I take a different view than many of the other posters on this thread.
Bus Deregulation was implemented in the late 1980s using provisions set out in the Transport Act 1985, and since then buses experienced a boom and then a serious retraction in many areas.
One area that has not seen such service fluctuation is London, which has franchised buses.
I am not wholly convinced of the case of franchising overall, and would prefer public sector competition within the current framework (essentially councils running their own buses, either commercially such as in Lothian - where the operator has effectively wiped out any competition, or running tendered routes in house, such as Highland are beginning to do).
In Tayside Stagecoach have just announced rather scathing cuts to commercial services, such as removing all daytime Monday-Saturday services on the popular 16 route from Dundee to Perth, with them saying that people should ‘take the M8 coach’ instead, a wholly unsuitable option for many people in villages with only one coach stop, and hard words for residents of Errol who are left with no option whatsoever. Would this situation have occurred in London?
Whilst franchising has its limitations and I certainly don’t wish to see political interference in transport I can’t help but say Wales is on the right lines. People should be served based on need, not on profitability, and in the current Council tendering process there are many communities who slip through the net.
My own view is that by the 1980s the previous regulatory and financial framework for the bus industry was no longer fit for purpose and change was necessary. Whether Deregulation (whether in exactly that form or not can be debated) was the right thing to do can be argued, but in the political framework of the time was reduction in subsidy / public funding / government control and the model followed that. There were also unintended consequences to the legislation change. There has been various (mostly)ineffective tinkerings over the last 35 years, but none of these have seriously attempted to deal with flaws / unintended consequences in the model that directly affected passengers. As with the previous regulatory framework, I think that the deregulation model has largely run its course, the financial, operating and patronage landscape having changed almost out of recognition to that of 1986. Bus company owner/management control of the network / fares / operations has not been a panacea.
Due to Covid, the finances of the bus industry have become much more reliant on public funding. In England at least, a fares initiative has been funded by Central Government which goes some way towards dealing with deep rooted differences preventing seamless ticketing, but there is much more that needs doing which , almost by definition, is very difficult for ostensibly competing private companies to take the revenue risk. Only franchising (i.e. the State taking the risk) is going to be able to get such far reaching changes to be made. I think we need to go through a period of franchising (over the whole country) to get some of those fundamental changes done.
We will find that Political control of the network / fares / operations will not be a panacea either. Instead of shareholder pressure and management indifference will be all sorts of pressure groups. There will be calls for deregulation (in some form of another) in the years to come, as public bodies fail to respond to market pressures. It will come, but the franchising period has the opportunities to reset some of the foundations so the flaws of the current system are not repeated.
In Tayside Stagecoach have just announced rather scathing cuts to commercial services, such as removing all daytime Monday-Saturday services on the popular 16 route from Dundee to Perth, with them saying that people should ‘take the M8 coach’ instead, a wholly unsuitable option for many people in villages with only one coach stop, and hard words for residents of Errol who are left with no option whatsoever. Would this situation have occurred in London?
Whilst franchising has its limitations and I certainly don’t wish to see political interference in transport I can’t help but say Wales is on the right lines. People should be served based on need, not on profitability, and in the current Council tendering process there are many communities who slip through the net.
I don't think that will happen much either - profitability will simply be replaced by public budget constraints, for which public transport will likely be squeezed to make up shortfalls in 'statutory' unlimited funding responsibilities, such as Adult and Child Social Care, Special Educational Needs etc which are currently out of control.
I completely disagree with your disagreement! Bus plays a much greater role in North and Mid Wales and for people to suggest otherwise is folly. The idea that everything in that area should be built around an infrequent rail line in the Conwy Valley running every 3 hours….Nope.
Integrated budgeting / funding of modes will inevitably mean a (much needed) focus on value for money, and replacement of buses by trains where this is the best value, and vice versa which is more likely in this case.
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