The Story of UK Bus Deregulation

[@timatkins4754]

All that happened in our area was the duplicating of already well served profitable routes, while rural routes in desperate need for improvement were gutted because "the market could provide the appropriate level of service". It didn't. Instead, unprofitable routes had service cuts, or if not possible, just timed awkwardly resulting in falling ridership. This could then be used as proof that the service wasn't needed. Subsidy could be cut and the whole pattern would repeat, creating a narrative that rural communities didn't need bus services, because when they were provided they weren't used, when the truth was the service wasn't used because it wasn't fit for purpose.

[@electragaming4140]

Rural bus services rely heavily on local and/or county council subsidies, to continue, as they're heavy loss makers, otherwise. "Austerity" (a byword for screwing the general public, whilst allowing the rich to carry on accumulating huge amounts of money!) has seen those councils have their grants cut and, once other services have been cut in response, rural buses have been the next step in order to help authorities balance their books. As for the deliberate running down of unprofitable services, the trick of running services at unsocial hours (to make them look like they weren't being used and weren't wanted) wasn't new; it was something BR had been doing for years.

[@robertmatthews8302]

Very well explained Tim Atkins. During this period, between the '70s and about 1990 I was employed on some N B C engineering depts. I witnessed the steady decline of rural bus services. Both in northern England and the home counties. Especially in the Dorking and Guildford area where cross subsidising would have helped to provide funding for rural routes. I'm sure that the then Tory govt. never ever intended for publicly owned bus transport to be successful. Apart from all this, my job became more and more difficult mainly due to the rotten secondhand buses that were bought in readiness for the 1986 deregulation day. I left the industry in 1990 to everyone's relief including mine.😊

[@JJVernig]

And they (both government and companies) didn't factor in that those less used routes are still feeder routes. Both for buses and trains alike. The moment someone steps into the car it is much harder to get them out. Only exception is London because the road network is unusable...

[@cooperised]

Round here there is a local monopoly. One single route enjoyed competition for a few years, and very cheap fares as a result, until the smaller company was priced out and the fares shot up again. Competition just doesn't work in this sector.

[@john1703]

Bus or car is not a viable choice for those who do not have or are unable to drive a car. Are they to be abandoned and kept under house arrest?

[@bobanob1967]

An efficient and well patronised public transport system should be accepted as a national economic asset and not as a profit making enterprise.

[@Bungle-UK]

And we haven’t had that since the 1950s….people voted with their feet as soon as cars were readily accessible.

[@kbdkbd99]

Profit and loss always exist regardless of whether you hide it or not.

[@paulsherwood8364]

@@Bungle-UK and look what mess it's made. No complaints about traffic

[@TalesOfWar]

This should be the case for all critical services and infrastructure. If it makes a profit, great, but it shouldn't be there for that purpose. Things like good transit, roads, rail, water utilities etc enable the economy to exist and grow. Most benefits are indirect, but obvious.

[@john1703]

The primary purpose of a private company is to make a profit for the shareholders, not to provide a public service. If you want less car use, you must make buses attractive to use.

[@fndjfgsdk]

Nah, bus deregulation was largely a success. The issue being that car users are not charged appropriately and do not cover the costs of their cars existence. We need national road pricing to properly address the true cost of car ownership and allow all parties to make the most economically efficient choices

[@superted6960]

Interesting point of view that "car users are not charged appropriately". I think they (including me) feel otherwise. Whatever, there are long term trends in the UK, going back to the early 60s, away from public transport and towards cars. I discount London mainly because I don't know the place and doubt it's representative of the wider UK. Political intervention to regulate the market has tended to end badly, and we look on the cusp of repeating past mistakes with (for example) giving Metro Mayors powers over bus services. The flaw is the assumption that we "want less car use" when it's actually the car that has been a prime generator of economic growth over the last half century, and provided personal freedom to people not seen before. The environmental arguments fade away too with the advent of EVs, but I suspect there is a limit to how acceptable they are given current technology, and that limit may be closer than the Govt cares to admit.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@fndjfgsdkHow do you work that out? Car users pay huge amounts of tax.

[@AndreasGlad-rq7vx]

There is no way to make buses more "attractive" to use than cars. Public transport is vile and will always be.

[@paulnolan1352]

@@fndjfgsdkoh yeah, the old leave it to market forces routine, look at the energy market, another classic monopoly.

[@lordmuntague]

Here's my experience of bus privatisation, and I've been a regular bus user since the 1970s: 1) Decent profitable route with 10 minute frequency gets privatised. 2) Private bean counter looks and says "We can carry that many passengers with fewer buses!" Frequency changed to 15 minutes. 3) Less frequent and more crowded buses causes reduction in patronage. 4) With fewer passengers bean counter says "We don't need that many buses for that many passengers!" Frequency changed to 30 minutes. 5) Rinse and repeat until route either disappears, gets combined with others into a twisty thing that takes forever to get anywhere, or local authority has to step in and subsidise it. There are few if any innovations or investments done by the private sector that can't be done by the public sector for the same subsidy, and very many were. If incentives are an issue, legislate them in instead of chopping the structure into private bits and hoping for the best.

[@rogerk6180]

Who could have predicted that, right? It's a mistery...

[@Bungle-UK]

Bus usage and mileage run was falling long before deregulation. What you describe is just a continuation of an existing story.

[@aaronsmith9209]

Where I live has an extreme example of this. In the 1980s, my local route the 242 (London Transport) ran from Waltham Cross to Potters Bar every 20 minutes from early morning till late at night. It was busy enough to be a double deck route but then it became deregulated and separated from the rest of the London bus system. Decades of decline later it now runs as a single decker only every 30 to 60 minutes but most of these are short runs of only 3 miles of the route leaving the area where I live feeling really disconnected from the neighbouring towns. Only 4 journeys (6 on Sundays when its only every 2 hours!) a day do the full route today, service is now 7am to 6:30pm only. The area is far more built up today, so deregulation literally drove the passengers away! Naturally traffic is a nightmare today, the same with many outlying areas of London.

[@leicestertravels4705]

That happened where I am. We’ve gone from an every 10-15 minute service into town, with other services connecting us with nearby villages, courtesy of Midland Red East/Midland Fox, to just the service into town (which no one even wants to go to because there’s a massive retail park that’s much closer and provides a more pleasant experience), which is now every half an hour. Cry me Arriva.

[@kbdkbd99]

Someone doesn't understand why "command economies" fail. Soviet union, north Korea, east Germany. How much proof do you need ?

