A few months ago we had the rare experience of the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, using buses as his primary topic at Prime Minister’s Question Time.
This week we will find out if he raises the issue of buses, and attacks the deregulated model, in his speech at the Labour Party conference. While I wouldn’t rule it out I think it’s highly unlikely.
With the government having announced yet another review of the railways, I suspect any references to public transport will focus on rail policy which is – and always has been – the senior partner in any political debate about public transport policy.
There may be the odd reference to buses in various fringe events, but it’s the leader’s speech that gets the attention.
With all the attention currently on rail now that Chris Grayling has announced the rail review (described by the Department for Transport as “the most significant review since privatisation”) the bus industry has a need to really up its game while the public transport spotlight is elsewhere.
It should demonstrate that it really can meet the demands and expectations of all of its stakeholders, from politicians at local and national level, campaign organisations, and the most important stakeholder of all, passengers.
The bus industry always has this opportunity. But with the railways generally, and train operators in particular, being under the cosh right now, the bus industry has the opportunity to present itself as the good guys.
There is a danger in this, principally that the main bus operators are also the primary train operators (National Express aside). But I don’t think the general public make that connection.
The majority of the public support Labour’s call to renationalise the railways without realising that it’s already largely renationalised. With the government seriously on the ropes on rail, it’s all too easy to see how the public may back a call to re-regulate the buses, again without any understanding of the fact that re-regulation won’t solve anything.
The case for deregulation still needs to be made. It probably always will need to be made.
The bus industry needs to ensure its performance does not result in some kind of sleepwalk in to a refreshed debate about regulation.
Some may say that this debate has just been had in the context of the Bus Services Act, so the risk is small, which is a fair point.
But we are now having another rail review when we’ve already had three major reviews of the railways since 2009, and a couple of more focused reviews as well.
In the world of politics reviews are good way of ducking bullets. The bus industry must not rest on its laurels precisely because of what is happening on the railways.
