Stephen O'Brien on the buses

Shadow Health Minister Stephen O'Brien has received the following answer about buses.

"Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made towards achieving the target of increasing bus passenger journeys by 2010 by 10 per cent., as stated in his Department’s Transport 10 Year Plan of 2000; and against what benchmark progress towards achieving this target is being measured. [232013]

Paul Clark: The target to increase bus passenger journeys by 10 per cent. by 2010 has now been superseded by one of a set of public service agreements (PSA) published in the cross-Governmental Spending Review 2004.

The new target outlines our aim, by 2010, to increase the use of public transport (bus and light rail) by more than 12 per cent. in England compared with 2000 levels, with growth in every region in the last three years.

With bus and light rail patronage already at 19 per cent. above the baseline, we are already on track to meet this target. London is largely responsible for the achievement.

While we are on course to achieve the national patronage target, the target for growth in patronage in every region remains challenging."

It would be interesting to see just how responsible London is for the "achievement". Many parts of the country have little bus service to speak of at all.