Legislate to Re-regulate?

In spite of the transport secretary Alistair Darling having steadfastly sided to date with operators in the re-regulation debate, it appears that the government is considering some form of bus re-regulation. Many of its backbenchers are pushing for such a move.

24 November’s Local Transport Today reports that the transport secretary said to the transport select committee that the (de-regulated) system was "patently not working in some areas". He continued that his department was working on reform within the bus industry. "To achieve what we want to achieve we may need to make some revisions to the law". This hints that the Transport Act 2000 is not delivering.

Meanwhile, while key operators’ revenues again rose above inflation, their profits are falling, owing to faster increasing operating costs, according to TAS. This is the fifth time in six years that pre-tax margins have been squeezed, something that may lead to yet further fares increases, again stoking the argument for re-regulation.

Centro, the west midlands PTE, will undoubtedly point to Britain’s second most profitable operator, National Express owned Travel West Midlands, as an argument for more public control of bus services. NatEx subsidiary Travel Dundee was also in the top five. The most profitable was Yorkshire Coastliner again.

Both opponents and supporters of re-regulation could look to Merseyside PTE, spending over £114 per head on public transport. On the one hand, the failure of such large amounts of public money to stem the decline in Met bus use shows that PTEs are ineffectual. On the other, it indicates that the bus service is still largely a public asset, for which there should be more public control.