By the UKYP Transport Campaign Group

Lack of affordable and reliable transport has always been a prominent concern of the young generation. For this reason UKYP has voted to include public transport as one of our National Campaigns.

One of the biggest and most talked about issues of transport is cost. Many young people feel that they are paying too much to use their public transport; and that there is no consistency between ages and fares. In addition, where concession cards exist, there is no uniformity between regions, leaving a confusing state of affairs for young people.

In addition, availability is a major problem preventing young people from using public transport more often to improve environmental standards. If increased usage of public transport is really going to help reduce CO2 emissions as well as serving those to take them to their destinations, it needs to be more efficient and preferable to private transport.

More over, if public transport for young people improves, our survey shows that more young people will choose to use it, which will help reduce CO2 emissions in the future by a reduction of private transport.

A number of young people and adults alike find it hard to use, or gain access to, public transport services. Disabled access is particularly a problem. Also, information should be more clearly communicated for the convenience of users. 

Standards on public transport are terrible. Whenever you travel on buses, trains or trams they are always dirty, appearing as though they have never cleaned. Some transport staff show a huge lack of respect to young people during their travels, which only serves to discourage them from using public transport again.

For those young people who appear to be over the adult age, they are charged the full adult price unless they can offer a credible form of identification. This proposes a problem as hardly any forms of ID are accepted and extra money has to be paid for the procurement of ‘transport friendly’ identification.

Make no bones about it, we have a huge potential to influence the transport industry. In the words of the great Mike Hurley, an organised minority can have a great effect on the authoritative majority. Cheap, effective, reliable public transport is achievable. So let’s get organised and show the transport bosses that we mean business. If a bus driver has trouble with a few bad youths (the minority) he shows the reputable youths (the majority) a complete lack of respect.
The problems outlined can be dealt with. As always in order to do this resources (money!) need to be prioritised and action taken.

• Raising the concessionary age to 18 in line with other laws in place, including the legal age of drinking and perhaps soon to be smoking, would ensure consistency across the country and enable young people to use and afford public transport.  

• Availability is a key issue in the public transport debate. More bus routes, especially in rural areas would provide access to services available for young people and provide links to other means of transport. For example a rural bus route to the nearest train station would solve a lot of access issues and in turn promote the use of public transport.

• Disabled service users are at an immediate disadvantage and need the services available to be user friendly. Issues such as ramps only being installed on certain busses need to be addressed so that wheelchair users can use all services. People with other disabilities also need to be catered for. Braille and large print timetables should be available. Transport staff should receive training enabling them to communicate effectively with disabled users.

• Standards on trains should be a priority for the transport companies. Money should be budgeted for this purpose and employees should be expected to maintain these standards. Services which are a pleasure to use will in turn encourage a level of respect from service users including young people! Campaigns to instil pride in the services which are made available could be used via the media and schools and youth clubs etc.

• All employees of the transport systems should be provided with compulsory training to ensure good customer service. Drivers and young people should aim to respect each other and not let the actions of minorities stand in the way of good communication and relationships.

If the government really wants to make progress with climate change they should improve public transport to a high enough standard that even they would be wiling to use it!

We want the government to do a little less conversation and A LOT more action!