Bus free-for-all put into reverse
Dec 12 2006 By Zoe Hughes Political Editor, The Journal
The Government is today set to reverse 20 years of bus deregulation by allowing local transport chiefs to seize control of services, The Journal can reveal.
Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander will back down in the face of demands for an overhaul of the system by giving councils and passenger transport executives the right to award one bus operator an exclusive contract for an area.
MPs in the North-East have repeatedly blamed the deregulation "free-for-all" for a massive decline in passenger numbers outside London - with Tyne and Wear the worst affected region in England.
However, after months of campaigning, Mr Alexander is today set to order the sector's biggest shake-up by making it easier for councils and Passenger Transport Executives to seek a ruling declaring the free-market route is failing an area.
Armed with such a ruling, transport bosses would be able to use legislation that allows councils and PTEs to set up contracts with tough quality clauses.
The legislation is already in place but no authority has been able to meet the stringent tests under the existing law.
MPs and peers last night welcomed the move, saying it was exactly what the North-East needed - particularly Tyne and Wear, which has seen passenger numbers fall by almost 60% since deregulation was introduced in 1986.
Newcastle East and Wallsend MP Nick Brown said: "This is very much welcomed and could be a good way forward for Tyne and Wear especially. Transport authorities need tough powers for this to really work."
Sources at the Department for Transport said last night the Government would "lower the bar" to make quality contracts easier to enforce, in a move described as giving "London-style (franchising) powers" to councils and PTEs.
Once in place, a quality contract would allow the authority to set standards for bus services and hold a competition to find an operator, with rivals barred from competing in that contract zone.
Bus operators are set to fiercely oppose the proposals, but the Government will try to meet some of their concerns by obliging authorities to provide bus lanes and other such measures to help buses through congested streets.
Former Gateshead MP Joyce Quin, now a Labour peer, said: "I believe we need to be looking at a system as close to London powers as possible. Deregulation has been a disaster and has failed."
The news comes as peers today begin debating new legislation to tackle the row over free bus travel for pensioners and disabled people from next year - which has left Tyne and Wear facing a multi-million pound bill.
Bus services had to be cut last year because the scheme short-changed the area by £5.4m, and Tyne and Wear PTE Nexus faces the possibility of another round of cuts in 2007 before the scheme is made national in 2008.
MPs are already lobbying transport ministers to compensate Tyne and Wear for the cuts it was forced to make this year - Tyne Bridge's David Clelland says the area has to "get the money back" before the scheme goes national.
"We should be properly compensated for all the cuts we've been forced to make," he said.
But he welcomed moves to give authorities more power over buses, saying it was a "major step forward. We have to start encouraging people to use the buses again and to make them much more effective and affordable".
