A road to nowhere: failures of transport privatisation
Martin Mayer, UNITE transport industry representative
Martin is a leading trade union rep in the bus industry and represents UNITE ' s 95,000- strong Public Transport membership on UNITE ' s Executive Council. He has seen at first hand the disastrous effects of privatisation and deregulation on the bus industry. He is President of Sheffield Trades Council and Chair of Sheffield Anti-Cuts Alliance and is very active in the fight against austerity. He is also active in the international trade union movement and is currently Chair of the ITF Road Transport Section. Martin is a member of the Labour Party and sits on the National Executive Council as a delegate from his Union UNITE, which is engaged in a political strategy to win back the Labour Party for working class values.
Britain’ s trains and buses were privatised by the 1979-1997 Tory Government amid claims that exposing them to“ market forces” would deliver innovation, modernisation, investment, improved services, fares reductions and savings to the taxpayer. None of these claims proved to be true.
The failures of bus privatisation
First in the firing line were local bus services outside London which were deregulated in 1986, with an in-built pressure on local authorities to privatise their municipal networks. Well-planned integrated urban networks in our major cities were blown asunder by unregulated competition on commercial bus routes and withdrawal of fares subsidy. Frequent timetable and route changes undermined passenger confidence whilst major cuts were made to the less profitable parts of the network, especially evening and Sunday services, as incumbent operators could no longer afford to cross-subsidize. Whilst local authorities retained the power to rescue essential non-profitable services by funding these through the competitive tendering process, this has become an ever increasing financial burden to the public sector.
' The main exceptions to the trend of passenger decline have been where damaging competition has largely been absent '
Overall passenger decline was well over 20 % in the first 5 years following deregulation, but much higher in the more developed urban networks( South Yorkshire PTE recorded a massive 50 % drop in passengers). Passenger decline, though slower, has continued relentlessly almost everywhere up to the present day. The main exceptions to this trend have been where damaging competition has been largely absent and pro-active cooperation has existed between the Local Council and the dominant operator. A very good example is Edinburgh where Lothian Regional Transport, one of Britain’ s last remaining municipal operators, has kept fares low and service quality high and because it does not pass on profits to shareholders, has consistently reinvested to give it the most modern fleet in the country. revolutionise. it 25