Councils will be allowed to run local buses as Labour scraps Thatcher’s ban

9 comments

1. Great in principle, but whether Councils will be able to run the bus routes that are needed is another matter entirely. One of the biggest issues is that some routes just aren’t commercially viable and so will need to be run at a loss – that shouldn’t be a problem for a public service, but it makes it impossible for the services to be delivered if the resources aren’t in place.

2. If a council is bankrupt, how is it going to run a loss making bus service?

3. For all it’s faults Nottingham city council does a great job with the buses here. If their approach can be replicated across the UK then buses will have a renaissance.

4. Inefficient councils that have proven they’re not capable of running public services will take over loss making bus routes and add further debt

5. When a bus route goes between two or more councils am I supposed to believe those councils will work together? The councils near me spend their time throwing hobos at each other.

6. I worked for a large private bus operator a few years back…it’s hard to do well… we invested lots into in house data analysis capacity and large model legion mapping to maximize commercial viability of routes to ensure we could still serve as many communities as possible….some at a loss…

   …do I think my council would/could do this? Probably not…

7. Now the real question will be, will we have to pay extra for these bus services or will they be provided on the basis of our paying council tax?

8. our local buses are quite reliable, bad idea to let the council anywhere near them.

9. Great, hopefully they can do a better job than the hodgepodge of companies that don’t have a cohesive schedule, there has been times where the morning buses instead of running hourly have not ran between 6:30 am and 3:30pm when I was trying to get to work and the excuse was driver shortages but other companies heading to different places were on schedule.

   Complaining to the District Council was a waste of time as they stated they had no control and couldn’t do anything mid-contract about the poor service but would bear it in mind when it came time for renewal.