Scottish
Socialist Party national co-spokesperson
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170412111047im_/http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/images/people/colin96.jpg)
The
plan was initially developed by Alan McCombes and pioneered by the
Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in the
Scottish Parliament and has been described as ‘the most imaginative
and audacious’ policy put forward by any party in the entire
climate change debate. I was delighted to accept an invitation from
the PCS’s Department for Transport conference to outline our
specific policy objectives in detail to delegates.
If
Scotland is to meet our target for reducing CO2 emissions by 2020 we
must persuade people to use their cars less. Cars are responsible for
80% of the greenhouse gases attributable to transport.
In
adopting the free public transport policy the PCS was influenced, as
indeed we were, by the remarkable
success of the scheme implemented by the authorities in the Belgian
city of Hasselt.
They introduced free public transport in 1997 in response to chronic
traffic congestion. But instead of building more and more roads to
accommodate more and more cars they took an alternative route. They
abolished fares on their buses, trains and trams. Their aim was to
provide people with a better alternative to using their cars. Critics
scoffed at their idea and said it was madness, that people wouldn’t
leave their beloved cars just because the bus was free. Yet in the
space of three years passenger numbers in Hasselt increased tenfold
from 330,000 in 1996 to 3.7million.
The
SSP aims to replicate that remarkable success this time on a
nationwide basis advocating free travel on buses, trains, Glasgow’s
underground system, Edinburgh’s trams and for foot passengers on
our ferries. We are confident this measure, never conducted on a
national basis before, would act as a huge incentive for people to
leave their cars at home.
According
to the Scottish Government the cost of introducing free public
transport would be £500m per annum. This figure arises as the income
presently received from fares.
In
a debate in the Scottish Parliament in 2006 I pointed out to the then
Transport Minister Tavish Scott that whilst this figure did not
include the additional cost of extra buses and trains necessary to
cope with the inevitable upsurge in demand it also failed to
recognise the considerable savings which would arise.
The
Confederation of British Industry in Scotland for example estimates
the economy losses £2.2bn per year through congestion as workers sit
in cars, vans and lorries grid locked by traffic every day in our
towns and cities.
The
tourist agency ‘Visit Scotland’ also spoke out in favour of the
measure by concluding it would also boost the number of people likely
to come here on holiday. Similarly the NHS and emergency services say
the cost of dealing with road traffic accidents annually exceeds £1bn
in Scotland.
Then
there is the benefits which the NHS receives in not having to treat
the escalating numbers of patients admitted, particularly in summer,
with respiratory illnesses cause by traffic fumes and associated
pollution.
We
would also benefit as a society from reducing poverty as low paid
workers can pay anything between £50-£100 per month in travel to
work costs.
And
to those who might be tempted to argue that spending £500million on
free public transport in Scotland is pie in the sky in the current
economic climate I would point to the conclusion in Sir Nicholas
Stern’s report as the Chair of the Inter-Governmental Committee on
Climate Change [ICCC]. Stern was at pains to point out this threat
– of global warming and its consequences - is not about to go away
and he stressed that every step we must take carries significant
costs, but most importantly of all ‘the cost of doing nothing is
the highest price of all.’
The
Scottish
Socialist Party’s
National Council on June 12th will discuss plans to work with a broad
range of organisations on this policy - trades unions, climate change
campaigners, health groups and other sympathetic bodies- in order to
progress the policy further in light of the PCS’s support.
From Fare-free New Zealand blog
1 comment:
This is great that UK union joins free public transport. Make people happy.
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