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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Tories should apologise for bus fiasco as well says AM
July 17, 2006 12:00 AM
The Conservative Party have not gone far enough in admitting they were wrong to split up the British Rail as part of their disastrous decision to privatise our trains, a local Assembly Member has said.
Commenting on the announcement by Tory Shadow Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling today, in which he admitted that his party's decision to split the train and track components of the rail network was a mistake that had increased costs, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly member for South Wales West, Peter Black, said that the Conservatives should also apologise for deregulating the buses in 1985.
"Even in admitting their mistake on the railways the Conservatives have missed the point," said Mr. Black. "Their piecemeal privatisation of British Rail not only led to a massive under-investment in our railway infrastructure, that in itself led to some serious accidents, but it also effectively took huge amounts of public cash and handed it to shareholders as profit, when that money could have been better used to buy new rolling stock and upgrade lines and stations."
"The deregulation of the buses in 1985 also led to a much reduced service. Bus companies are now only concerned with competing for profitable routes, whilst it is left to local Councils to use limited resources to fund services elsewhere. The cross-subsidy of loss-making but socially desirable routes was banned and a series of near-private monopolies were created whose main motive was profit and liquefying assets at the expense of the passenger."
"During their years in Government the Tories allowed ideology to rule over commonsense on transport issues and as a result left thousands of people in rural areas and in deprived estates stranded. Admitting a mistake is not enough. The Tory Shadow Transport Spokesperson should apologise for the way that his party undermined a very effective public transport system in this Country."
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