[@chriswade7470]

I was living in Sheffield when the Buses were deregulated. Overnight the cost of a bus journey went up by a considerable amount overnight. We did get some competition on the more profitable routes. I now live in North East Lincolnshire, where Stagecoach hold basically a total monopoly on all bus services. They provide a very poor service On a considerable number of routes. I’ve lived in the same place since 2007. We haven no bus service after about 6-30 at night so unless you have a car, a trip to the cinema is impossible, unless you get a very expensive taxi. Where I live we only got a service on Sundays and Bank holidays last year. I consider the deregulation of bus services to be one of the largest acts of vandalism committed by the Tory party, only being exceeded by the privatisation of the railways.

[@superted6960]

Wasn't Sheffield/South Yorkshire notorious for subbing bus fares out of the local rates, to the extent that local businesses (who were at the sharp end of it) were shutting up shop. It's a very odd point of view that stuff like a bus service should be subsidised. It has to be paid for somewhere.

[@hkbfkmb]

@@superted6960 It's a very odd point of view that local businesses will feel unfair to subsidise buses that bring customers to their shops.

[@Bungle-UK]

Why should the taxpayer fund bus services that carry around fresh air? If the demand was there, they would run. Quite fun that you describe the break-up or BR as “vandalism” given that the state owned era was the darkest period in the history of rail in Britain.

[@91Durktheturk]

@@hkbfkmb The truth is that the large majority of customers probably didn't come by bus in the first place...

[@rikkilamb]

​@Bungle-UK That's flim flam. British Rail in the 1980s particularly after sectorisatiom improved greatly. As for your other comment, the deregulated bus services have meant even busy and well used services get cut and dropped. It's OK spouting tory ideals but you're clueless.

[@aful3091]

You know you've reached a new level of nerd when you get genuinely excited to watch a video on the impacts of bus deregulation.

[@drstevenrey]

I was wondering about this story since the Routemaster story. Thanks for you great work and another masterpiece.

[@mburland]

Can you do a follow up video about those horrific minibus style buses that flooded the market in the 90s?

[@tomhoward4905]

Ah yes the Mercedes ones that rattled your teeth more than a dentist’s drill!

[@skylineXpert]

One of the biggest mistake in the history of the UK. But Its kinda universal & not just in the UK. Even in denmark we have a bit of a problem with busses In the rural areas. If they even service during the summer holiday (In some areas they only do that mon-fri during the school year). If you want to operate a bus route you kinda have to bid on these routes as well.

[@av_oid]

Great mini doco! Look forward to your vids every week. Services like busses (or better yet trains and trams) are best operated by governments as a public good. Some routes will always be uneconomic. (Edit for typo)

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

In spite of deregulation, the bus network is still partially paid for by the taxpayer, and when that money is reduced like it was during the recent period of austerity, bus routes get dropped. Sadly, this includes services intend to get students in rural location to their FE colleges, this happened in Cambridgeshire about 2 years ago.

[@av_oid]

@@neiloflongbeck5705If the companies need to be subsidised, the services might as well be provided by a government, as that way the taxpayer is just paying for the services, not also the profit of a company. Though, that might be what you are implying?

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@av_oid the bus company withdrew the service when the local council was forced to cut spending. It was a case of no subsidy equals no service. The bus company can't have been making much of a profit, if any, on that route.

[@91Durktheturk]

​@@av_oid No, because a private operator is always going to offer a cheaper rate for a subsidised bus service compared to a nationalised one. It is always better to have a few operators bidding for a contract, since you can select the one with the best value for money. With a nationalised operator there is no cost incentive whatsoever. That is why everywhere in Europe, bus franchising has been an enormous success.

[@chrismckellar9350]

Similar events happened in New Zealand when the government of the day forced city councils who had their own bus operations to make their bus operations into companies were most where purchased by Stagecoach. Since the 'privatisation' for local bus services in the 1990's lead to the race to the bottom in service contracting and poor service and passenger experience outcomes. The previous government change the law allowing regional councils greater flexibility to improve bus services to increase ridership through better service delivery especially the rollout of the 'open loop' national 'tap & travel' payment system for subsidised public transport bus, train and local ferry services across the country from 2024.

[@peekaboo1575]

The correct way to stop people from using cars to go everywhere is not to price people out of owning/driving one, but to give people alternatives that are highly desirable. In Japan, the railways, roads and public transportation in general are all excellent, so although you can use a car (and you will have a good experience if you do), you might choose to get where you want to go by other means simply because of how good those alternatives are.

[@Bungle-UK]

What makes you think that people want to stop using their cars?

[@phils4634]

Same for China. People have the choice of World-beating inexpensive-but-excellent public transport, or personal transport. Transport privatisation in the UK has wasted a LOT of money (e.g. the HSR-2 plan) whilst comparable "per capita" levels of investment in China have produced the world's best (and fastest) rail network

[@northernblue1093]

NBC was only one company when it suited its purposes. It was impossible to get travel information from the Northern enquiry office at Sunderland for the United services that shared the same bus station. Staff not prepared to look-up details in the county-wide timetable or ring their 'colleagues' at Durham - the passenger was expected to travel there to find out about United services from Sunderland.

[@Banshmansh]

Ah but here's the thing though; Sunderland along with most of Tyneside & Wearside had , available to the Public for use; BUS TIMETABLES; And you could buy them, and the information was there for you; Durham also had Bus timetable Books; As did most of the UK in some form or another; Local Bus Travel information offices could be very helpful( Depending on the person giving the information) Northern operated their services; United operated theirs; There was also the PTEs; Now that is all gone; And unless your a computer genius, and actually know what Bus service and timetable you are looking for; All that has gone; And although there are still Bus information Offices around, where you can get a printed Bus timetable leaflet or booklet; They are very scarce; And yes if you are very fortunate you can get a Bus timetable that is available on the Bus;

[@robertmatthews8302]

@@northernblue1093 I think that you were just unlucky mate.

[@stephenthomas3085]

Deregulation and privatisation of vital public services has never worked, on any level. The highest energy prices in the world at one stage last year..? Highest train fares in Europe..? Poisoned rivers as a toxic (no pun intended) result of private equity ownership and deregulation of human and agricultural waste standards..? I recall the ''wild west'' of provincial bus deregulation made even worse by Thatcher's 'great car economy' and the resultant epic congestion, pollution and mas concreting over of the countryside. Sorry to be so political here but so many of our problems are the result of the obsession fixation with laissez faire ideology of the 80s. Let's not even start on financial deregulation.

