• Sound analysis which could be turning point for buses outside London

The largest public transport authorities outside London, today, welcomed the interim Competition Commission report as a sound analysis of the state of the bus market, which could be a turning point for bus services in England outside London. pteg particularly welcomed the report’s overall approach of favouring simple, multi-operator ticketing and structured competition over bus wars on the streets.

South Yorkshire PTE Director General, David Brown, leads for pteg on bus issues:

‘The Competition Commission report could signal the end of the wild west aspects of bus deregulation. The tenor of this report is that in future competition in the bus market should take place in a more structured environment where passengers can benefit from tickets that can be used on any bus, and where networks are more responsive to passenger needs. We also welcome the implication of the CC’s report that should also be less scope for abuse of local monopolies or for de-stabilising outbreaks of short lived competition on the streets.’

‘There is a big opportunity here for the Competition Commission’s final report to crack some of the remaining obstacles to better bus services that the Local Transport Act 2008 didn’t quite manage to do. This includes supporting the rolling out of simple, integrated, smart and multi-modal ticketing that people in major urban areas have a right to expect, and fine tuning the franchising and partnership options contained in the Act to make them more effective and easier to deploy.’

‘The Competition Commission report has put the final nails in the coffin of the 1985 deregulation vision that buses outside London should be a never ending free for all on the streets. There’s the chance now for all sides to work together on the basis of a more structured, stable and effective way of providing the better bus services that passengers need and deserve, which in turn will bring benefits to both operators and local transport authorities alike.’

PTEs, through pteg, will now be working together to go through the report’s interim findings in more detail in order to respond effectively to the next stage in the process.

ENDS

For more contact Jonathan Bray on 0113 251 7445 / 0781 804 1485

pteg represents the six Passenger Transport Executives which between them serve eleven million people in Merseyside, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Tyne and Wear