RIDING THE BUS IN A TRANSPORT WASTELAND
Sitting on the floor of a coach hurtling along the motorway, I’m wondering exactly why I’m doing this. I haven’t got a seat belt and if things go wrong I don’t imagine it will end well. At least I got to pay with contactless. I’m trying to get from Ilminster to Nailsea, entirely on buses. It’s a convoluted journey through rural Somerset, and one I’m not entirely sure will work.
Why not? They’ve been rated the worst and best small towns in England respectively for public transport, according to a report by the Campaign for Better Transport.
Buses travel around a billion miles every year in England, providing a lifeline for people getting to work, school, hospital or the pub. But outside London things are patchy. Services are unreliable, don’t run late and might not leave you with much change from £10. There is huge inequality, and things are on a downward trend. It goes to the heart of the government’s rhetoric around levelling up.
Efforts to change things are afoot – with much fanfare over a “National Bus Strategy”, and supposedly funding to match. In the meantime, services are being cut and entire villages are staring isolation in the face. I went
