I think the coach and bus industry should not bite the hand that feeds it.
The intemperate and, may I say, unpleasant characterisation of local authorities trying their best in challenging times is not helpful.
Not all local authority officers are jobsworths and clock watchers as intimated by routeone’s anonymous industry expert.
I can take a diesel engine to bits and have a fair chance of getting it to perform efficiently afterwards, but that doesn’t make me any more qualified than Coach Operator to run a coach or bus operation. If I were in the position of taking over a coach company or starting one up, I would first equip myself with the necessary skillset and/or get someone in who does have the right skills – and most local authorities (LAs) would do the same.
Before the Transport Act of 1985, there were quite a few municipal bus undertakings, and prior to that, many electric (and for that matter, steam and horse-drawn) tramways that were owned by municipalities, so in-house public transport operations are not a new phenomenon.
An LA would be ill advised not to have a qualified manager, or at least have access to an organisation that could ensure that the coaches and buses could operate safely and efficiently.
The other thing that a council would do is to create an arms-length management organisation, or better still, a separate not-for-profit organisation of some sort.
From what I read, it may be that the LA Coach Operator describes has either acquired a coach company or vehicles without thinking through the issues sufficiently. It may be that it finds working with Coach Operator a penance, and what we are hearing is the sound of axes being ground. It may be that co-ordinating public transport with Coach Operator hectoring it led the LA to adopt the in-house option, when it was not really capable of doing so.
routeone has reported several financial failures in the coach and bus sector in the last year, so even the best qualified of businesses can go awry. It is a challenging situation out there, and instead of backbiting about the failings of LAs, it would be better if we all hung together in partnership, because the alternative of hanging separately means a long drop.
Where I would agree with Coach Operator is that most principal LAs are not that well equipped to manage or to consider public transport in the round.
For instance, the reason why most Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) submitted to the Department for Transport were similar to the point of being identical, was because most LAs did not have the capability of writing a BSIP in house.
Austerity, adult social care, and the housing crisis have eaten into the core of local government and enfeebled it, and it means that other important functions – like highways maintenance and public transport co-ordination – have suffered.
What I would like to see is the build-up of regional transport boards, with a steady flow of investment capital, that can co-ordinate coach and bus services (probably by franchising) and also to have recourse to an operator of last resort, whose purpose it is to act where bus companies go bust; like a rolling stock leasing company, to enable the independent sector to decarbonise and to pilot ways of ensuring that rural coach and bus services can be sustained and improved.
The transport authorities for each region would replace the small local authority highways and transport operations. This might not go down well in places like Nottingham or Blackpool, but that can be worked out.
What I would also like to see is the development of a latter-day version of the Bedford OB for rural and feeder services, which would be electric, cheap to maintain, cheap to operate, robust, comfortable, and future proofed by being upgradeable. It would require government money to do the research and development and to guarantee orders for a production line to be started. Mind you, that would also require a latter-day Frank Searle or George John Rackham, to design such a vehicle.
As long as transport is jumbled up with libraries, schools, public health and all the other important functions foisted upon local authorities, transport will never get the investment or attention it deserves. As it is, the car dominates thinking and policymaking within many town halls – and that is the real enemy.
This magazine’s coach operator contributor has reflected on their words in the January issue regarding LAs and recognises that the points made could have been done so in a more sympathetic manner. No offence was intended to be caused.
