LCR Bus Franchising

[iMarkeh]

RE: LCR Bus Franchising
It's very easy to say that things worked 'well' before Dereg but what people seem to forget is that buses are very different now. Inflation has happened a lot and so all of these cheap fares may no longer be such cheap fares, local areas have significantly less money than they used to have too. If the funding to commercial bus operators was the same as what was given to councils pre Dereg, you would have thousands more buses on the road. Pre DeReg, the one thing which has killed off the viability of the local buses, concessionary passes, wasn't around.

I think people also have an extremely short memory. Dare we mention Halton Transport which went bust with the council no longer supporting it. As for Warrington, 84% of people say that fares are expensive or very expensive with more than 50% saying that fares represent a poor value for money. Who runs 84% of bus mileage within Warrington.... No.... Can't be.... The municiapal bus operator. (figures from Warringtons bus service improvement plan)
What was a significant contributor to Halton Transport and Avon Bus ceasing trading? The PTE 'MyTicket' which reduced fares to a level which is very low but didn't provide a proper reimbursement for the costs and with no enforcement so people using the ticket who shouldn't be.


People seem to think that going back to pre DeReg, all of the old bus routes will be recreated, services will run every 5 minutes and fares really cheap and that simply isn't what is going to happen. The costs of running buses will be the same, the revenue will be the same (unless fares reduce but then that means reduced revenue). The idea of profit may be gone but costs will increase as unions tend to get their own way more (especially with Labour in power in the area) and also with the local area not buying in bulk (Stagecoach can buy ADL in bulk so get good discounts, a council wouldn't be able to match that) so costs overall would remain likely stable. The subsidy (or lack thereof) will be the same.

You come no better or worse off with a public ran bus network generally speaking. Least not operationally. The only potential change is if councils then become more pro bus because they actually see the benefit but then it also means that stupid scheme created by Anderson end up being pushed through with less opposition because the bus company won't complain and passenger and residents complaints go in the bin.

Evaluate the buses up ran by local councils up and down the country and you can see that their success isn't down to the bus operators ownership, it's down to supportive councils giving public transport priority and providing proper funding. In other areas, they are taking on contracts way out of their areas since the profits made elsewhere can be put back into the network to reduce losses from the town network.

Funny isn't it how the area with the biggest bus usage outside of London is actually Brighton and Hove. An area ran solely by private operators.

Mod edit: Language