[@StarboundUK]

@@stephenthomas3085 Deregulation & Privatisation are 2 separate things. London has far superior bus services today compared to 80s & 90s & the buses were privatised in London.... But they weren't deregulated. The fact TFL is responsible for setting requirements of bus services that Arriva, Stagecoach etc have to adhere to in London is a big reason why London bus services function so well & are coordinated It was the deregulation that truly f'ed non London bus service provision in big cities not the Privatisation so much Tories wanted to try to deregulate London buses in 90s & had it in their manifestos... Even they've given up on that idiotic idea & TFL control of London public transport has grown since 97... See rise of Overground & Elizabeth Line - but they still contract out service provision to likes of MTR Corporation & Arriva

[@stephenthomas3085]

@@StarboundUK I certainly didn't mean to mix them up; I meant that they were the two dominant ideological themes of the government from '79 and pretty much perpetuated thereafter. I mentioned water because there were (at least) three pieces of deregulation over the last ten years that exacerbated the deteriorating state of rivers but these happened within an industry that had long been privatised. I lived in London for over twenty years and, without a car, used buses almost every day. As you say, the regulation provided stable services, I shudder to think what it would have been like without enforcement of service standards.

[@leightonolsson4846]

And the railways were privatised in the most terrible way imaginable. Made a unified system totally incoherent.

[@johnhamilton2923]

This is all very well but how does it compare with Europe?

[@artureff3046]

Idiotic taxation and now communist govn't

[@TalesOfWar]

It's no shock or surprise that the only part of England who's transport system didn't turn to crap after the deregulation was London, who retained public ownership and control. It's the only part of England that has transport that's half decent because it's all integrated as an actual NETWORK.

[@LadySophieofHougunManor7325]

Awesome video as always and informative as always you know a lot of what was stated also explains the abject failure of rail privatisation in the U.K. as tocs couldn’t amend train timetables without government permission which was in of itself a long drawn out painful process and very slow

[@jonmilligan8069]

Again another first class video! 💪

[@rob5944]

I was a bus driver in Bristol fir over seven years and there was hardly ever sufficient time given to keep to schedule. This at odds with the drive green system that monitored braking, acceleration and steering, with the resultant score displayed on a table, complete with your name!

[@darren25061965]

I feel your pain, I quit driving buses after being called into the office for a high score when maintaining the schedule (Running to Time). Sensors on the vehicles were never recalibrated so You had to learn which precise vehicles were giving incorrect data. Eventually I simply started driving to suit the scoring system, which resulted in most services running late because it wasnt worth making time up as this would increase your driving score.

[@vincitveritas3872]

A bus driver on a route I used to use was 'investigated' as he was never on time. The Inspector's who were tossers couldn't touch the driver. Undercover mystery passengers found he was passenger focused. An old lady got on he waited until she was seated safely before setting off. Etc. In the end he was put up for various customer service awards. The company realising his polite, safe and customer service centred work ethic was more important than investigating a driver for being a few minutes late.

[@rob5944]

@@vincitveritas3872 sounds about right. Mind you I didn't get any grief from the management, it was from passengers and colleagues becasue I disrupted their lunch breaks. That was it for me, pressure from both sides. I cashed my house in, paid the mortgage off and bought a little place in the sticks. Stuff 'em then!

[@sameyers2670]

​@@darren25061965 One of the main criticisms I've always had with Greenroad is there isn't the consistency there needs to be between vehicles, you can drive one bus and do what you like and it doesn't bat an eyelid, another bus goes into red over the slightest thing. I'm on long distance coaches these days and we have drivecams instead, a better system as it records why it triggered

[@mwgary]

This is a very interesting and informative video. I remember well when the deregulation happened. It was viewed as a bit of a disaster at the time. I think London bus deregulation deserves its own video, which had its own unique problems.

[@craigsutherland3410]

Buses in my home city of Edinburgh are £2.00 flat fare, no matter the distance, even up to 17 miles. The buses are new, turn up on time and run right through the night. They have won numerous awards. The company is Lothian Buses and are 91% owned by The City of Edinburgh Council, the remaining 9% by the adjoining councils. They are the largest municipally owned bus company in the UK. Passengers elsewhere in Scotland are envious of the Lothian Buses model of operation. I recently travelled with private operator "Midland Bluebird" and was charged £4.55 for a 2.5 mile journey!

[@Bungle-UK]

So, Midland charge the real price for your journey. Why should the taxpayers subsidise you?

[@paulnolan1352]

@@Bungle-UKThe point is Midland charge the higher fare with Taxpayers subsidy. If you can’t run a business Profitably without subsidy then they shouldn’t be in business.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@paulnolan1352 Exactly how much is that fare subsidised?

[@paulnolan1352]

@@Bungle-UK why?

[@Bungle-UK]

@@paulnolan1352 To help understand your point….and whether it is accurate.

[@loftlegacy]

Where I used to live in Blackburn, the council owned Blackburn Transport used to operate a service until it was taken over by Transdev in 2006. The former municipal bus company provided a really good service with quarter hourly buses 07:00 to 23:00 even in our little housing estate on the edge of town but lost millions. Trandev seem to still offer a decent service on the busiest routes, but where I used to like the service is now hourly, from 09:00 to about 18:00. For a time one of the local providers (not Transfev) were so bargain basement they were operating buses without any insurance!

[@trevor342]

As a former Manager in the NBC in the 1970s, who then moved to Local Government and worked on the interface between the commercial market and the provision of non commercial, but socially necessary services by contracting and managing them, I make the following comment: The franchising system in London, which was accepted by the UK Government as necessary, is now spreading to other parts of the UK, starting in Manchester and, no doubt, will spread elsewhere.

[@alan-u7e5f]

An excellent presentation from the 1930s to today - well done; and I speak as someone who was manager of a bus licencing office withinin a Traffic Area Office, albeit many years ago.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The changes to the bus services in Cambridge removed bus routes serving villages that got students to their FE colleges, so increased car traffic in the county.

[@peterm6219]

Yet another wonderfully researched and presented video👍. Thank you

[@gwheregwhizz]

The brown vinyl seats on the Leyland National, the noise, the jerky ride, the awful heaters, the smell of diesel and permanently misted up windows bring back (literally) painful memories. I much preferred being a passenger on an old Bristol RE.

[@davidty2006]

Funnily enough mainly 2 Bristols are what left of my town's old fleet.

