SSP: free public transport for all

by Richie Venton

· The Scottish Socialist Party have been out in force in Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Blantyre, campaigning for the policy which we pioneered and uniquely campaigned in favour of for the past 20 years: free public transport for people of all ages.

Five separate, simultaneous SSP street stalls were held on the first Saturday in Rutherglen Main St, Cambuslang Main St, and Blantyre. The same has been repeated twice since.

Thousands of leaflets were distributed to shoppers and workers in local shops and cafes, calling for public ownership of all forms of public transport, with free travel for everyone on buses, trains, subways, and ferries. Our message has been blasted out, loud and clear, on a PA system — with many people stopping to thank us.

Overwhelming support
We have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction of local people. They’ve queued up in their hundreds to sign our petition, demanding this action against poverty, pollution and social isolation from South Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Government.

The SSP is unique in what we say on public transport. We are determined to sustain a campaign in local towns, and indeed nationally, to pressurise the Council into using the powers they already have — under the 2019 Scottish Transport Act — to take bus services into Council ownership. We will continue to do so regardless of whether there’s a by-election.

People on the streets in all three towns demonstrated how popular this demand is, as an immediate step to end the chaos and profiteering by privatised bus companies.

Bus services are run for profit by the likes of FirstBus, McGill’s and Stagecoach. All they care about is maximum profit. FirstGroup more than doubled their profits last year. McGill’s are owned by billionaire brothers. Stagecoach made multi-millionaires out of Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, by exploiting the racket offered after bus and rail privatisation.

They rip off passengers with exorbitant fares. They cut bus routes which they deem unprofitable, leaving whole communities stranded. They cut the workforce to the bone. They slash the frequency of services and scrap many buses of an evening, at the same time as putting fares up another 15-20 per cent.

The SSP is determined to oppose this outrageous profiteering. Our street meetings exposed that these profit-driven bus companies are also being given £400million from taxpayers’ money, as Scottish Government subsidies, this year alone.

That’s why the SSP is demanding democratic public ownership of bus services — and the entire railway and ferries network. To end profiteering and provide a People’s Transport Service instead. Free travel for all on buses, trains, ferries, and subways would save local families a fortune, in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in over 40 years.

Free public transport would end the social isolation many local families suffer because they can’t afford bus and train fares to visit friends and family, and it would combat car pollution.

Combat poverty and pollution
If the Scottish Government and local councils were serious about tackling global warming and air pollution, they would need to provide a reliable, expanded public transport alternative to car usage — free at the point of use.

The profits made by privatised transport companies and the government subsidies they enjoy would go a long way towards financing a modern, free public transport service.

The SSP is determined to win massive support for this measure. We are calling on local people to help pressurise South Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Government to immediately implement this policy, pioneered in Scotland by the SSP.

We are appealing to local workers and their families to sign the Recall Petition for a by-election, so they get the chance to elect Bill Bonnar as a socialist MP, living on a worker’s wage, who will immediately propose universal free public transport on fully publicly owned trains, buses, ferries, and subways.

That one measure would save workers at least £5.40-a-day for the bus to and from work; £27-a-week; £1,400-a-year just to get to work. And research shows it would create 60,000 new, green jobs.