MP criticises Rochdale's 'poor' bus services

Date published: 02/04/2008

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has repeated his support for the re-regulation of the Town's bus services. Mr Rowen was speaking at a debate in the House of Commons on the Local Transport Bill. Mr Rowen has long campaigned for this move which he claimed would dramatically improve our bus services.

Mr Rowen also criticised the First Group, who run most of Rochdale's services: "I remember one of my first actions as a local councillor was trying to get GM Bus, as it was at the time, to change a bus route, which proved impossible. When deregulation was introduced, we were promised that it would enable that responsiveness to passenger demand. That has not happened, and instead we have seen the withdrawal of bus services. An area such as Rochdale is primarily served by one company - First Group which provides a poor quality of service that does not meet local needs. Meeting local needs is not the company's aim, because its aim is maximising profit."

The Lib Dem Group on Rochdale Council were one of the first in the country to pass a motion supporting bus re-regulation. Mr Rowen proposed the motion and is supporting the moves in Parliament. Mr Rowen made a plea in the debate to look to the future. He said: "I welcome the proposals in the Bill to introduce regulation, whether through quality contracts or quality partnerships. We have talked a lot about the ills of the past 20 years this afternoon, but we must start to consider what will happen now. As the price of oil increases, I am shocked that the Department for Transport works on an oil price of only $50 a barrel, when the reality is that it is already double that and likely to increase, and people are increasingly unable to use their cars, they will want to rely on public transport, so we need to develop those services. They need to be integrated and, at the same time, we need to address the environmental issues."

Mr Rowen also spoke of the need to dramatically improve public transport saying: "We should be talking about dealing with the problems of the future, not those of the past. If we are to move people from cars to public transport and get that modal switch, public transport must be cheap, clean, efficient, environmentally friendly and readily available. In far too many of our conurbations, that is not currently the case and there is no choice."

After the debate Mr Rowen said: "What is clear is that we need to see a dramatic improvement in Public Transport. Metrolink into Rochdale and the new Bus Station is part of that. I do think though that the way the Labour Government have handled the whole Congestion Charging debate is wrong. Yes they have us over a barrel! I've said this before but what is important is that before this we need to see the £3 Billion investment in public transport is delivered and operational. The local transport authority, which local Labour Leader Allen Brett is Vice-Chairman of, fully back the proposals."