Commission blows its golden opportunity

摘要

In september inside track, I castigated the Department for Transport for asking the Competition Commission (CC) to suggest possible areas for a bus franchising trial, but then wondered whether it was perhaps more a case of office politics. It might indeed have been just this, as the CC's provisional report published on 6 October proposing 'remedies' for so-called competition failures dismisses franchising outside London as an option (Buses last month). A three-week consultation period will have closed by the time you read this, with the final report following by the end of the year. The bus industry is naturally delighted, and will not be greatly unhappy with most of the rest of the report, which contains little of substance not discussed many times before and which could not be easily implemented by operators and local authorities working together, given the will.