Council bus firm’s demise

From: Paul Kirby, The Chase, Wetherby.

A COUNCIL-OWNED bus company has just gone bust after 111 years of operation. Halton Borough Transport ran services in an industrial part of Cheshire, close to Merseyside.

This is a warning to our councillors and Metro/West Yorkshire Combined Authority who want to run the buses themselves.

Over the years, Metro and its Transport Committee councillors have made many poor decisions and are not to be trusted to administrate any franchising system, especially after the millions spent on failed projects.

Far too much of our money would be spent on yet another layer of Metro/WYCA management to oversee the scheme. Just take a look at their vacancies and job descriptions to see they are becoming a bureaucratic monster that feeds on itself.

I would rather private bus companies invest their money into services rather than taxpayers’ money. An example is Harrogate Bus Company, which promotes its routes, like the

36 to Leeds, superbly well and increases ridership because of it, whilst Metro/WYCA cannot even promote their own tickets properly.

Civil servants and councillors have little concept of creativity or originality – just look at the dull printed Metro timetables we’ve endured for the last 25 years, compared to the attractive, professional literature produced by the Harrogate and Keighley Bus Companies.

Lessons should be learnt from the demise of Halton Borough Transport. It is the large private companies that have stepped in to continue the bus services there.

The current trend of nationalising transport is of great concern. Bus services will still be affected by traffic congestion and rail services by poor network infrastructure.