City Research Online

Abstract

Decades of bus privatisation and deregulation combined with years of austerity has resulted in increasing fares, unreliable services, and poor pay and conditions for many bus workers.

Securing safe, affordable, reliable bus services, as well as restoring vibrant local economies and thriving high streets, will require reshaping the ownership and operation of bus networks.

Covid-19 triggered dramatic changes to the UK’s transport sector. The suspension of the UK rail franchise system last September exposed an illogical and unspoken arrangement, whereby private companies are substantially subsidised to profit during normal times, while their losses are guaranteed in times of crisis. In February, the Welsh Government took the Wales and Borders rail franchise into public ownership, and rail services in Scotland are set to be nationalised as of March 2022. Yet alongside seismic transformations in the rail sector, there has been a recent surge in appetite to transform regional and local bus services, as demonstrated in places like Greater Manchester.

Decades of bus privatisation and deregulation combined with years of austerity has resulted in increasing fares, unreliable services, and poor pay and conditions for many bus workers. The pandemic exacerbated this: London bus drivers, for example, had a two-fold excess in mortality in the first wave of the epidemic.

The model of a heavily deregulated and privatised bus network disproportionately impacts people that are marginalised by the current economic system. Lower paid people that live in deprived areas tend to be more dependent on bus networks, as well as being more likely to turn down jobs due to transport-related concerns. And, as the Women’s Budget Group notes, “poor quality, unreliable and expensive public transport has a far bigger impact” on the lives of women than it does on the lives of men.

Yet while communities struggle with inadequate bus service provision, private bus firms and their shareholders have reaped substantial profits. Private bus service operators Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach paid out an average of almost £150 million a year to shareholders between 2008 and 2018. What’s more, our analysis reveals that share ownership of bus companies is dominated by a combination of high net worth individuals, large banks, major asset management companies, and firms owned by foreign governments. As a result, rising bus fares drive a significant transfer of income from ordinary bus service users - often those with no choice but to travel by bus - to wealthy individuals, investors, and governments.

Publication Type:	Report
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > International Politics

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