(21 Feb 2022, 9:06 am)Economic505 wrote It was the Tories that privatised the buses , forcing Metro into competition. Those old enough will remember the integrated transport system prior to 1986. In those days , there weren’t flashy liveries on buses , instead we had a regular and extensive service , Day and night. Today, we have flashy liveries (GNE especially ) hiding a massively shrinking service. This started well before Covid.
As we have seem on the Railways, privatisation has failed, hence why they are coming back towards state control. Only a matter of time for the policy to be extended to buses.
Aye no arguments about the buses forcing the competition but up here is extremely difficult to get multi operator tickets compared to say Manchester and their Systemone ticketing which is so simple to understand - https://www.systemonetravel.co.uk. You can even buy them at travelshops which Nexus decided to shut as you can get all the tickets on the Metro machines, not much use for someone not planning to use the Metro though.
I agree though that'll eventually end up with a TFL like system nationwide though tbh. I believe it's how the trains are going.