(12 May 2020, 3:23 pm)Andreos1 wrote Genuine question, but what have operators done to ensure a sustained level of service, from a variety of locations, to those out of town retail parks?
Silverlink, Retail World, Teesside Park are just three major examples with awful levels of service. There will be others. 
The metro centre, which was built with bus and train in mind - has services, but they tend to follow a similar route in/and out of the place.
Dalton Park also has a similar pattern with its public transport. 

There's been 30 years and plenty of opportunity for operators to adapt post deregulation and serve those markets in an effective manner. Not sure they have.
Goes back to passenger needs again. If we apply the 'does it meet passenger needs' question to the services in those areas, I think we all know what the answer will be.

I don't think it's harsh to compare before and after.

It's very hard to pin point that down to deregulation though was more of my point I don't question any of that however. Lot's of things have changed since then and there's nothing to say that regulated buses wouldn't have gone down the same route. Things like the Metro Centre and out of town shopping centre's were pretty much developed with the car in mind and whoever ran them would always have the issues. 

Comparing the NHS from 1986 and now I'm sure would throw up some scary statistics, do you really think the government would care about buses? They'd be bottom of the pile for any form of realistic investment and councils wouldn't have the money to prop them up neither. I could imagine them being in a similar state to the local train network was before the Metro was developed.

I don't question the issues that you've said above though just more I could imagine if they were still regulated they'd be even worse.