06 October 2006
Local transport authorities have welcomed the government's commitment to consider returning control over bus services to them.
At the Labour Party conference last week, Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander admitted that public needs had been left behind by the 'free-for-all' that had governed bus policy outside London.
Proposals are expected by the end of the year.
Jonathan Bray, assistant director of the Passenger Transport Executive Group, told Public Finance: 'In the past, people who used buses [outside of London] were the poor, the old and the young. They had no voice,' Bray said. 'But things have changed. Cities are on the up and up.'
He added that if current arrangements were working well in some places, there was no need to alter them, but where there were problems, local authorities should be able to intervene.
PTEG chair Roy Wicks, said: 'We are confident that with the right regulatory framework we can work with the private sector to bring about better bus services.'
PFoct2006
