A proposed publicly owned bus company in London would not give Transport for London (TfL) further powers to improve the network, believes former TfL Director of Buses Mike Weston.
TfL this month promised to further investigate a plan which was part of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s manifesto for re-election in 2024. While only limited details have been discussed, it is known that TfL could consider bringing routes under a new public bus operator when the contract for each one came up for renewal.
A historic example of the model is provided by East Thames Buses, which was created to maintain services after an operator went into administration in 1999, subsequently used as an “operator of last resort”, and sold in 2009 to Go-Ahead London.
Mr Weston, who is now an independent passenger transport consultant, says: “Everything the Mayor probably wants to achieve with the London bus network he can do by evolving the current model, which would be far easier and quicker than changing the ownership model.”
In July 2024, Mr Khan claimed two advantages of a publicly owned bus company in London. In response to his idea that profits could be ploughed back into the network, Mr Weston points out: “It’s pretty clear at the moment that the private operators aren’t making huge profits out of London.” The Mayor also alluded to an opportunity to benchmark costs for when it came to bids. However, Mr Weston says of this: “TfL’s knowledge of bus costs through all the bidding process is so good anyway. They can predict costs pretty accurately. They don’t need to set up as a company to do so.”
He adds: “TfL had East Thames Buses and it was more expensive to operate than the private operators. It also is more difficult to manage because the advantage of the current system is that it’s very competitive and … TfL has constantly got the ability to put pressure on operators. If it’s an in-house operation, you haven’t really got that lever.”
