‘Fuel prices are now getting to a level where car drivers may think twice about using their cars’, says BUS USERS UK Chairman Gavin Booth: ‘It is a golden opportunity for buses to prove their merit as a good alternative to the car. But that advantage is wasted if buses are also caught up in the spiral of rising costs. It’s no good saying to car drivers, “give the bus a try” and putting up fares to cover fuel costs at the same time.’

BUS USERS UK welcomes suggestions that bus operators should be incentivised to adopt new technology such as smartcards and real-time information systems. But the organisation wants to see such incentives being additional to fuel duty rebate and brining buses and express coaches into line with other public transport modes, such as aviation and rail.

In its consultation response, BUS USERS UK expresses concern that turning fuel duty rebate into a grant ‘severed the link with fuel duty’ and that BSOG would be seen as a form of extra ‘subsidy’.

‘This has ultimately proved to be the case’, they say. ‘BSOG has not kept pace with fuel duty and figures are being quoted to suggest a very high level of “subsidy” to the bus industry, which do not bear scrutiny.’

These ‘subsidies’ often quoted by Government include reimbursement of carrying over 60s for free (and often at uneconomically low rates in England) and the costs of carrying out the Mayor’s transport policies in London, which though laudable in themselves should not be regarded as ‘subsidy’.

In summary BUS USERS UK is calling on the Government to:

1. return to 100% fuel duty rebate, given as a rebate not a grant;
2. give additional funding to encourage the rapid introduction of smartcard ticketing and real-time information;
3. give grants to operators towards the cost of a range of carefully defined low-carbon vehicles, which might include:
• hybrid vehicles
• electric vehicles
• vehicles using gaseous fuels, including hydrogen, and other alterative fuels from renewable sources