Great Western Coffee Shop

The National Audit Office has published a report "Improving local bus services in England outside London"
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/improving-bus-services-in-england/ (https://www.nao.org.uk/report/improving-bus-services-in-england/)

They could start by reintroducing some of the rural bus routes culled in the last few years leaving many villages, including some quite large ones, with no public transport.

The problem with those services is that they are not profitable for the companies running them so the services that run are contracted by the local authorities, who specify the level of service they want provided and, to a large extent, the contract price.

Then of course, as has been so often the case in recent years expecially since the 2008 financial crash, LAs look to save money and contract rural bus services are often first on the list for the chop.

That will only be resolved by the government taking direct cointrol of the services (which is often a bad idea because they don't have the necessary local knowledge) or the government increasing funding to LAs, which I can't see happening amy time soon either.

All of these points are covered, directly or indirectly, in the summary conclusions so we wait to see if it is all talk or if the government are actually prepared to do something positive about it.

It's certainly got worse with the heavy handed regulations, major bus companies trashing over smaller independents. Sadly most of the small independents have been taken to the cleaners.

Its not like that in my neck of the woods where First have been pulling out and local idependents have taken over.

Certainly is down here, The only local independent now is Country Bus.