Had the architects of the Transport Act 1 985 had their way, there would have been no Kent Top Travel for Kent County Council to wind up and close. The legislation that brought deregulation and privatisation also turned municipal bus undertakings into arm's length companies required to operate by the same commercial rules as everybody else and paved the way for as many as possible to be sold to the private sector. That was meant to end an ideological disagreement about as old as the British motorbus, with commercially structured companies - even when in public ownership - crying foul over councils' ability to subsidise the operation of their own transport departments.
展开▼