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Yes, but.... when a REs' rubberised floor started to perish, it was a death trap to get off the bus without slipping and nearly breaking your neck. I curse the REs' floors to this day.

[@rachelcarre9468]

I grew up in the Newcastle area and bus deregulation had a major negative impact on transfer between buses. trains and metro. I think the model run in many major European cities offers. ore benefits and governments have to realise that public transport will always be a cost but it brings development.

[@scofab]

Another fantastic window into a history I knew nothing about. Thank you again and regards.

[@cbmsysmobile]

"40 of the companies bought by management or employees, and many sales providing for employee shares or profit-sharing schemes" How many are still as such, rather than run by corporate monoliths only interested in funneling profits to overseas holding companies and shareholders? This is where privatisation went seriously wrong.

[@TheHylianBatman]

Things that are expected to help the people with little or no money should not be expected to turn a profit.

[@KapiteinKrentebol]

I've seen a study of car subsidization where the true costs of owning and operating a car is several thousands of euros per year higher than it actually costs the owner. Where the general taxpayer (also non car owners) fit the bill for infrastructure and road maintenance. I don't know if its true as I've only seen it on Techaltar but it would be interesting to see if public transport got more popular if it would be competitive on even ground.

[@wilflewis7384]

Brilliant as always. Very comprehensive summary……….well done.

[@markcaldwell2831]

Very nice video. I especially like the Strathclyde buses shots in Glasgow, some of which were nice to see.

[@kevanhubbard9673]

In PTE areas you'd often seen NBC subsidiaries painted up in local authority colours in the Tyne and Wear area United and Northern had a lot in T and W yellow but they still had their own names on them plus NBC double arrows.I think that West Yorkshire had a similar set up.On occasion you'd see one of the PTE buses operated out of the PTE area in my case yellow in a sea of red!

[@rikkilamb]

We did indeed, WYRCC drivers refused to drive green buses unless they were paid the same rates as the WYPTE drivers.

[@ohheyitskevinc]

“Commercial viability”. The tories took infrastructure benefiting the entire country, threw it out to private companies who then dropped routes they found weren’t commercially viable. Except those routes were essential routes that existed for a reason. Usually rural areas to nearby towns with low ridership numbers consisting of retired folk with no access to a vehicle. Those routes were effectively subsidised by the high ridership routes when the system was nationalised. Some say deregulation was a money grab (and it was), but it was also irresponsible and against the national interest. What gets me about all this money we apparently saved by denationalising / privatising everything - taxes didn’t go down and accounting for inflation, everything costs far more. That party hasn’t changed.

[@iainsanders4775]

In Bournemouth after Thatcher's deregulation, services briefly improved, then went right down the plughole.

[@oldtechnobodycaresabout]

I thought Morebus was one of the few examples of where deregulation actually kinda worked

[@Bungle-UK]

Bournemouth has one of the best networks in the country 🤷‍♂️

[@iainsanders4775]

@@Bungle-UK Well it's recovered. Good!

[@Twittler1]

The largest bus operator in Bournemouth is owned by Transdev, the UK arm of RATP, Regie Autonome de Transports de Paris. It’s the equivalent of TfL in Paris, wholly owned by the French state, and run at arm’s length by the City of Paris and its bordering hinterland authorities on a consultative basis, and the French Ministry of Transport. Transdev’s logo on all its vehicles is RATP’s stylised ‘River Seine through Paris’ logo, as seen on Paris’s buses, trams and Metro trains. It owns many bus operating companies in the UK, including London United, the second largest London based operator. So, still publicly owned, but by the French public! All Transdev’s post investment profits go towards subsidising public transport in Paris! This is far from being unusual in the UK’s fractured PT structures, road and rail. Almost every state run transport system in Western Europe has a stake in, and earns profits from, most of the UK’s privatised bus and rail industries, the profits going back to help subsidise PT in their home countries.😮 Nothing against them in this; good luck to them, and cleverly done! But it’s just one more illustration of how government after successive government in this ‘great country’ displays its greatest talents when it’s fucking things up!

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Subsidies are part of the income, not the operating costs. Operating costs include the cost of the vehicle, vehicle maintenance, fuel, oil, the wages of the crew and, any related infrastructure (bus stations, depot, signage, etc). The subsidies covered the difference between fare revenue and the operating costs.

[@mipmipmipmipmip-v5x]

Newest tender of London buses are almost all Chinese, seems Brexit is the cherry of the deregulatory cake!

[@floycewhite6991]

All "privatization" means is giving the profitable routes to a profit-seeker. All the other routes disappear or degrade, and eventually are socialized again. The right way to do privatization is for the government to retain the profitable trunks, feeder routes, and maintenance for them. Keep a government monopoly on those areas. You see, if a route can be profitable even under government mismanagement, it's no burden to the taxpayers. Privatize the areas that CAN'T be run profitably. Steep fare increases and cutbacks in service will rescue some of it.

[@conradharcourt8263]

Governments can run effective businesses and profit from them if they are run at arm's length.

[@andrewbowen4544]

You forgot to say about Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham taking over Stagecoach operation and nationalised to call it Bee Network. Labour under their manifesto said they're going to nationalise both buses and trains.

[@marvwatkins7029]

Great vid clips.

[@kristjen86A]

I am thankful that in Wales, my city and city council still have a state owned and operated bus company. Low fares, increased ridership since we've had a fleet of EV buses, mix of Enviro200 EV and Yutong E9, 10 and 12, even a few Yutong EV double deckers. Yay Newport. The council have even taken back control of First Bus, and Stagecoach routes which were clearly not profitable enough for shareholders.

[@AnonNomad]

Now do our energy sector haha!

[@wasted-blaster.]

I believe national public transit systems like the bus, plane, train should never truly be in the hands of the private sector unless it is for open access operators to make competitions ( and thus stop the monopolies) with local and main government operated public transit. So in otherwords re-nationise the bus, trains, planes.

[@Lazarus1095]

I lived in Great Britain in the 1980s, and I visited London many times with my family. I have no idea where the heck all of these green buses came from. They were all red double deckers when I was a kid.

[@nomdeplume798]

In Greater Manchester, since they have been taken back under public control, I have noticed thousands of bus stops have been covered in the new colours, a local service through housing estates has seem the 18 seat 3 tonne midi buses replaced with £300,000, 12 tonne double deckers. In addition, the old adage of "You wait ages for a bus, then two come along together" is now making a come back Recently near Oldham I saw ten buses running in pairs. Last week in Tameside two different services in pairs. I'm not against public transport, in fact I think it's essential, but are we going back to the same reason services were privatised in the first place?

