Dereg claims ill-founded'
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• Claims that bus deregulation is proving a success have been strongly attacked as premature by the Association of Metropolitan Authorities. AMA highways and transportation committee chairman Michael Simmons says that after only three months of full deregulation, "it is still too early for anyone, including government ministers, to reach a definitive conclusion about its impact."
Simmons has also described claims by Transport Secretary John Moore that the 1985 Transport Act has been a success as "ill-founded".
Following a recent seminar in Oxford, which heard details of research into Britain's postderegulated PSV industry from both the Transport and Road Research Laboratory and the University's Transport Studies Unit, Simmons says that there is no evidence for claiming the act to be a success, "Indeed, it is clear that many services are in danger."
According to Simmons, findings put before the seminar showed that since deregulation, competition between operators was only taking place on an extremely small number of routes, and that in most areas only half the contracts for subsidised services have attracted more than one bidder.
Deregulation has not led to cheaper fares — In some areas, when combined with ratecapping, there have been increases of up to 250%. There has also been a loss of patronage.
11 GM Buses has blamed deregulation for a 9.8% fares increase. The company says it had to increase its fares or cut back on services.