Cherry-pickers ‘still a threat’, say officers

12 September 2007

Ministers have been warned that voluntary bus partnerships will continue to be undermined by operators ‘cherry-picking’ profitable routes, unless the Draft Local Transport Bill is strengthened.

The consultation into the draft legislation has revealed broad agreement over the need for a specialised competition test to clarify where joint action between councils and bus firms, and different operators, will not fall foul of legal action.

But the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers has advised the Government that additional measures are needed to ensure councils can make voluntary agreements work.

Bob Saxby, chair of ATCO, said: ‘In many rural areas, most bus services are under contract to the local authority. But operators are free to come in, run services on the profitable routes, and undermine that network of services.’ ATCO has suggested ‘tendered network zones’, where the traffic commissioner has the power to refuse any new services that would impact on lifeline rural services.

Saxby said: ‘We want to harness commercial services in the interests of passengers. Cherry-picking undermines the economics of county bus networks, and also means you lose benefits such as through-ticketing.’

The County Surveyors’ Society has welcomed the Government’s proposal to allow multi-operator and minimum and maximum fares to be included in non-statutory agreement, but warned ‘there is nothing to compel operators to accept such arrangements’. The Confederation for Passenger Transport has said that easing competition rules would improve services where there were two or more operators.

But it added: ‘Operators currently fear legal action constraining their ability to integrate their services.’

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Cherry-pickers ‘still a threat’, say officers

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