Piriyasha, Birmingham Central Socialist Party
A report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) states that there needs to be a radical increase in public spending on transport to tackle climate change. The TUC reports that greater investment in transport would boost the economy by £52 billion, and create 140,000 new transport jobs.
Public transport workers – such as rail staff and bus drivers – have also joined the strike wave, fighting for better pay, funding, and living conditions.
The Socialist Party has always campaigned for the expansion of public transport. However, the Tory government does not prioritise this investment.
Unaffordable and inaccessible
For anyone trying to get around the outskirts of a city, they must first travel into the city centre, and then back out again. Bus and train routes need to be extended, particularly in rural areas. And public transport needs to be truly affordable and accessible.
Labour councils have a lot of power. They could bring services back in-house, and extend free bus travel to young people, as a step toward universal free services.
Annual ‘climate change conferences’ get the world’s capitalist leaders, and their fossil fuel lobbyists, together to discuss the climate emergency. However, no significant action is ever taken to tackle climate change by these capitalist politicians.
The constant burning of fossil fuels, increasing carbon dioxide emissions, is not sustainable. The capitalist system that the Tories and Keir Starmer’s Labour uphold, prioritises profit, while destroying the environment.
We need a fully funded and integrated public transport system, owned and controlled by the working class, to provide easily accessible services for everyone and help halt climate change.
Tories and Labour won’t do that. We need a party that will. That’s why the Socialist Party fights to help build a new mass workers’ party, and stood as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the local elections on 4 May.
