Richard Holden: We all have a right to expect that people can’t ruin your bus or train journey

Richard Holden is Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Basildon and Billericay.

Most of us will have experienced it and it just isn’t acceptable.

Yet for far too long passengers have had to put up with rising levels of anti-social behaviour when commuting to work, taking their kids out, or visiting friends and family.

It’s a serious problem that damages the everyday experience of millions, yet this Government seem wilfully blind to their concerns.

For bus passengers this declining environment comes on top of Labour’s decision to hike fares by 50 per cent, when it scrapped the hugely popular £2 fare cap that Conservatives introduced. For rail passengers it comes on top of inflation busting fare rises with further big rises expected again next year.

As the reaction to Robert Jenrick’s recent video of fare dodgers showed, the public have had enough of no-enforcement.

They want action.

When it comes to Rail, many of the powers in bylaws are already there but they’re just not being enforced. In the coming months, with a Railways Bill announced in the King’s Speech, if Labour don’t bring forward clear legislation, Conservatives will bring forward amendments in the bill to ensure proper legal enforcement on trains. This will mean requiring operators and the British Transport Police to act and enabling on-the-spot fines against those causing disruption particularly by playing their music like a moron.

Additionally, whether Open Access, private or nationalised operator, transparent data on safety and pleasantness of journeys must surely be part of any performance metrics the Government brings forwards as they pursue their ideological obsession with nationalising trains. What passengers care about is cost, reliability and their safety and experience while travelling.

Those travelling on trains deserve respect and security, and these changes will make enforcement swift, transparent, and effective. In Opposition we will be the voice for taxpayers and consumers against a government obsessed with rewarding its union paymasters. And wherever we won’t sit idly by and watch Labour flail and fail, we will push legislation to be improved and to be enforced.

And that brings us on to buses. The very people who rely on buses, often younger and lower paid workers and pensioners. The apprentices, carers, and shift workers; people simply trying to do the right thing, earn a living, and get on in life, often with not a lot. They deserve better than being penalised on cost while being left to travel on buses that too often are home to anti-social behaviour. Labour has already abandoned these people with their bus fare rises. Conservatives should be at the passenger’s side.

We are tabling practical amendments to the Bus Services Bill to give bus passengers the same protections already in place on trains and tubes and enable enforcement too.

Across the country, and especially in our major cities, passengers are facing more disruptive, intimidating, and sometimes criminal behaviour on buses. Loud music blaring from speakers, abuse hurled at drivers or fellow passengers, and, in some cases, far worse. These behaviours don’t just irritate passengers; they create a sense of intimidation, leaving many people feeling unsafe and unwilling to intervene for fear of escalation.

Everyone should feel confident using public transport, yet right now, far too many are being let down by a system that isn’t keeping them safe. We’ll put the same laws – including the level 3 fine for unwarranted noise – protections that exist for trains, onto our buses. No-longer should passengers on the most widely used forms of public transport be left with second-class protections, forced to endure journeys where they don’t feel safe or respected.

When the Buses Bill comes to its Report Stage in the House of Commons, the Conservatives will table amendments to extend the same bylaws and enforcement powers currently available on trains and tubes to buses. And we will push for all new enhanced partnerships, franchises and new municipal bus operators to impose these bylaws and to enforce them as a condition of contract.

We will push with Conservative amendments to fix what Labour aren’t interested in: delivering for passengers and taxpayers.

This Government’s approach is ideological. Ours will be practical and focused on passengers and taxpayers. Labour say they’re putting working people first, yet in reality, they’ve hiked fares, weakened protections, and left passengers exposed. I will do all I can to ensure the Government are forced to do the right thing by our travelling public.

It is clear that only with Conservative amendments to the Buses Bill, can we tackle anti-social behaviour, and deliver safer, more secure journeys for the millions who rely on buses every day.

Taking public transport shouldn’t mean putting up with disruption, noise, and intimidation. It should mean calm, reliable, and secure journeys, especially when buses and local rail are so crucial to linking communities and driving opportunity in our society.

Our proposals will end the two-tier system and put the Conservative Party firmly on the side of passengers. By tackling anti-social behaviour head-on and giving operators a clear duty to act, we will ensure everyone can travel without nuisance, intimidation, or disruption.

Only the Conservatives will deliver the quiet, safe, and comfortable journeys passengers deserve, want to make it happen.