TOGETHER WE CAN WIN PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

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10 September 2024

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Recently I went on a trip across many countries from Sydney, Australia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, Busan, Nagasaki, Osaka, Honolulu, San Fransisco, San Diego and even some of the Caribbean islands one things was common, cheap publicly owned transport systems. Not only that, many had tram systems, and San Fransisco had older trams from across the world including Blackpool. Several had tram, streetcar and trollybuses, hybrid buses and two of them had all electric road vehicles. San Diego's system was partly run by First and Stagecoach and also TDG had the biggest part of the share. Yet prices were lower than the UK. Everywhere I went I could all day tickets for a really reasonable price, Honolulu was $2.50 and travel for 6 hours on any bus, and the same kind of price structure in San Fransisco too. All the public transport systems were clean and efficient, the Hong Kong tube system was sardine tin rides though, always packed yet the trains were run like clockwork and appeared to be endless. Sydney's urban and underground trains were double deck and very smart, and China had bullet trains running at nearly 200 Mph and cost a mere £10 from Tianjin to Beijing. The craziness of the UK's privatisation policy allowing the companies who own the bus and train operations have made billions, and those companies have been able to spread across the world with the profits they make here supplying cheap public transport to other countries. Maybe 'We Own It' might like to use that in their campaigning.

Natalie Murphy (Clowd Nien)

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