[@stuartmenziesfarrant]

Up there with Dr Beeching! A negative step.

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

In the late 70s I, or anyone!, could get from one end of S Yorks to the other - effectively Sheffield to Goole - for 16p . That went up to an outrageous 22p t some point in the early 80s. I know many will ask why anyone would want to end up in either these places, it was still a great service courtesy of the sypte. Albeit at a hi price. That service was badly affected by deregulation, and despite route changes to the better in some cases the qua;ity of service was, and last time I used it (2020) still poor compared to those sypte days. Regardless that by the 2000s services weren't 'too bad' for many parts of the UK. It had been 10-15 years of wrecking and reassembling bus services. Thatcher's legislation, like many of here actions to 'free-up' - and cash in what were in many cases mutual trusts - were mainly destructive and subsequent improvements were similar to redevelopment of bombsites postwar

[@glen1555]

Used to go to Goole for company meetings. My employer had bought a Woolworths store there, it had lots of rooms upstairs that were used for training and conference rooms. Train from Keithley to Leeds, inter city express to London getting off at Doncaster then a stopping at all stations diesel to Hull, getting off at Goole, Britain's largest inland port.

[@rob5944]

Seeing the buses for Keynsham and some fleeting shots of Bristol took me way back lol.

[@robertpatrick3350]

The trial areas were rigged…… my experience of it was a collapse of rural routes and smaller busses which were often overcrowded and of poor quality….. on wet days the lack of ventilation and condensation made travel very unpleasant.

[@TheWacoKid1963]

Deregulation crippled ease of use of public transport in Tyne & Wear, no longer could you travel from one side of the county to the other with just one ticket purchased for each mode of transport needed for your journey ie bus, then Metro train and bus again

[@macjim]

The red and white striped bus was a Kelvin bus ( or might have been called Kelvin valley buses) if memory serves… I noticed a lot of the video is around Glasgow ( Strathclyde transport)… nice one 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍

[@discogareth]

Despite many changes over the years, we’ve been quite lucky here in the West Midlands with our services. We’ll see what the planned franchising system will bring!

[@91Durktheturk]

@@discogareth Increased costs and lots of spending on consultants. Money that could be better spent on some simple bus priority measures.

[@user-s1o3nr532]

It's a story of asset theft from the public and into private hands. I wonder in hindsight if any of the proponents of privatisation even believed it would genuinely result in better services themselves.

[@Bungle-UK]

Conveniently forgetting that most of these assets were in private hands to begin with and were forcibly taken into state control.

[@user-s1o3nr532]

@@Bungle-UK And why did they need to be nationalised?

[@Bungle-UK]

@@user-s1o3nr532 They didn’t. Bus services were brought under state control on the basis of ideology and the desire for centralised state control and planning., none of which did anything to stop the sharp fall in usage.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The Cambridgeshire guided bus route destroyed a mothballed, but viable, railway line to St Ives.

[@sglenny001]

Yep it could been a metro style thing

[@bulletholeteddy9223]

My area is currently in the process of bringing buses back under council control hopefully privatisation gets done away with all over the country

[@kidmohair8151]

ahhhh. trickle down economics. a design to impoverish the many for the benefit of the few. or. government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. for over 40 years. (it has been very successful)

[@AzureOtsu]

A video on the electrostars/turbostars would be awesome

[@pavo45]

Whilst we chase a public transport system that must be profitable, and without or little government support, we will never have a transport system that is affordable or frequent enough to persuade the general public to use it. For me to take my family in to central London, the cheapest and most coinvent option remains, use my 2004 diesel car, pay the congestion charge, pay LEZ, or ULEZ and pay for the parking, still cheaper than public transport, why use buses and trains ??

[@paulsherwood8364]

Is it cheaper, when I take the train to central London, i didn't have to buy the train before i got on it.

[@Terry.W]

The main reason for privatising the busses was to take the burden away from the councils and to make them owned by private companies ...and on balance I maybe a bit controversial here I think it was a good thing ...is it fair for someone who drives a car and never uses a bus to pay a tax for it ??..my local bus service was terrible uncomfortable and frequently late ..but now it is on time friendly and pleasant to use..

[@superted6960]

I agree with you. The notion that buses should be routinely subsidised has always escaped me.

[@mikewindsor5759]

@@superted6960 It's puzzling that neither Terry.W or superted6960 seem to understand the ideas behind taxation and the provision of services from tax revenues. If you pay for your health services or send your child to private school (known as public schools in the UK for those unsure of the difference), I assume that you would both object to paying tax to fund the NHS and state schools. The unregulated "wild west" provision of bus services purely on market led forces requires that large sections of the country (in size, but not necessarily in population) are completely isolated, as bus services cannot ever be made profitable in small remote villages. In that case, people would have no choice but to move to ares where bus services are profitably provided (or remain forever trapped in their village, unless someone with the means to transport them is generous enough to do so), and therefore available, leaving those isolated villages largely inhabited by car drivers. What happens when someon's car breaks down, or they want to employ a cleaner or nanny who can't afford a car. Their options will be limited to those service providers who have the means to get to them. Taxation is a means to provide services to everyone who needs to use them, regardless of ability to afford them. It's arguable whether public transport should be one of the services provided in that way, but the subsidy to enable an otherwise unprofitable service to be able to run to small communities countrywide seems a small price to pay. I speak as a car driver, walker, cyclist and public transport user.

[@paulnolan1352]

The old died in the wool Tory thinking, do you think it’s fair that you pay for Hospitals etc when you might not need to go to one?, what about roads?, do you just want to pay for the one you use regularly but not the others?.

[@tomhoward4905]

There’s a song about this by a Scottish punk band called Soapbox It’s called “Private Public Transport Sucks”

[@91Durktheturk]

Bus deregulation did not stop the decline in bus usage, but slowed it down immensely. With nationalised operators still in place, the bus sector would be in a far worse state. Everywhere in Europe they have privatised the buses, generally leading to lower subsidies and increased ridership. And there are several bus companies that offer very high quality services and innovations that you wouldnt easily find on the European mainland. Does this mean the buses in the UK are perfect? It really depends on the regions, and whether they are willing to fund routes that are inherently unprofitable.

[@robertely686]

Which European countries in particular?

[@91Durktheturk]

@@robertely686 Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany to name a few. Countries with nationalised buses, such as Belgium, generally perform much worse.

