The Commons Report and Third Reading of the Bus Services Bill has been successfully navigated.
Overall, this Bill, unwelcome as it might have been from the outset, is a lot less harmful to operators than might have been the case.
During the Report Stage debates, a Conservative backbench amendment requiring the person appointed to audit a franchise proposal must be independent was accepted, while Minister Andrew Jones gave considerable assurances that any franchise proposal must be based entirely on benefits to passengers: “I do not want to see franchising pursued for any reason other than passenger benefit, and certainly not for ideological reasons.”Quite so.
He also reminded us that the policy guidance will require a franchising authority to compare a franchising scheme with other options, and said “identifying realistic options should not be a desk exercise …authorities should engage with operators in the area to see whether there is a realistic partnership proposition.”
So, taking the Bill and the policy guidance together, as one must, it doesn’t seem this Bill poses a huge threat to operators.
Yes, Greater Manchester seems determined to proceed with a franchise – although I hear the odd muttering that officers might be waking up to the risks involved. But, overall, I don’t believe the Bill opens a floodgate of opportunity in that regard, given the checks and balances that will be in place.
That said, I hear that ‘true blue’ Kent County Council has, bizarrely, come out in favour of franchising so I may have to eat my words.
Still, in a few days when we have Royal Assent, another protracted debate about bus policy will come to an end. Or will it?
You may think this debate has been going on ever since deregulation in 1986. You’d be wrong. It’s actually been going on since 1947!
I’ve just come across a motion at a bus company AGM on 2 April 1947 saying: “The Transport Bill, embodying the government’s proposals for the nationalisation of transport, is now under discussion in the House of Commons.
“There has been no attempt whatever on the part of the government to show that the proposals are in the best interest of the nation; the road passenger transport industry [that’s buses to you and me] is vitally affected by the Bill and under schemes to be promoted by the Transport Commission may be swallowed up at any time.
“There are no adequate safeguards for the public, no adequate safeguards for personnel now engaged in the industry, and no adequate compensation for owners of the existing undertakings.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. This debate about bus policy has been going on for 70 years, and the issues haven’t changed either. Will it never end?
