Labour vows biggest bus overhaul in 40 years with new powers over operators

theguardian.com:

Labour will seek to overhaul failing bus services in the biggest change in the sector in 40 years, giving local areas in England devolved powers to reinstate cancelled routes and set affordable fares.

The changes are expected to come within months of a Labour government taking power, as part of a “take back control bill” that would give authorities powers to start their own publicly owned bus services.

The shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said the reforms would be the most consequential in a generation for public transport relied on by millions, saying Labour would change a system that was “fundamentally broken”.

“It is a total quiet crisis that’s happening in every community,” she said as she met frustrated passengers in Newcastle. “And it has really serious effects on people’s lives, but it also has really serious effects on the economy, and it’s just not getting the attention it deserves.”

The changes would be a key plank of the party’s local election strategy for the May polls, which will focus on the cost of living and the decline of public services in an effort to win back control of some councils in the north of England.

Haigh said that although the national conversation often focused on trains, which Labour has promised to nationalise, poor performance of bus services often blighted more lives.

Twice as many people use buses as those who catch trains, with 2.91bn bus passenger journeys in 2022. Many do not have other options – 80% of people nationally who rely on buses have no other choice.

Local people and councillors speaking to Haigh in Kingston Park, despite living just a few miles from Newcastle city centre, told of job changes because of intolerable commutes, social isolation, missed medical appointments