In short,
deregulation means the government gives more powers to private bus companies to
set up their own bus routes and fares - and compete against other bus companies
for profits.
Before bus
services were deregulated, in 1969 the National Bus Company was formed by the UK government to operate bus services in Britain.
Most of the PTE’s (Passenger transport executive) and council owned bus
companies retained their bus services. Then in 1970 the National Bus Company acquired the London Country Bus Services from London Transport.
Bus services
during the 1970’s and early 1980’s were in public ownership, most of them by National Bus Company or municipal bus
companies (council/PTE owned bus services). Bus services were regulated and not
subjected to competition.
Then during
the 1980’s when Britain was ruled by the notorious Conservative government,
there were debates on whether to deregulate bus services in Britain in order to
increase the number of services.
Bus deregulation advocated by Julian Peddle of Stevenson’s buses
The 1983 Conservative Party Manifesto says
In the country, we shall ensure better use
of school and special buses for local communities. Restrictions on minibuses will be cut. So will the red tape which
makes it so difficult for small firms
and voluntary bodies to provide better ways to get around for those without
cars, particularly the very old and the disabled.
In October
1985, the Transport Act 1985 was passed which enabled the deregulation of bus services. This started
on 26th October 1986 and the privatisation of National Bus Company began during 1987 and 1988.
As the bus
deregulation process progressed, it caused most of the local authorities to
sell their municipal bus companies - and PTEs
had to split and sell off their bus operations.
An example
of this is the sell-off of West Midlands
Travel in 1991.
One bus
operator, Clydeside Scottish, produced
a video explaining all about bus deregulation which you can see below.
Commercial Motor magazine has reported that Strathclyde
Passenger Transport Executive (SPTE) have cut subsidies to passenger
services which has caused a reduction of bus services in the area.
In its last financial year before
deregulation, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive has managed to reduce
the net level of operational support grant required by its direct bus operation
by 37%.
During
1985/86, it also achieved a high measure of service reliability according to the latest SPTE annual report
and accounts.
The
original estimated support requirement for SPTE's bus operation in 1985/86 was
agreed at 212.8 million — based on an estimated income of 244.9 million and
costs of 257.7 million, including
net revenue account charges of 25.4 million.
However, during the year SPTE's actual income was 245.6 million,
while costs were 254 million. This resulted
in a lower support requirement of 28.4 million. The net support requirement
consisted of a shortfall of 23.8 million in terms of operational deficit and
24.6 million in nonrecurring expenditure.
There were a
lot of different concerns regarding bus deregulation.
One of the
first was about fares:
From Commercial Motor
The Act ends various exemptions from competition legislation which the bus
industry has enjoyed up until now. Competition
law now applies to the bus industry in the same way that it applies to
other industries in Great Britain.
A guidance note published by the Department
of Transport explains the two main areas
of competition law involved. One is the law on restrictive agreements, which may affect many bus operators.
Agreements between bus operators under
which two or more parties accept restrictions on their commercial freedom now
have to be registered with the Office of Fair Trading.
A third area of competition legislation
concerns anti-competitive practices.
This already applies to the bus industry and is outlined in the guide. It may
become more relevant after deregulation.
David Mitchell, Minister for Public
Transport says: "The Transport Act 1985 brings competition into local bus
services. Competition should broadly be
fair. That is why we have made sure that the general law on competition
applies to the bus industry in just the same way as it does to other industries
in Great Britain."
This shows
that the fares have to be competitive between the different bus companies
providing their services.
Before
deregulation, South Yorkshire PTE had
the lowest fares in the UK, the lowest being 2p per mile which made their
services very popular. Unfortunately, deregulation has caused the fares to rise
and passenger usage has declined at a similar rate.
Today,
thankfully, there are schemes like the multi-operator
ticket which is agreed upon by bus operators, whilst some of the schemes
are provided by the councils/PTE’s.
Here are several
examples of this: Essex Saver Ticket, Travelwest rider ticket, System One Daysaver, Network Day Tripper, Merseytravel Solo ticket, various North East tickets, Strathclyde Public Transport, Edinburgh One-Ticket and many more. Also, there are many multi-operator smartcard
schemes which are provided by PTE’s and councils.
Another
important issue is with air quality and
congestion:
Back in
1995, ITN did a news report on the concerns over congestion and air quality in
Oxford due to the overwhelming amount of buses serving the town centre.
The video
can be viewed here.
Luckily there
are ‘Green Bus Funds’ now and local
authorities win funding from the UK government so they can enable bus companies
to buy hybrids and/or zero emission buses for their services.
Brighton and Hove City Council have imposed a Low
Emission Zone which requires bus operators to use Euro 5 buses; the Low
Emission Zone in Brighton covers Castle Square, North Street and Western Road -
as far as Palmeira Square.
The next issue
is regarding the so-called bus wars:
Bus
deregulation has caused tension between certain bus companies as they have to
collect the most passengers to bring in increased revenue.
This
required Local Authorities to intervene in order to stamp out unscrupulous and
unsafe practices.
Back in
1987, Television South produced a
documentary about the Bus Wars in
the South of England. You can view the video below.
One of the
notable bus wars was in Darlington, another
in Preston
and another in Hull in 1991.
During the
late 1980’s, London Buses faced some competition
in the Docklands. Their competitor was Transit
Holdings’ Docklands Transit
(brand name Docklands Minibus) which was owned by Harry Blundred. Harry denied
his minibus services were part of a ‘bus
war’ against London Buses. Docklands Transit initially operated local
commercial routes using 60 Ford Transit minibuses.
Thames News reported on the Docklands Minibus service, way back in
March 1989.
Then during
the early 1990’s, London Transport won the battle because Harry Blundred of Docklands Transit refused to join the London Bus Agreement which would have
given him a share from the London Travelcard scheme. In 1989 he slammed LRT for banning Docklands Transit from the Capital's senior citizen concessionary fare scheme and Travelcard system. After this, Docklands Transit switched to
tendered London Regional Transport
bus services.
In May 1991,
a company named Earthline formed their own luxury minibus service which was aimed at
shuttling city executives to and from work within Central London. The owner, Gregory Lee, insisted that Earthline was
not directly competing with London Transport.
Presently,
the UK government is legislating the Bus Services Bill which will enable councils and PTE’s to franchise bus
services in a similar fashion to Transport for London.
The issue is
though that this new legislation will forbid local authorities from forming
their own municipal bus companies. Currently there are 12 municipal bus companies in Britain.
Local
authorities and PTE’s tend to subsidise
existing bus services to increase evening and Sunday services as bus operators
can’t make a profit on those services.
There’s so
much to say about bus deregulation, but when the Bus Services Bill passes and becomes law, bus operators should
retain the right to operate their own bus services.
I’ll leave
you with a few videos showing the early years of deregulated bus services.
And here are
some present day videos.
This article
is related to an earlier one that I wrote called ‘London Buses were on the verge of being deregulated’ which you can
read here.
If you think
I’ve missed anything regarding bus deregulation, then please let me know in the
comments section below.
As always, I
invite you to follow me on Twitter
and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image Attributions
Manhattan Research Inc https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecamera/16708628084/
Clive A Brown https://www.flickr.com/photos/cliveabrown/3925688438/
Image Attributions
Manhattan Research Inc https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecamera/16708628084/
Clive A Brown https://www.flickr.com/photos/cliveabrown/3925688438/