[@stillious]

@@91Durktheturk Love how you keep using the weasel word 'generally' to hide that you're talking complete crap.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@stilliousanything run by the state is going to be dreadful. See the NHS for exhibit A.

[@91Durktheturk]

@@stillious Except that I'm not. In the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavian countries bus privatisation has resulted in less subsidy for more bus services. This is an undeniable fact. Also, if you had read my comment with more care, you would have understood that I used the phrase 'generally' to refer to nationalised buses in for instance Belgium, to essentially clarify that most bus services there are not even close to NL, or the Nordic countries in terms of quality, but that there may be one or two places where things are decent. But, I would challenge you to find bus services there that are on par, or even better compared to what you would find in the Netherlands, Sweden or Denmark. And I'm sure you won't be able to come up with anything.

[@J-Bahn]

i notice the government didn't lay a finger on the roads- surely they should have sold to private companies, let them be tolled at more or less what they think the market can take, and maintained how they saw fit.

[@macjim]

I first came across the rot setting in on public transport when I used to go down to the North Yorkshire moors on holiday. There, I found out when thinking about where to stay, you couldn’t get to and from a pub by bus when out in rural Yorkshire so I had to either book a B&B in a village or market town where pubs were easy to get to. I failed once in booking a self catering bungalow on a farm to only discover on arrival, that the nearest pub was many miles away down a narrow B road which meant not being able to have a beer at night. Much of the bus ‘services’ were cut back to times when tourist were about during the day which meant few, if any, ran in the evening so you had to drive to a pub (remember, pubs were also where you’d have a meal in the evening if you couldn’t cook a meal yourself) which was in the days when it was allowed as long as you weren’t over the limit back then. That’s assuming there was a Bobby around to pull you over! I remember remarking on the fact that I found it strange you couldn’t get a bus in the evenings so what were tourist and locals meant to do if they didn’t have a car to get around… not realising back then this was a taste of what’s to come in Scotland years later. Now, I find it truly dire if you do not live in the cities of Scotland. In the cities, such as Glasgow you can get a bus all day, but if like me, my bus services are paired back to one every two hours in the evening from Glasgow. If you are in the central belt of Scotland, it’s even worse. There, you’re luck if a bus turns up at all! I regularly travel to work on the buses, and now have to get two buses to and from work. That journey now takes me two hours or more but back when buses were publicly run, I could do the same journey in an hour on one bus! My buses regularly don’t turn up, run late or break down due to the condition of those buses as many are the dregs from the city routes and depots, farmed out to the smaller depots serving the central belt. And it has gotten worse since the service provider changed hands too! We need for all the Scottish bus services back in public hands so that they are run for the publics convenience and not for the shareholders pockets… Lothian buses are a fine example of a service/company that was kept in public hands as Edinburgh council own the company. The selling off of the buses to private companies was madness not only because it was a bad idea but we ended up having to pay those private firms a subsidy to run services that were ran back in public hands! Madness, utter madness! BRING ALL BUSES BACK INTO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 PS private cars should be banned from town centres, only accessible by bus, tram, trains and bicycle.

[@lawLess-fs1qx]

I don't want my taxes subsidising your chosen life style. You choose to live miles from your job but you want society to subsidise your transport. Are you in favour of subsidised petrol for people that drive to work?

[@teaandbiscuitgaming5905]

​@@lawLess-fs1qx But as a society, we have subsidised cars. As someone who walks and takes the train to work, should I pay for the roads for car users, even if I don't use them? All direct and indirect taxes from cars and road vehicles do not cover the amount that we subsidise road infrastructure compared to trains. Should we raise fuel duty because the government has frozen it for the past 10 years compared to train and bus ticket increases?

[@Bungle-UK]

Car users contribute far more in taxes than the road network costs. Plus, it’s an essential national asset. Incidentally, banning cars from town centres just because of don’t like them is a very nazi-like policy.

[@macjim]

@@lawLess-fs1qx why would ‘your taxes’ subsidise my travel? I’m a tax payer too but I choose to do the environmentally better option rather than own a car that puts out pollutants and adds to the congestion. As for ‘why do I live so far from my workplace’? Well, for one reason… it was the only job I could get after seven years out of work a decade ago and. As I’m now reaching 68 soon, looking for work nearer to my home is a bit pointless now, but anyway, where I live and where I work has nothing to with what I said above. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 If your willing to pay for a car for me, and pay the running costs, I’d gladly accept if it was an electric car, off course 🚙

[@conradharcourt8263]

Ah, the magic of privatisation. An essential public service with a natural monopoly needs subsidy, but chop it up into a random bunch of chaotic elements and get a bunch of unprincipled crooks to run it for you and suddenly it'll all come right!!😂

[@benjaminmcclatchey9814]

And all of it planned by people who have the planning experience of a 5 year old.

[@northernblue1093]

What is the relevance of the Singapore Bus Services Leyland Lynx @ 7:50?

[@drstevenrey]

The main question is this: Do you actually want to reduce personal motoring or do you just want to look good by offering some sort of 'public' transport. I have the distinct suspicion Britain is of the second variant. Look Mom, we have busses, useless, but we have busses. Rural India has better bus services than the UK. Busses in Britain only really work in central London.

[@ztmsl]

I love these videos, very informative. But for me as a non-native speaker, the long complex sentences make it quite difficult. The number of dependent clauses is high.

[@david5845]

Cheers and Thank you

[@lorddarlo6194]

