Excellent Public Transport is a vital freedom for linking to work, shops and life. All public transport in Wales should be free and publicly-owned to face up to the “staggering challenges we face in Wales from climate change”. That is the call by Blaenau Gwent MP Dai Davies and AM Trish Law following the warning yesterday (Tuesday) that present transport trends are unsustainable. The plan is costed, achievable, and years ahead of much other thinking in Wales. This fully-worked-out plan would release every community to fully participate in an ecologically sound and robust future.
Public transport in Wales should be free and publicly-owned to face up to the “staggering challenges we face in Wales from climate change”.
That’s the call by Blaenau Gwent MP Dai Davies and AM Trish Law following the warning yesterday that present transport trends are unsustainable.
The Transport Alliance for south-east Wales: SEWTA called on Wales to face “the uncomfortable truth” that public transport was vital for all our futures.
It called for much greater investment in rail and bus transport, the development of eco-links between towns, and a serious reduction in the use of cars and lorries.
But the two Blaenau Gwent politicians say “we simply must go much further.
They pressed for “a radical approach to the environmental challenges we face” when they met top SEWTA officials in December
In advance of yesterday’s report they pressed for “all public transport to come under public control to ensure the very best service, and secure an environmental future for our children, their children, and future generations”.
In a 92-page response to SEWTA’s consultation on the future of travel and transport Dai Davies and Trish Law produced a fully-costed set of proposals “which would ensure, literally, every citizen in the hardest hit areas of Wales as well as elsewhere would be linked to a highly efficient, free, public transport system”.
The MP said “far from costing the earth it would be saving the earth. It would end the sort of isolation many of our communities and people face and would link everyone into the opportunity for jobs, links to culture, and links to other communities so vital for the well-being of us all”.
The two politicians also provided models of what they are calling for. These included the way a free public transport system in Belgium had ended congstion and transformed the economy of one of its cities; the use of free public transport in France; and a model of a completely joined-up and highly efficient system in Switzerland.
“What we are calling for is nothing less than a full national debate in Wales in order to get full national backing for what we see is the only real solution to the long-standing problems of Wales’s most isolated and deprived areas, while at the same time meeting the formidable challenges of sustainability that we will all face in the coming decades.
This response of ours to the SEWTA Consultative Draft Document is but a start to what should become a full-blown national debate which takes the impact of global warming and fuel dependency much more seriously.
We come back to SEWTA’s own stated intent, and our interpretation of it: “Getting right the issues at stake in this Plan are absolutely vital for the re-generation of some of the most disadvantaged areas
and people in Wales and in Britain.
Apart from the very pressing environmental issues, which are only going to become more pressing as time goes on, the need to think in an entirely new way is vital in order to ensure that – literally – every one of our scattered, and often isolated, communities are given the system which connects them to work, leisure, cultural pursuits, services – with all the community regeneration and personal well-being that these things bring with them”.
Sewta, the South East Wales Transport Alliance, is a consortium comprising the region's 10 local authorities working in partnership with public transport operators and users groups.
It is now considering introducing congestion charges to drive cars and lorries off the roads.
Dai Davies and Trish Law insist that their vision for the immediate future “makes sense financially, environmentally but most of all for the future health of our communities and our people”.
“SEWTA themselves are quite clear – we can not go on the way we have been”, they said.
In its report produced yesterday SEWTA stated: “Over time an increasing dependence on the car has led to high levels of traffic congestion and an inefficient transport system overall. Traffic congestion costs the local economy £600m a year.
“Building more and more roads is not an effective solution to these problems, and providing a sustainable transport system which meets Wales' national, international, economic and social needs is the biggest challenge the RTP must tackle."
It said "effective and sustainable" transport connections to the rest of Wales and beyond were vital to the region's economy and people.
Sewta chairman Jeffrey James said the SEWTA plan would have a significant impact on the way people in the area would travel.
"The threat of climate change must challenge the way our travel behaviour impacts on the environment," he added.
But Dai Davies and Trish Law say the plans – now before the Welsh Assembly - should be much bolder.
“A free, efficient, fully linked-up, public transport system would put Wales at the forefront of the sort of revolution in environmental thinking and sustainability that we simply have got to grasp.
“We can not afford to squander five or ten years with a halfway house set of proposals which tinker with the challenges we face”.
The alternative proposals but forward by the Blaenau Gwent politicians would be self-financing. Among the ideas would be communally owned and run buses; scooters; and electric vehicles linked directly to efficient bus and rail links.
“The challenge is to ensure that not one of our people in Wales is isolated. Our proposals would make certain that did not happen. They would also place Wales on the map as one of the most forward-thinking countries in the world.
“We can only begin to imagine the benefits that reputation would bring to us all in Wales as well”.
