Policy instruments (2) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 214

Box 13.1 Changes relevant to provision of bus services within the Transport Act 2000
Local transport authorities are required to:
• prepare a Bus Strategy as part of the Local Transport Plan containing policies as
to how best to carry out their functions to secure the provision of appropriate bus
services in their area
• determine what local bus information should be made available and how, and to
seek to arrange with operators for its provision.
Local transport authorities are empowered to:
• establish joint ticketing schemes (i.e. providing for inter-operator availability of
tickets and travelcards) and to require operators to participate in them
• recover from operators the costs of providing information if satisfactory provision
is not made by the operators themselves
• subsidise public transport services having regard to the interests of public and
operators, rather than being constrained by the previous requirement to act 'so
as not to inhibit competition'.
Local transport authorities were also empowered to set up statutory Quality
Partnership and Quality Contract schemes [see text] although in practice these
provisions were almost completely unused.
In exercising the above powers authorities are exempted from the Competition
Act provided that their actions fulfil the criteria of a specified 'competition test'
which include that the effect on competition is proportionate to the achievement
of their intended purpose. [The OFT can give directions and provides guidance on
compliance with this test - see 'Guidance on the Competition Test' OFT 2003.]
All in all, therefore, QPs are far from plain sailing. They tend to materialise in
places where prospects are favourable anyway and not otherwise. This accounts for
the patronage growth achieved in places such as Oxford, Brighton and York which
are regularly quoted as examples of what can be achieved under the existing regime.
But of course these towns are not typical and there are unfortunately many more
places which start from the position of extremely low bus use and are caught up in a
seemingly unending spiral of decline.
Socially necessary services
When deregulation was introduced, the task facing local transport authorities in
contracting socially necessary services was very difficult. Commercial registrations
are made by individual operators on a route-by-route basis with possible variations
by section of route, hour of day and day of week. Putting them altogether to discover
what service gaps might be left in an area of the size of the metropolitan areas or the
more urbanised counties was an immense undertaking. Tenders for individual services
then had to be designed and contracts awarded and, if possible, timetables prepared
which showed the combination of commercial and tendered journeys along a route
(sometimes run by different operators).