Zack Polanski calls for public control of buses and free travel for under-22s

Green Party leader Zack Polanski was in Newcastle city centre on Monday lunchtime to call for a a major boost for the country’s bus services, ahead of next week’s local elections

Zack Polanski has called for faster and further action to return the North East’s buses to public control and remove fares for young people. The Green Party leader was in Newcastle city centre on Monday afternoon to condemn the “unmitigated disaster” of the privatised bus system.

Mr Polanski told supporters gathered at Eldon Square bus station that he wanted to see bus services brought back into public hands, either through franchising systems like the one introduced by Andy Burnham in Manchester or through cities owning their own bus companies. He has also pledged that the Greens would make bus travel free for all people aged under 22.

Labour’s North East mayor Kim McGuinness is already planning a takeover of the region’s bus routes, fares and timetables under her promised Angel Network. But, with the first services under her proposed franchise not expected to run until autumn 2029, Mr Polanski said on Monday that the Government needed to make quicker progress possible.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I don’t want to be churlish when Labour politicians take good steps and, actually, I am pleased to see the sort of steps we are seeing. But I want to see us moving much faster and making this a real priority.

“Poor bus connectivity costs the UK economy up to £23 billion and every pound we put into bus services brings £4.50 back into the local economy. What we get no matter who the Labour councillor or Labour mayor is, is a Labour government that has committed to austerity.

“We had 14 years of Conservative austerity and lots of people voted Labour at a national level and a local level because they wanted change. But, far too often, we are not getting the change we need.

“So no matter the good things some Labour politicians are doing, if you don’t invest in public services and don’t invest in your communities, things still won’t be good enough. Particularly in rural areas, including across the North East, sometimes people tell me that it is not that you can’t get a bus every couple of hours – it is that you can’t get a bus every couple of days. It doesn’t need to be like that.”

Mr Polanski spoke alongside Jamie Driscoll, the former Labour North of Tyne mayor turned Green Party candidate, during Monday’s visit. Mr Driscoll, who is standing in Newcastle’s Monument ward at next week’s local elections, said that 3.3 million northerners suffer from transport-related social exclusion and recounted the tale of an 18-year-old from Blyth who had to turn down a job in Gateshead due to a lack of public transport.

Mr Polanski told the LDRS that free bus travel for young people in Scotland had proved the idea was “really realistic” and could have longer term benefits. He added: “We know the number one thing that gets people on buses more later in life is if they have used a bus when they are younger.

“It is also a social justice issue – if you are a poorer household, you are five times less likely to have access to a car. I think it is only right, both from a social justice point of view and an environmental point of view, that we invest in buses so people can get the buses they need to get to work or see their mates.”

Ms McGuinness and the North East Combined Authority cabinet voted last month to proceed to the next stage of setting up a regional bus franchise system, in which operators like Arriva, Stagecoach, and Go North East would have to bid for contracts to run services to a set specification. A final decision to go ahead with those reforms, one of the mayor’s flagship pledges, is expected in early 2027.

The Labour mayor said on Monday: “I’m delighted to see the Green Party leader come to the North East to announce what Labour are already doing here. I am happy we’re pushing on with my plans to bring buses in the North East back into public control where they belong. I got started with this on my first day as Mayor and we are getting on with delivering for local people here and now.

“We’re also saving money for adults and young people today and every day with our Mayor’s Fares freezing prices until March 2027, because I know how much difference that makes to hard-pressed families.”