Should metropolitan areas outside London be able to develop their own form of regulated competition?
No. If Nottingham and Edinburgh can make deregulation work, so can the metropolitan districts. ¾ The PTEs say they can operate a deregulated system more cheaply than London. If this is true they should be seconded to TfL to sort out their spiralling and unsustainable bus support costs. Would this boost passenger numbers? If not, what would? Free flowing bus corridors and demand management are the only way to boost passenger numbers in both regulated and deregulated regimes. Does the bus have a future? Buses clearly have a future in the cities and towns quoted at the beginning of this submission. They also clearly have a future in rural areas like Lincolnshire and Norfolk where the LA has been as visionary as those of Oxford and Cambridge etc. ¾ Visionary authorities use public support for kick-start schemes rather than long term support. In addressing rural railways, the Secretary of State has said that we “cannot be in the business of carting fresh air around the country”; is the same