I think here in the West Midlands I Will mention Birmingham and the Black Country mostly as it's where I live and commute around on the bus our largest operator is National Express West Midlands NXWM who were formerly Travel West Midlands TWM before that West Midlands Travwl WMT, WMT I think was owned by local goverment still but National Express the Coach operator based in Birmingham decided to buy the Company they rebranded to Travel West Midlands and introduced a new corporation livery of Red White and Blue and were beaten narrowly by Abus of Bristol to operate the first low floor buses of the UK. In about 2011/12 NX decided to rebrand TWM to National Explise West Midland and over the next two years the Corporate livery was changed to Red and White anyway I feel service is good here despite our Labour Mayor wanting to go down the Manchester Franchising route. The issue we have is his old Tory Predecessor loved the Trams aka the Midland Metro which was operated reliably by National Express from Wolverhampton St Georges to Birmingham Snow Hill and Bull Street before being purchased by Transport for West Midlands who lets say have made the Metro unreliable, the new CAF Urbos 3 Trams have been taken out of service 3 times for having Cracks in the underside it took them billions of pounds and Several years to get the Tram from St Georges or just before to Wolverhampton Train Station a distance of about 800meters or something maybe. They know plan to extend the Metro to Birmingham Airport alongside Sprint Buses, HS2 and the existing buses and trains the WCML. It is worth noting BHX is the 7th busiest airport in the UK LHR doesn't have that many links of transport it has it's fast Train to London, the Underground to the Suburbs, Local and Urban Buses to serve LHR's catchment area and the Elizabeth Line to give another Central London link. BHX has the local trains taking half hour or so to Birmingham stopping at local stations, the fast trains taking about 10-12 minutes it has the local buses and Express Buses to Coventry, Birmingham, Chelmsley Wood and Solihull. Part of the issue with our buses is the Tram works meaning half of Birmingham has been dug up, HS2 and Sprint works to, Constant Roadworks and the fact an avergage person could figure out having the M6 at it's busiest sections, M5, M40, M42, A41, A34, A47, A45, A454, A5, A38, A4123, A456, A449 and numerical other roads all in our area with roadworks or traffic delays buses. I think NX have done great coming in to provide replacements when the smaller operators fail to operate there routes, providing evening services and New buses. NX are receiving Subsidiary's but that's due to Covid, Strikes and other stuff that apart from the Strikes (Partly) was out of there control. NX for many years has been profitable and an asset NX along with the Coaches doesn't want to sell it and the Coaches are keeping the NX Group floating. NXWM is a profitable asset that Stagecoach and the like would love to buy. The Mayor doesn't realise our authorities have competition regulations so Stagecoach can't operated here as they operate in Nearby Warwickshire, NX wouldn't be allowed to operate or become the largest operator in Staffordshire or Worcestershire it can run services into the areas but it couldn't buy First, Arriva or D&G and set up bases there as it already has the Birmingham and Black Country plus Coventry all sewn up. Independents still help keep the Prices low, and if it all became Public owned, Investment would drop, Fares would rise and it would be a mess

[@jamesclarkson423]

This bus deregulation changed the lives of some friends from church. Would then went go on to start Stagecoach.

[@davidchant5550]

Great documentary, on a confusing subject. There was some interesting operators at first, such as Badgerline in the West Country, perhaps a short story on Badgerline? This story is still playing out, as car ownership is becoming way more expensive now and roads jammed with traffic. I would love to take a train or bus to work, instead of the 60 mile round journey, but no services now, not even a railway line. The council transport survey every 2 years, keep reminding me that I should either cycle or walk, instead of the car! Not joking!

[@indigohammer5732]

Straight away, we're in Glasgow! Cool!

[@craigsibley8161]

Nice footage of Glasgow and Edinburgh in there 👍👍👍

[@ansonchan7323]

3:02 is that a pacer on rubber wheel? 😂

[@Danceup-dh6kn]

I remember that part of London in the mid 90s. must be too totally different now

[@yakacm]

In the 1970's and 80's, when local councils ran the buses, there was a post called passenger transport executive, there used to be clear stickers with red letters on the windows of buses warning customers about the penalties for vandalism. The sticker had the following "THE EXECUTIVE WILL PRESS FOR HIGHEST PENALTIES AGAINST OFFENDERS". With the aid of a coin, this it was easy to amend this to "THE EXECUTIVE WILL PRESS HIS PENIS AGAINST OFFENDERS"., Lol the things you remember.

[@jonistan9268]

17:05 in my experience, UK buses have none of these things apart from maybe accessibility.

[@AndreasGlad-rq7vx]

i am a busdriver. Buses are NOT an "option" to the private car. Buses are soething you use if you cant AFFORD a car, is not old enough to drive or such. Buses are horrible to ride on as a passenger. I NEVER ride buses as a passenger, and i reccomend no one to do so. they are great to transport school children, but not for adults.

[@android584]

I wonder if all the UKs Tramlines were removed in the 60s as happened in countries like Australia and the USA. Rail is smooth, direct and relatively quick (even with frequent stopping).

[@davidty2006]

@@android584 even then alot were removed for trolleybusses in the 20s.

[@paulsherwood8364]

Enjoy spending two hours to move 10 yards and high cost of goods that get stuck in the resulting gridlock. You do know that public transport is the future. Cars are the most inefficient form of ground transportation on the planet, not only in the efficiency in moving people and the efficient use of the energy we produce, that includes EV's. You have to remember owning a car is a privilege and not a right. It's time for buses bikes and pedestrians to take back the roads. We've had decade of poor urban planning out-of town shopping centre for what, so that drivers can park for free.

[@nigelbrown4615]

Hmm. For me they are the sensible option if going into our nearest city (Newcastle upon Tyne). No isues with parking and a nice express bus which stops a 10 minute walk from where I live. Yes they can be uncomfortable and crowded, but if you are stuck in a traffic jam you can get out of the bus and walk a bit. Can't do that if you are driving your car.

[@wilflewis7384]

Is this fan oven or conventional oven. 180 degrees seems very hot for this sponge……..

[@heartofoak45]

The one main negative result of this re-regulation was that every arsehole in creation thought they could establish and run a 'bus company. So every 'bus that had come to the end of its operational life with the main operators was bought up by these new companies which would ordinarily have been either scrapped or sent to the third world. I can well remember travelling behind these obsolete, and dangerous vehicles with faulty injectors belching out black smoke. They used to hunt in packs for passengers maybe a couple stopping at the same stop if there were a couple of people waiting. The whole thing was a complete disaster. There was a great deal of so-called 'Thatcherism that was away with the fairies. Another idea that hasn't stood the test of time is Water Privatisation. One of the main necessities of life, is being exploited for profit and maybe sold off to a foreign country. All we need is for computer chips in our pumping stations controlled by a foreign power. I applaud Thatcher for bringing the unions to heel, that was badly needed but most of the rest, history has proved, were not so sparkly. If the Falklands Conflict hadn't come along she would have been packing her bags and Denis's golf bag after the 1983 election

[@phils4634]

"Bringing the Unions to heel" is one of the main reasons why the UK is now very firmly a Third-World economy. Many towns and cities to the "north of London" make Haiti look attractive.

[@heartofoak45]

@@phils4634 If you were 18 or over in 1979 then I will respect your view. But, anyone who lived through the '70s having to put up with all the shenanigans of the unions would probably disagree with you.

