As privatisation became the new dogma of British politics in the mid-1980s, bus deregulation was championed by Margaret Thatcher’s second administration with evangelical zeal. “Competition provides the opportunity for lower fares, new services, more passengers,” hymned a Department for Transport buses white paper in 1984. “Without the dead hand of restrictive regulation … new and better services would be provided,” it suggested. “If one operator fails to provide a service that is wanted, another will.”
It all turned out to be ideologically driven bunkum. As the same department reported in 2021, handing the running of buses over to market forces led to higher fares, reduced ridership and a cull of valued services, particularly in rural areas. Only London, where bus services are publicly regulated, has escaped the inevitable consequences of a profit-driven carve-up in pursuit of shareholder value.
