Comment on Deregulation - UK
* Still waiting for bus progress
UK -Times Online -25 Oct 2006: -- Sir, Today is the 20th anniversary of one of the key Thatcherite policies of the 1980s, bus deregulation... The proponents of deregulation said it would halt the decline in passenger numbers and result in lower fares and a reduction in public subsidy. However, the unstated agenda of the privatisation and deregulation was also to drive down the earnings of those employed in the bus industry... This, unfortunately, has been the only real success of the privatisation and deregulation process. In the past 20 years, the average wages in the industry have declined in real terms. Bus drivers now earn 57 per cent of the male average wage, and the lowering of real wages has resulted in an estimated shortage of 33,000 drivers... Unregulated bus services outside London are still declining...
* Push for UK bus service reform gathers pace ahead of MPs report
LONDON,UK -AFX News Limited/Forbes -25 Oct 2006: -- The push for reform of regional bus services is gathering pace with the government indicating that local authorities may be given more powers similar to those of the Greater London Authority... Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Transport Act coming into force which removed all restrictions on competition in the bus industry. To coincide with the date parliament's Transport select committee is releasing a report on services across the UK... Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander is said to be 'actively' working on a strategy to reform how bus services are organised, subsidised and regulated... Sources said the Transport committee's findings will stop short of calling for re-regulation, something which may please operators... Some operators and the Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman believe more subsidy would be needed to make such a move work...
posted by Unknown @ 10:10 AM
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