#busride - so, what was the point of all of those journeys?

At the outset of my odyssey across four counties, I noted that I had spent much of my childhood travelling across London. One of the things that made that possible was integrated ticketing, the idea that, by buying a single ticket, you can access an entire transport network for one, reasonably low, price. The other key factor was that there were lots of buses, going virtually everywhere, frequent, reliable.

In London, a one day bus and tram pass costs £5.00. If you have an Oyster card, that falls to £4.40. In Suffolk, there is no integrated ticketing and, with no dominant player in the market, it requires a hotchpotch of different bus companies to cover any great distance. Therefore, higher fares for far fewer services. That £4.40 wouldn't get you from Bury St Edmunds to Diss, or from Haverhill to Bury St Edmunds, for that matter. And, with salaries lower in rural districts, that means that a far greater proportion of one's income is taken up simply getting to where you need to be, assuming of course, that there is a bus that goes the right way, at the right time.

Now, you may think, the answer is to run more buses, encourage higher usage and reduce fares. The catch is that people don't really use buses any more. As the frequencies drop, people revert to their cars, passenger numbers fall, fares increase to make the routes pay, and a cycle of decline and withdrawal takes hold.

Another option is subsidy, but with the crisis in local government funding, that isn't a credible option. Indeed, many rural authorities have been cutting subsidies in recent years, merely accelerating the decline in local bus provision. And, would you rather have a bus that you don't use, or have your granny taken care of? Sadly, that question is all too easy to answer.

The problem is that not all rural dwellers can drive, and not all of those who can can afford a car. Rural services are often some miles distant - schools, shops, libraries - and not always easily accessible by public transport, assuming that there is any. That leads to rural isolation, and to the sort of 'invisible' poverty that goes untreated. Providing support to the one or two families living in genuine poverty in a village is quite difficult, and relatively expensive.

One solution was highlighted at the beginning of my journey, demand responsive transport. As regular bus services have been withdrawn, Suffolk County Council has started to fund services that can be booked up to a week in advance and cover the area around a key town, in my case, Stowmarket. The fares are relatively reasonable (I pay £2.60 for my three mile journey and back), although you can't guarantee that a bus will be available exactly when you want it - you need to be a bit more flexible.

It also ensures that elderly villagers can get into town to meet their friends, do a bit of shopping and generally avoid isolation. The bus drivers know their regulars, and might notice if someone is missing. And, for parents with children, it means that if the other parent needs the car for work, the other one isn't trapped at home.

Public transport is not a right. Nor should it be a privilege. But, it is a valuable tool in helping people out of poverty, in combating rural isolation and, simply, to allow people to get about. Perhaps, instead of worrying about integrated transport across conurbations, which is likely to happen anyway with devolution to city regions, government might think about similar programmes for rural counties such as Suffolk, giving county councils the ability to act to make it easier to use what public transport there is.

Just a thought...