RIGHT TO TRAVEL

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2022 :: RMTnews 16 At the beginning of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 there was a proper public transport network daily connecting towns and villages throughout Devon. By the end of her reign this year there are now lots of communities now with grossly inadequate transport. Where I am writing this in North Devon there are 23 communities with parish councils with no bus service at all. Several villages have a single bus service a week, some have one a day, most have none on Sunday or after early evening. Seventy years ago, this was not the case as is shown in my copy of the ABC railway guide of July 1952. A person could catch a train on a Sunday morning in Torrington to take them to Paddington. Today the railway station is a tourist attraction with no trains and there is no bus service on Sunday to anywhere. In villages like East Anstey and Molland where prior to the vandalism of the Beeching rail cuts from Monday to Saturday there were six daily train services, there is now a bus service on Thursday taking people to the market town of South Molton. One a week replaces six a day. Nobody should be obliged to drive in order to get to work or study. Students living in Bradworthy have to catch the bus at quarter past seven in the morning to return home at quarter past six in the evening. This service the 372 gets them to Bideford where they change for the 21 to get them to Petroc college in Barnstaple. It’s a long day and there’s nothing at the weekend to enable them to socialise with their fellow students. Getting to hospital appointments, visiting the theatre, being at a sports event, meeting friends are things most take for granted but for those who live in rural and even not so rural areas without transport it is more difficult. Lack of bus services disproportionately affects the disabled, the elderly, lone parents and those without means. Victims of domestic abuse are totally isolated without transport. RMT members know about the steady cuts in services or the massive amounts paid out in dividends and CEO salaries and perks. European countries which are not as rich as ours have far better, cheaper and more comfortable forms of public transport. In Ilfracombe the bus station was closed and so there is no longer a waiting room. In Barnstaple the waiting room was closed during Covid and has not re-opened. Bus shelters leave a lot to be desired and there are so many bus stops without a shelter. It could and should be much better, preferably under public ownership and workers’ control. At the annual AGM of the regional council of South West RIGHT TO TRAVEL Gerrard Sables of Northern Devon Right to Travel reports on a local campaigning conference in Barnstaple last month RIGHT TO TRAVEL: delegates at the Devon campaign