Labour ‘free bus travel for under-25s’ plan should be a vote-winner
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald has done his sums – and the Tories have been left flailing.
According to The Guardian, “Under 25s would have free bus travel under a Labour government, the party said, proposing a scheme that would be paid for by ring-fenced cash arising from road tax.
“The party said local authorities who moved to introduce public ownership of bus services or franchising would be given the funds to provide free travel. The scheme would incentivise councils to create municipally owned bus companies.
“The party said its research could help up to 13 million young people save £1,000 a year, based on the average price of a bus ticket in England. The policy would cost £1.4bn a year by the end of a five-year parliament, with franchising or municipalisation of services likely to be staggered.
“Labour said the funds would use about a fifth of the income from vehicle excise duty revenues, forecast to be £6.7bn in 2021, which is currently allocated to road building.”
Jeremy Corbyn was set to launch the policy at a sixth form in Derby today (April 12).
All the Tories could do was claim it was an empty promise, pointing to Labour’s general election plan to end tuition fees.
But these are empty words – Labour would have abolished tuition fees if elected into government last year, and the plan to fund free bus travel for under-25s from road tax is perfectly feasible if the party introduces a £250 billion National Transformation Fund for large works like road-building.
That would not be putting the country into debt. It would be investing in the future – a distinction the Tories find hard to understand.
But then the Tories’ purpose is to siphon cash away from the nation as a whole and into the hands of a tiny number of already-filthy-rich parasites. Right?
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The Tories will hate giving away anything to the general public, and they will denigrate the proposal.
Unfortunately many will see this as a young voter buying exercise without realising just how much rural school busses costs for those rural pupils who are outside free ride local areas. Our local Cons do not allow any reductions for the number of children going to school for their bus journeys and the regular bus costs for large families are therefor really crippling financially. For school bussing this will be a winner vote for hard pressed families.
Free buses could be a real winner. Much better than having a restricted nuclear war to reduce the gas and petrol consumers! This could be a winner for everyone, especially those who don’t love to spend hours in queues on our major roads, when, if they all hopped free buses, our biggest problems would all go away!
Oh no, ‘conseratives’ left flailing again: that means they’ll be looking round for someone else to bomb, as a distraction!
I AGREE, IT SHOULD BE A VOTE WINNER. but what about those between 25 and 55 or 60? over the years there a\re been dss schemes galore for the under 25s and particularly school leavers. but there is never ever anything for the older 25s to 60s (except half fare passes for the unemployed though i dont know if that scheme is still in force now.) or carers that have no transport of their own, that have to catch buses to do shopping for the person they care for, or simply to get to that persons home and back home again.if they are on income support most of the carers allowance is taken off them as its means tested. bus passes would ber a great help to them especially when bus fares go up.