15 Seconds of Fame

It’s not often you hear a bus registration quoted on BBC Radio 4 but that’s what happened on Friday. Though not in a good way.

The consumer programme You & Yours received an email from one Felicity, which read,

“I was following a bus in Liverpool yesterday which was blasting out filth from its exhaust. My brother puts this down to the privatisation of public transport. Nobody has responsibility any more. Etc etc.”

The vehicle was Dennis Dart/UVG P17 FUG in the Huyton Travel fleet which, I’m guessing, was new to Fuggles. Felicity wondered whether it was a coincidence that it’s registration spelt ‘Fug’, though I associate the word fug with the atmosphere in my local before the smoking ban rather than a plume of black smoke at start-up.

What VOSA thinks is a smoky bus is somewhat different to a laywoman or her brother’s view. The rule of thumb is whether the rear is obscured. Nevertheless, even though blasting out filth is what diesel engines occasionally do, the perception was bad enough to blame someone or something—in this case, privatisation.

Blaming privatisation is ‘clearly’ a sweeping statement, of course. HTL was called to a public inquiry 3½ years ago when the traffic commissioner felt at least an investigation was the responsible thing to do. Merseytravel PTE grants towards soot traps made a marked difference to particulate emissions throughout the region. And what of the significant investment in buses on both commercial and supported services in the region?

Additional information and photo courtesy Northern Correspondent whose 2009 picture of P17 FUG shows a well-maintained exterior (save for the unhelpful destination indicator) and no evidence in this admittedly frontal view of excess or any emissions