Uncertain times for buses in the years ahead
BSOG reform and a Competition Commission probe will unsettle a struggling sector
Could it be that the Office of Fair Trading should shoulder some responsibility for the failings and distortions of the UK bus market?
The new arrangements for BSOG will see subsidy flow to busy urban corridors, such as this one in Manchester, but is this where it is needed most?Ben Colson
Mid December brought the ministerial statement on the future of subsidy to the bus industry, followed swiftly three festive and snowy weeks later by the announcement by the Office of Fair Trading that it is to refer the market to the Competition Commission.
At one level, then, the year has started with two major policy uncertainties being clarified, but actually not so. The bus industry remains in a state of uncertainty, and will do so for some years, as a result of either one of these...
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Your Comments:
27 Jan 2010
Public transport is a public service, something that is understood all across Europe but not, apparently, here except in London (except that we may be seeing some glimmers of light in other metropolitan areas).
I don't understand the comment about Quality Contracts, because I thought that they were targeted at urban and even metropolitan areas. Cynically, I also thought that they were an attempt to do the London thing but more cheaply.