“As we stated to SEWTA - we are approaching this on the presumption that not one of our citizens, wherever they live in south-east Wales, will be left without a clear, predictable, efficient transport link”.
More of the same. Or tinkering at the edges – simply will not work”, MP Dai Davies said
Free public transport for Wales, politicians urge in radical plan
Jan 9 2009 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail
ALL public transport in Wales should be free and publicly-owned to face up to the “staggering challenges” of climate change, according to two Independent politicians.
Dai Davies and Trish Law, the MP and AM for Blaenau Gwent, insist their plan of free transport for all is no pipe dream, but costed and achievable.
They set out their strategy in a submission to the South East Wales Transport Alliance, a consortium of 10 councils on the nation’s most densely populated area.
Mr Davies said: “Far from costing the earth it would be saving the earth. It would end the sort of isolation many of our communities and people face and would link everyone into the opportunity for jobs, links to culture, and links to other communities so vital for the well-being of us all.”
The two politicians gave examples, including a free public transport system at Hasselt in Belgium which ended congestion and transformed the local economy, free public transport in France and a completely joined-up and highly efficient system in Switzerland.
Mrs Law said: “A free, efficient, fully linked-up, public transport system would put Wales at the forefront of the sort of revolution in environmental thinking and sustainability that we simply have to grasp. We cannot afford to squander five or 10 years with a halfway house set of proposals which tinker with the challenges we face.”
The Blaenau Gwent politicians claim their proposals would be self-financing. Among the ideas would be communally owned and run buses, scooters and electric vehicles linked directly to efficient bus and rail links.
Mr Davies said: “Tinkering at the edges simply will not work. Hasselt massively upgraded its public transport system and made it free. Now congestion is a thing of the past and the city is alive again. Buses run every 15 minutes.
“Ten years ago it was a declining city, deep in debt, its population stagnating, its arterial roads choking with cars. It had the highest level of car ownership in Belgium – partly due to its rural nature, but mostly to do with its public transport system.
“In the 1990s Hasselt came up with a radical re-think called its Mobility Plan, a sustainable policy to guarantee mobility for everyone, regardless of age, income or disability.
“On day one, July 1, 1997, passenger numbers rose from 100 to 7,832. They then just kept increasing. Today the increase in bus passengers is touching on 1,000%. Traffic has plummeted.
“Congestion is almost non-existent.
“Visitors, tourists and new businesses have been attracted in large numbers because of the quality of life there – and the novelty value and publicity that the move has generated.
Mrs Law said: “Free public transport would be the biggest single pro-environment policy enacted by any large area on the planet. It would dramatically slash car use and CO2 emissions.”
An Assembly Government spokesman said the Assembly was already investing heavily in the transport system. “We are committed to improving public transport throughout Wales to meet our One Wales goal of securing a system of integrated transport fit for the 21st century, which will both unite our nation and deliver our plans for a drastic cut in carbon emissions,” he said. “Through our concessionary bus fare scheme we will spend more than £50m this financial year to provide free bus travel to more than 600,000 people in Wales, and we provide over £11m to subsidise local bus services.
“We are also bringing forward proposals in the Local Transport Act 2008 that will aim to improve the performance and standard of local bus services and set out a new performance regime to deliver better punctuality.
“On top of this we are spending £180m on train services and rail infrastructure this financial year.”
Page two: How Dai Davies and Trish Law say free public transport would be paid for
Free public transport for Wales, politicians urge in radical plan
Jan 9 2009 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail
How Dai Davies and Trish Law say free public transport would be paid for
Capital costs could be raised by cancelling, scaling down or postponing at least some of the highly expensive transport projects which the Assembly Government is committing itself to.
Because most of a new public transport system would come under the control of local authorities (and groups of local authorities), any funding for public transport would be designated a supplementary local tax. The Assembly should seek new powers to raise such taxes.
By imposing a supplementary local transport tax of 3p in the pound for those earning over £30,000 a year, hundreds of millions of pounds would be raised. Hundreds of millions more could be raised by increasing the uniform business rate.
Alternatively there could be a “transport payroll tax” on all businesses with more than 10 employees. Such a tax is used widely in France to fund public transport. The Paris Metro, rail and bus system, for example, is largely funded through a payroll tax of 2.2%, which generates well over two billion euros a year. To raise around £800m, Wales would need to set the tax at around 2.5%, applicable to all companies in the private sector with 10 employees or more.
This transport payroll tax could be offset against Corporation Tax, which is paid to the UK Exchequer. In this way we would be effectively transferring up to 30% of the costs to Westminster.
Revenue could also be raised by imposing a special tax on HGV lorries towards the costs of road repairs and maintenance.