A free public transport system would certainly be ambitious; but not nearly
so ambitious as the NHS and the welfare state - introduced within three years
of the election of the 1945 Labour government after six years of war and
destruction on a mammoth scale.
A free public transport system could be funded for less than one third
of the £3 billion annual sum which Scotland contributes to UK defence
spending.
The cost of a free public transport system would be half the cost
of traffic congestion in Scotland (based on the CBI’s own estimate
of the costs to business of congestion).
The Scottish Conservatives are campaigning
for a three pence cut in the basic rate of income tax. billion pound handout,
mainly to the affluent middle
and upper classes, would cost more than a top quality free public transport
system
The SNP plans to slash top rate Corporation Tax by 10 per cent. This
would mean a £1.2 billion to the shareholders of Scotland’s ten most
profitable companies – substantially more than the cost of Scotland’s
abolishing fares.
The Liberal Democrats propose a two pence cut in basic rate
income tax, which would cover 70 per cent of the cost of free, expanded public
transport
system
Over 25 years, bus fares have risen by 80 per cent (allowing for inflation),
while the cost of motoring has remained flat. In the decade from 1993-94
to 2003-04, bus fares increased by 50 per cent while t the Retail Price
Index rose by 29 per cent. Yet it is the lower income groups who rely on
buses.
Next, free public transport, an idea whose time has come>>
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