HOW NOT TO RUN A BUS SERVICE

Nearly 40 years ago the Department of Transport (DfT) under a Tory government produced a White Paper to sell the privatisation of the bus industry to the public but a recent (DfT) report into the industry only underlined what a disaster it has been. The 1984 Buses White Paper claimed, with little evidence, that “competition provides the opportunity for lower fares, new services, more passengers”. It also claimed that “a free market encourages a quicker response to what the customers want than a regulated system ever could”. It made the bold assertion that new and better services would be provided “without the dead hand of restrictive regulation”. Yet the Department for Transport produced anther document called Bus Back Better: National Bus Strategy for England in March 2021 which completely refuted all these claims and revealed the disaster that privatisation had wrought on the bus industry. It found that under competition “services became unstable and confusing; the quality of vehicles fell and fares in many places rose sharply”. On claims that multiple operators would provide more services it found: “Many communities have lost their daily bus services altogether. Others have services for only a few hours a day”. On claims that privatisation would keep down costs it found that “average bus fares have risen by 403 per cent since 1987”. On claims that the free market would respond to what customers wanted it found that “services can be confusing, split between different companies who do not accept each other’s tickets or, in some cases, acknowledge each other’s existence”. On deregulation: “The legacy of the 1980s ‘bus wars’ is overprovision, with dozens of buses per hour, including with duplicate competing services which do not accept each other’s tickets. This is wasteful, polluting and can paradoxically make services slower and less attractive”. On removing subsidies: “Few services could now survive without emergency state support. If we are not to abandon entire communities, services cannot be planned purely on a commercial basis”. Bus privatisation has also created what are effectively bus monopolies rather than increase competition. When deregulation started there were lots of new entrants to the local bus market. However, throughout the 1990s acquisitions created a few big operators and by 2010, the big five operators, Arriva, First, Go-Ahead, National Express, and Stagecoach, controlled 70 HOW NOT TO RUN A BUS SERVICE The Tory government continues to champion bus privatisation despite a mountain of evidence that it doesn’t work RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2023 :: RMTnews 16