Free to the Bus Station

[Topological]

Would it be sensible to offer free bus travel between the railway station and the bus station in all towns and cities?

In Swansea the bus stops outside the station and has 2 stops before it reaches Swansea bus station. Because of the changing geography the stop prior to the bus station is probably the most useful for shoppers, then the bus station itself.

In Leicester, there are many buses passing London Road station that would allow transit to the City Centre (less distinct about where is the bus station in that case)

Bristol would be useful from Temple Meads into the city.

There are many examples of similar.

Other cities like Manchester do not need such a provision. I imagine GBR indicating which stations have the bus option in the timetable with some form of bus-link symbol.

These links may also promote further bus travel as passengers could then buy tickets from wherever to the bus station and use the train ticket included fare for the onward journey.

This scheme is intended for people travelling to places as the rail ticket is needed in advance. However, passengers who already bought their ticket, or who have the ticket on their phone, could use the scheme to get to their outward train.

 

[sad1e]

Doesn't this basically already exist in the form of plusbus rail tickets?

 

[Topological]

Doesn't this basically already exist in the form of plusbus rail tickets?

Plusbus is not free and covers larger areas than just the route to the bus station.

This is more a response to those who say I would take the train to X, but the station is not convenient for the centre. Rather than those who wish to have more flexibility about where they go to.

 

[JonathanH]

Would it be sensible to offer free bus travel between the railway station and the bus station in all towns and cities?

Who are you thinking would pay for it? The railway in the form of higher fares, other bus users, local councils or central government.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Other cities like Manchester do not need such a provision.

Especailly since there already are free buses around the city centre!

 

[Topological]

Who are you thinking would pay for it? The railway in the form of higher fares, other bus users, local councils or central government.

Part of an overall initiative to encourage car use and promote city centres generally. This would probably be a matched scheme between central government and the local authorities. Something akin to the variously rebadged "levelling up", "Pride in Place" and other schemes.

Since there are national benefits from reduced emissions, and local benefits from footfall on the high street, a matched funding scheme seems most apt.

Link to this weeks "Pride in Place" announcement from BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjd1jk5nyvro

Fleetwood and Morecambe are among six Lancashire towns that have each been awarded £20m of government funding, with residents invited to say how they think the money should best be spent.

For the next decade, the towns will receive £2m every year under the Pride in Place programme.

Lizzi Collinge, the Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, said it is "for local people to decide how this money is used in their community" as they "know their area better than anyone else".

 

[Magdalia]

Part of an overall initiative to encourage car use and promote city centres generally. This would probably be a matched scheme between central government and the local authorities. Something akin to the variously rebadged "levelling up", "Pride in Place" and other schemes.

You have missed the point of these schemes. They are finite pots of money not ongoing income streams.

How would free bus travel between railway stations and bus stations be funded on an ongoing basis?

 

[Topological]

You have missed the point of these schemes. They are finite pots of money not ongoing income streams.

How would free bus travel between railway stations and bus stations be funded on an ongoing basis?

A similar scheme.

In my industry, there are a lot of similar schemes that are match-funded to support local objectives.

Matched funding just means that the local authority are not expected to find all of the money, and recognises that the benefits are felt wider than the immediate local authority.

 

[Brubulus]

You have missed the point of these schemes. They are finite pots of money not ongoing income streams.

How would free bus travel between railway stations and bus stations be funded on an ongoing basis?

Business Improvement Districts could fund it, potentially via a scheme where businesses pay 1/3rd, councils pay 1/3 and central government pay 1/3rd.

Overall, the cost would be pretty low and the benefits also would be.

 

[Magdalia]

A similar scheme.

In my industry, there are a lot of similar schemes that are match-funded to support local objectives.

Matched funding just means that the local authority are not expected to find all of the money, and recognises that the benefits are felt wider than the immediate local authority.

This is just wishful thinking of something for nothing.

Matched funding just means someone else makes a contribution, and they have to find their share too. No public body should be making ongoing financial commitments like this without having ongoing funding. It isn't possible to rely on one time limited funding pot to be succeeded by another, especially in the current state of the public finances. In the end the cost has to come from tax revenue or higher ticket prices.

The ongoing saga of how the Cambridgeshire Mayor continues to fund the Tiger Pass is a classic example of what happens when schemes like this get introduced without having ongoing finance properly lined up to cover the cost.

Overall, the cost would be pretty low and the benefits also would be.

This is incorrect. In Cambridge, for example, the cost would be big.

 

[didcotdean]

During the daytime at least Leicester has the free Hop! bus circling the centre including the rail station & close to both bus stations.

 

[The exile]

Of course, if we had proper integrated transport the question wouldn’t arise (at least within the “travel to work area integrated fare scheme”) Your ticket from (say) Bath to Bristol would be to the Bristol central zone - whether you made all of that journey on 1 bus or bus - train - bus - as long as you completed the journey (or start the last leg of it) within a set period of time.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

In most places, the only reason you'd be heading to the bus station (as opposed to the town/city centre) would be to catch another bus to an onward destination- so making that leg free wouldn't really make that much of a difference to the total cost of the journey.