FOR too long, transport services across the country have been left to deteriorate.
Whether you take the bus, the train, or drive, people in communities like Barnsley simply have not been able to rely on our transport links for far too long.
This government is committed to getting Britain moving, delivering the change that we need so that we can be confident that we can get where we need to go.
Across Barnsley, local people have not been able to rely on our public transport services, and the condition of the roads have been causing issues for drivers.
However, there are still transport issues to be resolved across Barnsley. Buses simply aren’t good enough. Too many are subject to delays and cancellations, and
are blighted by antisocial behaviour, and routes are not going where people across
Barnsley want or need them to. I am pleased to welcome the news announced this month that buses across Barnsley and South Yorkshire are to be brought back into public ownership for the first time since the 1980s. This change will mean that we will once again have control over our routes, fares and timetables and these will no longer be the decisions of private companies driven solely by profits.
This change for our region has been backed by the Labour government investing £350m to ensure the change can go ahead. This is just one of the ways that we are delivering for communities like Barnsley. This comes alongside the welcome news from Barnsley Council and SYMCA that from August 1 under-18s will be able to ride the bus in Barnsley for free, taking away the worry of travel costs for young people in our borough.
It should take 30 minutes or less to get to Sheffield on the train, but services are constantly delayed, or in the worst cases, leaving passengers stranded with no method of transport.
It is therefore great news that the Labour government are bringing train services back into public ownership, which will help ensure that people across the country can once again rely on their local trains, and get to where they need to
be on time.
Aside from public transport, I know that lots of people across Barnsley drive. One
of the issues raised with me most often as a local MP is potholes. This is something I have raised a number of times in Parliament over the years. People should be able to rely on the condition of roads to be safe and be sure that they won’t cause damage. That is why I am glad that this week, the Labour government have taken steps to make sure that work on potholes is completed, introducing a number of measures to tackle the scourge of potholes across the country.
These measures include £1.6bn of new funding for local authorities to ensure potholes can be filled, and a new responsibility to publish data on their progress.
Not only will this meet our 2024 manifesto commitment, but it will exceed it, with seven million potholes per year expected to be filled.
This government is committed to getting Britain moving again, whether it’s fixing our roads, or improving our buses and trains.
