Bus deregulation in other countries

[deltabravo]

The topic of bus deregulation has been brought up in various threads, and it got me thinking, have any other countries deregulated their buses the same way Britian did in the 80's?

I know some privatised their bus services, but initiated the franchising system seen in London.

 

[WestCoast]

When I was doing a bit of coach travel around Spain, it appeared that the local buses were indeed municipal or contracted by local government. However, the inter-urban services between towns and villages, plus the ultra long-distance services were indeed unregulated private firms (but they co-operated with each other, selling tickets for each others buses and sharing the same pricing).

I can't think of any fully deregulated markets in Western Europe though.

 

[gordonthemoron]

there is no deregulation in Germany, all public transport is either (local) government owned or contracted (buses & trains, not u-bahn or trams). Also, long distance coach services are regulated too, the only exception being international services

 

[radamfi]

There is a plan to semi-deregulate long distance coaches in Germany. There is currently a loophole where coaches can run to airports for example:

http://www.touring.de/index.php?id=14&L=1

and these can be used for intermediate trips.

There is limited competition for coaches in Ireland, notably Galway to Dublin and Dublin to Belfast. The Irish government have recently announced plans for coach deregulation but not local buses in Dublin or elsewhere.

In eastern/central Europe you get some taxis competing against local buses. Obviously you get jeepney type services in developing countries.

The nearest thing you get to UK deregulation is in New Zealand but that was watered down considerably a few years ago. Sweden are planning a form of deregulation but again that is not really comparable to the UK free for all.

 

[gordonthemoron]

anytime anyone tries to start up long distance coach services in Germany, they get sued by Deutsche Bahn who own the only domestic long distance coach company

 

[WestCoast]

anytime anyone tries to start up long distance coach services in Germany, they get sued by Deutsche Bahn who own the only domestic long distance coach company

Although, I believe there is a work-around involving airports here, since the only private operators are to/from airports. The Bremen Airport - Hamburg coach service, operated by private operator Bus2fly, is apparently allowed to carry intermediate passengers.

 

[radamfi]

Local bus deregulation currently survives in the UK because there is a captive market that is willing to pay high enough levels of bus fare to keep the route viable. This has failed in most of Surrey, for example, because the captive market is too small, possibly due to very high levels of car availability, as well as rail competition and heavy traffic. You would have thought that America would have bus deregulation, as it is the home of capitalism, but in actual fact they don't, presumably because it would not be profitable. American buses are typically heavily subsided with very low fares (typically $1-$2 a single trip including transfers). In America, even poor people usually have cars, so they can't rely on the captive market to generate enough revenue.

Similarly I don't think local bus deregulation would work in, say, the Netherlands, because the fare rises needed to make the service run without subsidy would probably force everyone onto bikes and cars.

 

[Greenback]

Mostly it survives because of political dogma. Plus government money through free and concessionary travel that support many bus routes indirectly.

 

[317 forever]

There is limited competition for coaches in Ireland, notably Galway to Dublin and Dublin to Belfast. The Irish government have recently announced plans for coach deregulation but not local buses in Dublin or elsewhere.

There is also competition between Dublin Bus and First Aircoach between Dublin Airport and the city centre. Dublin Bus run express services to the city centre and local services to the city centre and a few places beyond. First Aircoach run express services to the city centre, continuing to a variety of areas south.

 

[simple simon]

I dont know the full details, but variants of deregulation certainly exist in Holland, Sweden and New Zealand.

I think the first two are more akin to the London system whilst the latter is more like the rest of the British mainland.

Simon

 

[radamfi]

I dont know the full details, but variants of deregulation certainly exist in Holland, Sweden and New Zealand.

I think the first two are more akin to the London system whilst the latter is more like the rest of the British mainland.

Simon

It depends what you call 'deregulation'. I define deregulation to be where any operator can decide what services they run and the local authority cannot (except in extreme circumstances) block it. I therefore find it difficult to see how the Netherlands or London can be considered to be 'deregulated' in any way, as they both involve the local authority specifying a route or network and operators bidding for the privilege of running them. The London system is very controlled by TfL whereas the Dutch system allows operators to have a bit of freedom to innovate, but they still have to stick to agreed parameters and other companies can't compete.

New Zealand had similar deregulation to Britain but more regulation was introduced recently. There weren't so many commercial services in NZ anyway.