Sadiq Khan has pledged to establish a new London Bus Company to bring the city's routes back into public ownership for the first time in 30 years. The bold plan could see the vast majority of
London's 675 bus routes gradually taken out of the hands of private companies for the first time since 1994.
Sadiq Khan announced the proposal on Tuesday morning (April 16), declaring it a "next-generation transport programme", if he is re-elected on May 2. The Labour mayor will work to establish the company alongside a future Labour government.
Currently, the bus network is operated by 16 privately-run bus companies. But under Sadiq's new policy, once contracts on routes came to an end, they would be reviewed to decide whether to bring them under the new public operator.
The current mayor said the plan would offer "better value for money, consistency and service to all Londoners and visitors to the city and would also provide stability and certainty if operators were to fail during their existing contracts".
The announcement follows another by shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh that a future Labour administration would 'remove the Tory government's ban on publicly owned bus companies'. Currently, the Bus Services Act 2017, while allowing some re-regulation for regions outside London, puts obstacles in the way of creating a publicly owned bus operator.
Other next-generation projects that Sadiq has also pledged to carry on making the 'overwhelming case' for, if re-elected, are:
- The West London Orbital, an 11-mile extension to the London Overground network running from Hounslow to Hendon and West Hampstead
- The extension of the DLR to Thamesmead
- The extension of the Bakerloo line from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham, and a second phase extending to Hayes and Beckenham Junction
- Crossrail 2, running from Hertfordshire to Surrey and linking north and south London
Earlier this month, Sadiq announced
plans for a Superloop-style 'Bakerloop' express bus route, kitted out in brown Bakerloo line livery, which will track the route of the proposed Bakerloo line extension while work on it progresses. Some critics
branded the proposal a 'permanent rail replacement service' - Sadiq in term labelled them 'cynics'.