In its White Paper ‘Buses’, the British Government sets out its proposals for creation of a freer local bus service sector than exists in any developed industrial economy in the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the basis and nature of the proposals, and particularly to assess the validity of the analysis that has been presented in support of them.

    The White Paper diagnosis of the bus industry is that a potentially virile sector is being stifled to such an extent by regulation that the variety and quality of service is poor, demand is unnecessarily low, and costs unnecessarily high. The prescription is for a heavy dose of free competition on the road between commercially motivated, financially autonomous companies, supported (lest the cure be worse than the disease) by tighter quality regulation, fair competition protections, and direct support of socially desirable unremunerative services. The prognosis is the elimination of cross‐subsidy, the introduction of new types of service, and the establishment, essentially through market pressures, of the best attainable price/frequency/quality combination consistent with the external finances available.

    The essence of the White Paper can be reduced to four propositions.

    Deregulation will produce a competitive market.

    Competition will substantially reduce costs.

    A competitive market will improve resource allocation.

    A competitive market will not cause any significant undesirable spin off effects.

    We shall examine each of these propositions in turn.


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    Title :

    Deregulating the bus industry in Britain — (B) the case against


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Transport Reviews ; 5 , 2 ; 105-132


    Publication date :

    1985-04-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown



    Deregulating the bus industry in Britain: a reply

    Beesley, M. E. / Glaister, S. | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1985


    Deregulating the bus industry in Britain: a rejoinder

    Gwilliam, K. M. / Nash, C. A. / Mackie, P. J. | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1985


    Deregulating the bus industry in Britain — (A) the proposals

    Banister, David | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1985


    Deregulating the bus industry in Britain — (C) a response

    Beesley, M. E. / Glaister, S. | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1985