For those not old enough to remember or know, the Beeching Report recommended the wholesale closure of branch railways lines and stations across Britain. This was a cross-party act: both Conservative and Labour played a part in closing railway lines not because they lost money but because they got in the way. Of course some lost money but factor in their social importance and they were worth every penny.
The example I knew personally as a child and teenager was Grantown-on-Spey in the Highlands of Scotland, where I would go to relatives for holidays, often on my own, from Wembley, where I lived then. The train would pick up mums with pushchairs or prams and their children and take them to Elgin or Inverness on shopping trips. When the railway line closed in 1968 these families were left isolated. They didn't meet up with other people they knew, they got to see family less often. Need I go on? I think you should have the gist of my argument by now.
A lot of the hidden argument was about capacity and you can hear echoes of the same arguments in the voices of those who support the construction of the HS2 railway line.
Local bus companies, both public and private, have suffered a similar demise and deserve a song of their own. If it was any good it would probably become my Desert Island choice, simply because I prefer buses to trains.
The demise of municipal (council owned) buses is a similar story to branch railway lines. Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties at a national level have all played a part in the run-down, sell-off and demise of municipal bus services, Nottingham being one of the few remaining council owned bus companies in England, albeit with 20% in private hands.
The demise of municipal bus services might best be shown as a table. Against each year listed I have shown the number of then local council owned bus companies. They all began life as council departments and a good few were created or municipalised before the First World War (1914–1918) by Conservative and Liberal councillors. The Labour Party did not exist before 1918 and there were very few Labour councillors. In other words there was nothing 'socialist' or 'Labour' about them (the same, by the way applies to public utilities like water sewerage, gas and electricity, even airports health care).
YEAR No. of municipal bus departments/companies.
1939 93
1976 50
1991 38
2001 17
2011 11
2019 9
A surprising fact that has to be acknowledged is that at least 50 of the 93 council owned bus departments/ companies in 1939 disappeared whilst the Labour Party was in power nationally. The largest number (43) were forced to become part of large conurbation based 'Passenger Transport Authorities' (or Executives) in 1969 following the Labour Transport Act of 1968. Matching local authorities didn't follow until 1974 under a then Conservative led governent. Again, all the main political parties were involved in killing off locally controlled services and councils.
For those who might otherwise miss it, I am going to point out that only 35 council owned bus companies have disappeared under Conservative governments.
A further six council owned bus companies were sold off by local councils between 2006 and 2009 whilst Labour was in power nationally (Blackburn, Bournemouth, Chester, Eastbourne, Islwyn and Plymouth), all after facing intense competition from the new national corporate style bus giants which had emerged following de-regulation by the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The changes were, in fact, piecemeal and happened at different times in different ways to different services. It was all very clever and a good few local councils thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that the best way to protect local bus services was to sale the buses to the council employees who managed and crewed the bus. Unfortunately these sold out to the new large bus operators (the stories behind Stagecoach, First Bus, Arriva, National Express and the like make are not for this post, but you will find them on Wikipedia if you care to look).
One link I will give you is to the Wikipedia list of former municipal bus companies, post 1986.
The other two references are at the top and bottom of this post.
A LONDON FOOTNOTE:
None of the above includes London and the surrounding counties which, historically, made up the London Transport operating area and was seen by some as a great act of privatisation (but not de-regulation) under Maggie Thatcher and the Conservatives. London Transport was formed as a public utility of sorts in 1934 by the then Conservative led National Government, with a few renegade ex-Labour politicians on board, plus Liberals of course. In other words the taking of private bus companies into public ownership wholesale was a Conservative act — not a Labour one, but from the way the story is told it is difficult to believe.
Public transport is a complex story and not one which, despite the best efforts of biased politicians, both local and national, has a heroic narrative. It is often a story ion which local bus passengers are the losers as politicians play out their games at the expense of passengers.
A CONCESSIONARY FARE FOOTNOTE:
Again, far too complex a story for here and is one I have told before.
