Cornwall needs an integrated Public Transport Authority

Public transport in Cornwall is an expensive disgrace with deregulated bus companies competing for profitable routes while demanding bigger and bigger subsidies to maintain skeleton services on less profitable routes. Rail services are slow and use old rolling stock. Improved transport links to Cornwall can have economic benefits for Cornish businesses but also open up the area to competitors. Road improvements on the A30 may only lead to summer jams further west on the network. Mebyon Kernow believes that we should create a Quality Bus Partnership in Cornwall. This would mean that routes would be owned by Cornwall Council and any company that failed to provide drivers and buses to run a service would be in breach of contract. A Cornish Assembly would be able to set up a Cornwall-wide integrated Public Transport Authority linked to transport nodes which would be cheaper, better used and more efficient to run. MK believes that an international airport should be maintained to ensure good European links. Rail connections from Cornwall to London, Cardiff and Edinburgh should be improved plus an additional line via Okehampton to ensure that climate change impacts at Dawlish do not cut us off from the rest of Britain.