, whacking up fares, cutting services and holding down pay in the bus industry is only possible because of the deregulated system, outside of London, introduced by the Thatcher government in 1985. Although buses remain the most used form of transport in the UK, the effect of privatisation can be clearly seen from the declining number of bus journeys that are being taken. Only in London, where regulation of bus services exists through Transport for London, is the number of bus journeys increasing. This pattern of decline is the direct result of the cuts in services and the high fares consistently charged on the shrinking number of bus routes that the private bus companies consider it profitable to run. Added to this the Tory-led coalition’s attacks on the Bus Service Operators’ Grant (BSOG) and local authority funding, bus services are at risk of being lost in large parts of the country. This is illustrated by the Campaign for Better Transport’s mapping of cuts to local authority-funded bus services which has found that since 2010, over 1,300 bus services have either been reduced or withdrawn. These services are BUS FARES ROCKET AS PROFITS SOAR Since 1985, as the table below shows, the number of bus journeys has declined by over a quarter in England, Scotland and Wales. Even including London, the number of journeys since privatisation is down nearly eight per cent: Years England Scotland Wales UK (inc. London) 1985-86 3.65 bn 671m 163m 5.635 bn 2011-12 2.312 bn 443m 115m 5.195 bn % fall -36% -33.9% -29.4% -7.8%