On the buses with Marvin Rees

Lilian Greenwood’s bus is late. Which is ironic given that the Labour shadow transport secretary is visiting Bristol to see our public transport issues first hand.

As Bristol24/7 waits for the Nottingham South MP to turn up at Temple Meads, George Ferguson strolls out of the station and waits in the taxi rank where he is promptly heckled by a taxi driver leaning out of his car window.

The mayor – whose narrowed roads and creation of 20mph zones since coming to office has created consternation in some quarters – seems to take it in good humour, and a minute or two later his Labour rival for the city’s top job appears with Greenwood.

After a surprisingly short wait for a bus, we board the number 8, Labour mayoral hopeful Marvin Rees paying the £1.50 fare for his Corbynista colleague.

The back of the bus is an unusual location for an interview, but as soon as the dictaphone is switched on, Rees is on message.

Despite the mayor not currently having powers over transport issues, Rees wants to be able to use transport to solve the city’s inequalities – a primary platform of his campaign which officially launches on Sunday.

We have to stop seeing transport as a commodity to sell – it’s an essential need for people @bristol247 pic.twitter.com/d5IeuCpHyX

— Marvin Rees (@Marvin4Mayor16) February 11, 2016

“What I’m talking about is a transport system that fosters economic inclusion, that connects people in all parts of the city to opportunity, reduces the barriers that people live across in Bristol, so connects people to skills and development opportunities, and goes some way as well to creating what I think does exist in Bristol, a city identity, but one which many people are not a part of through economic dislocation.

“Then the power of the mayor is not necessarily in command and control, it’s convene and ask. What we urgently need to do is to get an absolute join-up between pedestrians, cyclists, taxis, cars, buses and our train network in the city.”

While Rees gets on his proverbial soapbox, Greenwood is nodding in the seat behind him as our bus passes the Bear Pit and there near the start of Stokes Croft is another mayoral candidate, Paul Saville, selling chai from the back of a tricycle.

Greenwood joins Rees in calling for more devolved powers for Bristol. She also hammers home the inequality line, adding: “If you have areas of a city that don’t have good public transport links, if you’ve got people who can’t get to training opportunities, or older people with a free bus pass but not a bus on which to use it or no buses in the evening or at weekends, then that can be a problem.

“We’ve been saying for a long time that we need to put passengers in control rather than leaving it to the deregulated market.”

Bristol24/7 hops off at College Green to leave Rees, Greenwood and their two media handlers to carry on up Park Street, this bus with its political passengers for once on time.

Read more: ‘Marvin Rees has no plans for transport’