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Privatisation setback
Page 20
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• The Government's privatisation timetable for the bus industry has suffered another setback with the referral of South Yorkshire Transport to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.
This comes only a week after Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority told the Department of Trans port that it does not support the privatisation of GM Buses.
The move is a blow to the Government's plans for SYT, as it coincides with DTp attempts to hurry a reluctant South Yorkshire Passenger Authority into selling the company to a very keen workforce. The Office of Fair Trading has referred the takeovers of Shef field & District, SUT, Sheafline and the services of Mike Groves to the MMC, which has a remit to investigate the forming of a monopoly in "a substantial part of the UK".
SYT points out that it does not even have a local monopoly in Sheffield, with at least five other companies running services within the city. It claims that its acquisitions operate separately under the SIT banner with its own operational strategy.
"SYT is firmly convinced that its policy of purchasing these loss-making bus operations and combining them was the solution which best represented the interests of the travelling public of South Yorkshire," says SYT managing director Peter Sephton. The company believes the investigation will be complex, timeconsuming and will delay its proposed employee purchase.