Reforms - UK - Buses: getting the priorities right
Belfast, N.Ireland, UK -The Belfast Telegraph,by John Simpson -05 Sept 2005: -- CREATING the best possible public transport services, while containing the costs to the taxpayer, must be the ambition of any Transport Minister... At present, Northern Ireland has a public transport system that is in need of reform. Two features stand out: First, the current publicly-owned operating companies balance their accounts with major public funding which has been increasing... The two publicly-owned bus companies have no agreed PSO arrangements. Some areas or routes are profitable, but in total there is a dependence on public funds to maintain the current route networks. There is support from taxpayers and there is cross-subsidisation from passenger fares... Second, there is little significant licensing of private bus companies to offer daily scheduled services in competition with, or set competitive benchmarks for, Ulsterbus or Citybus. Northern Ireland is almost the exception in the UK because of the absence of some major form of competition. Are all the other cities and national operators wrong while Northern Ireland is right?
posted by Unknown @ 2:03 PM
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