Reregulation is a misnomer. The ability for a local transport authority to let routes and mange their contractors is not regulation. It is contract performance management.

If the specification for the tendered service is poor then the Bus companies, already under pressure with escalating fuel charges will cut their clothes according to their cloth.

Hypothetically if you say you will do the service for a fixed price (subsidy) and you know that you will get a £200,000 payment for the route and you know that if you fail to fulfil part of the contract (i.e. put on a service on at 6 am and 11 pm on a Bank Holiday) you will get a £30 reduction in your fee it is cost effective to skip the service.

Bus subsidies have risen.
Bus fees have risen.
Quality has dropped.
Reliability has dropped.
Usage has dropped both distance travelled and numbers travelled

The imposition of minimum standards of service is required and should be demanded. Non profitable routes should be linked with profitable ones with penalties linked to performance on the rural / non profitable routes.

On the subject of road pricing in that link - do you support the re-regulation of the buses? I’m obviously not a believer in excessive state regulation and interference, but I do think the de-regulation of the buses was a massive mistake. Or at least it was, when they introduced very few regulatory controls on the bus operators cherry picking the best routes and getting rid of many essential routes because they were not profitable enough. We’ve seen this in heswall, where only the peak time bus services have been kept….trying to get a bus at any other time of day is now much more difficult, if for example, you want to get to Bromborough or Eastham. NuLabour goes on about getting us out of our cars and onto public transport, yet ignore the crumbling state of the public transport network outside of London. If they can sort that out and make some advances in public transport provision, then I’m sure they would find it a lot easier.

Just wondered what your thoughts were on this?

It is OK however to reporduce Hansard’s as you cant issue a writt against Parliament!

Interesting questions arnt they? I wonder how much each cost to reply to?

Did you also see his recent contribution to debates on the floor of The House?

I love this one…. sorry its so long and I cant pop it into a hypertext link …

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080326/debtext/80326-0010.htm#08032669000404

I give it until the next election, when he decides to run for the European Parliament.