Bus firms told they must do better

National bus giants including First, Stagecoach and Veolia run many services across South Yorkshire, with smaller local firms such as TM Travel and Powells operating local routes.

But the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, (SYITA) which includes members of all four local councils, has told Government watchdogs private firms are not good enough.

Some routes, mainly those in urban areas, are run by bus companies for a profit, while other, less popular and often rural routes, are run with subsidies paid for from council taxes.

This was not the case before 1986, when bus services were run by local authorities directly, meaning elected councillors had a say over where buses ran, fares and service quality.

The SYITA and its executive arm the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive were recently asked by the Office of Fair Trading to examine the state of bus services on offer. In their report to the OFT, both bodies claim the bus "deregulation" process, which took power away from local authorities and placed it in the hands of private companies, had failed.

Members of the authority and their officers have called for the current system to be scrapped, to be replaced by a "franchise" system, where firms are awarded contracts by councils.

SYITA chairman Coun Mick Jameson said: "Given the huge amount of public money which is invested in the bus network passengers have very little influence over it.

"Under a deregulated system bus firms are free to chop and change as they see fit. They can charge what ever fares they fancy, and do so where there is no competition.

"As we point out in our submission there is actually very little real competition in South Yorkshire. We believe that a franchised system would allow for proper competition between operators who bid for the right to run to buses.

"But once this contract was won the service offered would focused around the customers' needs, be simple and stable, with defined minimum standards that the operator would have to meet.

"That offers the best way forward for public transport users in South Yorkshire."

According to the report, deregulation "has not benefited the travelling public in South Yorkshire" and has led to hugely overinflated fares and confusing price structures and routes.

It adds: "Smaller operators lack the 'clout' to take bigger firms on and even in Sheffield, where First and Stagecoach go head to head on some routes, the result is just that there are too many buses on the road.

"It is also unfair that customers on other routes are forced to pay higher fare where there is no competition".

SYITA has now called on all bus operators running services in the county to meet it for discussions on how they can improve services.

Stagecoach is to hold a public event setting out its plans for services in Sheffield later this month and a "bus vision" has been published for Doncaster.

SYPTE director general David Brown said: "We are pleased to see that Stagecoach plans to come forward with ideas about how to improve bus services in Sheffield.

"Many of these ideas are contained in our bus strategy and we have been talking about them for some time. We will be happy to talk these ideas through with them and examine in greater detail what they are proposing.

"In the meantime we will be interested to hear if other operators have their own proposals to see how we can improve all bus journeys."