Why public transport is in a mess

[tree_and_leaf]

Quite apart from my Close Encounter of the Tube Kind with a double-decker bus a few weeks ago, I have long thought that the public transport system in Oxford is in mess. Take the example of busses to Risinghurst, an area on the outskirts of Oxford on the far side of Headington. It mostly consists of council and ex-council houses, and while most people have a car, there was a sizable minority of people who for one reason or another depended on public transport.

There was, until seven o'clock, a hideously unreliable bus twice an hour (nothing Sundays, of course). Meanwhile, there were tons of busses which went as far as Headington - sometimes one every five minutes. Because there were two companies operating basically the same route, they were in the habit of driving behind each other, trying to pick off the rivals's passangers - oops, sorry, customers. Naturally, the tickets weren't interchangable. The result was that the lucrative routes were choked by busses, while if you were trying to get somewhere less popular, bad luck. And don't even get me started on the fact that you could get to London round the clock, but getting back to Risinghurst after seven involved a long, dark, and rather dangerous walk.

The whole point about public transport is that it is not there to be a revenue-generating stream. It is there to provide a public service which will allow communities to function.

However, it seems that Oxford is at least better off than Newcastle or Manchester. Londoners, you con't know you're born.

Comments

[snorkackcatcher]

Why I am not surprised at this? The "magic wand" theory of privatisation always struck me as profoundly foolish -- you know, the idea that so many of our politicians seem to have that you merely have to Allow Competition and it will automatically reduce prices and increase choice, whereas it usually (and rather predictably) seems to have the opposite effect.

Basically, a service that's a network doesn't really seem to benefit from competition. The current postal situation is pure comedy in that the private companies now operating (and naturally skimming off the cream such as bulk monthly statements) don't, as far as I can tell, actually deliver their mail -- they hand it over to Royal Mail for delivery! Probably at some price that has been subsidised to ensure that Royal Mail themselves can't offer 'unfair competition'. Sigh.

Hmm, you seem to have found a hot-button topic for me. :)

[tree_and_leaf]

Couldn't agree more. Oddly, I've even met Tories who agree that privitising the railways was a mistake...

The postal system at the moment is indeed a joke. Unfortunately, it's not a very good one.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

*Sigh* Madness, isn't it?

Complete deregulation of what can be called the "network industries" (transportation, gas, electricity, water) just doesn't make sense, because some kind of central co-ordination is needed to efficiently meet the level of demand. Otherwise, you get the kind of shambles you describe with bus services. I understand from friends in the UK that the trains are in a similar mess and prices have gone through the roof.

Just thank God that even the Thatcher government balked when it came to complete deregulation of the utility industries. Can you imagine what it would be like if we had competing water opeators? They only got away with electricity and gas privatisation because the only part of the industry that is completely deregulated is the part which sends out the bills. The rest, which actually produces and distributes the stuff is still heavily regulated.

MM

MM

[tree_and_leaf]

It's just ridiculous, really. And I quite agree: you can't apply the 'free market' (which I'm beginning to think is a chimera anyway) model to utilities and transport.

... though the water companies don't seem to be shining beacons of well run industry at the moment, either (don't mention the leaks). But I agree, total deregulation would have made matters a hundred times worse.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

... though the water companies don't seem to be shining beacons of well run industry at the moment, either (don't mention the leaks). But I agree, total deregulation would have made matters a hundred times worse.

Oh indeed, it could have been far, far worse. In my previous life I worked for that Certain Large Water Company With All the Leaks. I started there just before they were privatised. The thought of what could have happened if they'd let The Management lose without restraint is very disturbing.

MM

[fpb.livejournal.com]

What makes me sick is the sheer inability of politicians to see beyond the rubbish about the inborn superior efficiency of the magical free market. We have had a generation of this nonsense, and you would think that by now a new generation would have arisen that could see through this crap. But not only have they not, even the press and media (with the laudable exception of Private Eye) have continued to sleepwalk to the situation where the British state spends more and gets less for its services than most European states, because large parts of that famous taxpayers' money for which our politicians claim to be so solicitous ends up straight in shareholders' pockets. And, of course, in the pockets of all those superannuated politicians and top civil servants and former armed forces commanders who have graduated to lucrative sinecures in the boards of contracting companies. Nice BLOODY work if you can get it.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, it's utterly sickening- even more so when you've lived in cities where mass public transprt does work well for all who need it.