[@phils4634]

@@heartofoak45 Well past 18 in those days. Who do YOU think might be responsible for the rise of the ultra rich (Finance and Law - NOT Production / Manufacture) and the demise of literally every other sector of the UK" Economy"? Britain is functionally bankrupt. Guess which Party Policies have led to that (especially after Blair's "New Labour (= Old Tories). Very happy I emigrated 20+ years ago.

[@keithrushforth4019]

The vast majority of people who use buses do so because they have no other option. Most people who have a choice are going to choose the convenience and comfort of a car over using a bus..

[@MrDastardly]

The voiceover in this upload sounds synthetic.

[@runoflife87]

Thatcher bus snatcher😂

[@alice1374]

That went well didn't it

[@Tuppoo94]

It all comes down to money. A bus service that's cheap enough that people bother to use it will have to be subsidized with taxpayer money. A market-based system obviously won't receive any subsidies, but fares will be significantly higher (since they have to cover all the expenses), and only profitable routes will get any service at all. Of course, public transport is important for social reasons as well. Those who rely on it the most are typically poor, young, elderly, disabled, otherwise vulnerable, or a combination of the above. These people still need access to safe and reliable transportation services. We all could end up in their shoes at some point. Personally, millionaires complaining about their taxes being used to subsidize unprofitable public transport services don't get any sympathy from me, since they're already wealthy enough to drive everywhere anyway, and could probably live comfortably on capital gains alone. However, in the interest of responsible use of taxpayer money, there should be moderation in how these services are subsidized.

[@phils4634]

Privatised (so "for profit" Bus "Services") providing decent service only on the profitable routes. Drives car ownership (so more direct and indirect taxation income for the Government). Now add in the current emphasis on electric vehicles "only", with their atrocious medium to long range performance (and forget towing the family caravan); Very costly charging stations, and what if these stations are "unavailable" for any reason? You are stuck, aren't you. An immobilised population is a controllable population. Think about it.

[@DrRock2009]

Yup. So you get kettled into a smart city….

[@anthonywalsh2164]

21:17 Adelaide was well ahead of you.

[@jovar.3649]

Great video, but whether you're for private or public ownership of mass transit, it won't work in either direction if you don't have competent leadership! Private or public, companies rise and fall on the strength or weakness of who's on top.

[@davem2369]

I'm assuming you're American by the flag and whilst leadership is important the desire to destroy public transport in the US, especially post WW2, resulted in an astounding propaganda campaign from the car makers. The car centric system is frankly horrifying and devastating to anyone lacking the money or health to drive.

[@macjim]

I remember back then, when the routes were opened up to competition as Thatcher suggested (may she never rest in peace) resulting in the buses from where I live, into Glasgow, having many companies vying for my custom. I would have a succession of buses turning up at the stop and, one company in particular who won the war having an second bus going to Glasgow that would drive bye the Kelvin buses bus to the next stop to hoover up the passengers so that the Kelvin bus bus wouldn’t get passengers! It got really ridiculous and ended up with that company throwing in the towel and left the passengers with only one option… the one company that drowned out all competition. That’s how we have no choice other than the monopoly we have now one that won’t run certain services as they consider it not profitable so these get contracted out by the council as those services are ‘essential’ to the users such as those going to hospital. While on the whole we got lucky in that we were left with a service level that wasn’t quite city quality wise, nor out in the sticks service levels we have been finding in the evening things have taken a drop with a bus every two hours but also no late bus either. This is why buses need to be returned to public ownership run to suit the publics needs which would bring life back into towns and villages, ones that are currently dying due to the inability for people to travel. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@chriswaring5565]

1:02 STAN BUTLER AND JACK HARPERS BUS ON THE BUSES

[@Mechanicalrob]

Maidstone & District were the best ❤

[@thomasbarnard6719]

Reason #3,008,915 to hate Margaret Thatcher

[@jammiedodger7040]

We need National Buses back. And also buy back Leyland,Leyland Buses and Leyland Trucks.

[@davidty2006]

Dennis is somehow around, though mainly doing bus body's even then they have worked nearly 20 years and they are still alright. totally not biased to the darts and enviro 200s because i lived with em for most of my life.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

The 1930 Road Traffic Act, defacto nationalisation of all public transport in the County of London + surrounding areas & the nationalisation of Thomas Tilling Limited was one of the biggest transport planning mistakes this country has ever undertaken. The government effectively forcing BET Plc to sell their public transport operations in the 1960s was also a mistake imo. Privatisation I think has been mostly good, as has been the service operations deregulation (outside Greater & The City of London - I think it's unfortunate that deregulation did not make it to London). What should have been done is a push for more subsidies on rural bus services and rural-urban bus services, thankfully though that thanks to privatisation, deregulation, some rural areas (not many!) which previously saw either 1, 2 or zero bus services per day Mondays-Fridays now see an Hourly (or 2-hourly) all-day service Mondays-Saturdays. I do think it would have been better if the buses were privatised WITH the railways, but of course the railways were not privatised as 4 massive companies neither was each BR sector individually privatised on it's own, instead we got "Railway Franchising" which hands all control to the DfT, costs more money & is hardly profitable for the private sector.

[@drstevenrey]

One can not travel to Britain with any nice car for fear of vandalism and hostility. Why. Britons seem to be so massively unhappy how their country works and what they have made of the situation. Britons need to stop complaining and blaming the recession of this afternoon. Recessions are in the head. That is why just about every single year ever has a recession in your minds. I need public transport when I used to visit. Not anymore though, since now Britain has an entry fee and is no longer part of anything anymore.

[@andrewl3655]

I enjoy your videos but sometimes there is just too much detail packed in, which makes it very hard to digest all the information.

[@peterdean8009]

I get the feeling he is reading an official document.

[@Saint_Dan132]

must be my lucky day

[@Bungle-UK]

Bus usage had been dropping for years before this. The real question is whether the taxpayer should subsidise buses for the minority of people that use them.

[@robertmatthews8302]

@@Bungle-UK Depends how you value the marginalised in society !

[@91Durktheturk]

@@Bungle-UK Perhaps not. Nor should the government subsidise the car, with endless money thrown at road maintenance.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@91Durktheturk In what way does the government subsidise roads? Tax paid by motorists more than covers the cost. Plus, everyone in the country uses the road network every day, either directly or indirectly.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@robertmatthews8302 Personal,transport is down to personal responsibility.

[@android584]

These days public transport in western countries is mainly used by brown people.

[@MrSpliffy3]

2nd. Just about to watch

[@indigohammer5732]

Wow! You're great! Maybe one day you will be first! You can do it! I believe in you!