Bus transport in the United Kingdom

Buses play a major role in the public transport of the United Kingdom, as well as seeing extensive private use. While rail transport has increased over the past twenty years due to road congestion, the same does not apply to buses, which have generally been used less, apart from in London where their use has increased significantly. Bus transport is subsidised, with subsidies including concessionary travel accounting for around 45 per cent of operator revenue, especially in London.
In 2014/15, there were 5.20 billion bus journeys in the UK, 2.4 billion of which were in London. The UK bus network has shrunk by 8% over the past decade due to government subsidy cuts and a reduction in commercial operations in the north of England.

History

The horse bus era

The first omnibus service in the United Kingdom was started by John Greenwood between Pendleton and Manchester in 1824. Stagecoach services, sometimes over short distances, had existed for many years. Greenwood's innovation was to offer a service which did not require booking in advance, and which picked up and set down passengers en route. Greenwood did not use the term omnibus, which was first used in France in 1826.

In 1829 George Shillibeer started the first omnibus service in London. Over the next few decades, horse bus services developed in London, Manchester and other cities. They became bigger, and double deck buses were introduced in the 1850s. The growth of suburban railways, and later horse trams (from 1860) and electric trams (from 1885) changed the patterns of horse bus services, but horse buses continued to flourish. By 1900 there were 3,676 horse buses in London.

The first motor buses

There were experiments with steam buses in the 1830s, but harsh legislation in 1861 virtually eliminated mechanically propelled road transport from Britain until the law was changed in 1896. From 1897 various experimental motor bus services were operated with petrol-driven vehicles, including a service in Edinburgh which ran from 1898 to 1901. In 1903 motor bus services were started in Eastbourne, and in the same year a motor bus service was started between Helston and The Lizard by the Great Western Railway .

Motor bus services grew quickly, and soon eclipsed the horse buses. Early operators were the tramway companies, e.g. the British Electric Traction Company, and the railway companies. In London, the horse bus companies, the London General Omnibus Company and Thomas Tilling, introduced motor buses in 1902 and 1904, and the National Steam Car Company started steam bus services in 1909. By the time of the First World War, BET had begun to emerge as a national force.

Between the wars

By the time of the First World War, the LGOC had achieved dominance in London, and its two major competitors, Tilling and National (in 1919 renamed National Omnibus and Transport Company) looked elsewhere for expansion. After the war, many bus companies were started by ex-servicemen who had learnt mechanics in the Army. The 1920s were an era of intense competition, but BET, Tilling and National gradually acquired more companies. Tilling had shares in BET as well as competing with BET, and in 1928 the two companies formed Tilling & British Automobile Traction Co., which continued its acquisitions. At the end of the 1920s the railways mostly ceased direct bus operation, but acquired interests in many bus companies. The National transferred its operations to three companies jointly owned with the railways, Eastern National, Southern National and Western National.

The Road Traffic Act 1930 ended the period of competition and introduced a new system of regulation of bus services. One effect was to eliminate many of the smaller operators. In 1931, Tilling acquired control of the National. In England outside London and towns where municipalities ran their own buses, the industry was dominated by Tilling, BET and their joint company TBAT. In Scotland, Scottish Motor Traction came to be the dominant force.

In London, including the surrounding area up to 30 miles from London, bus services were effectively nationalised in 1933, when operations were compulsorily transferred to the new London Passenger Transport Board.

In 1942, TBAT was wound up, and its companies transferred to Tilling.

Nationalisation

The post-war Labour government embarked on a programme of nationalisation of transport. Under the Transport Act 1947, the British Transport Commission acquired the bus services of Thomas Tilling, Scottish Motor Traction and the large independent Red & White. By the nationalisation of the railways, the BTC also acquired interests in many of BET's bus companies, but BET was not forced to sell its companies and they were not nationalised.

In 1962 the BTC's bus companies were transferred to the Transport Holding Company. Then in 1968 BET sold its UK bus companies to the Transport Holding Company. Almost all of the UK bus industry was by then owned by the government or by municipalities.

Bus passenger numbers declined in the 1960s. The Transport Act 1968 was an attempt to rationalise publicly owned bus services and provide a framework for the subsidy of uneconomic but socially necessary services. The Act:
* transferred the English and Welsh bus companies of the Transport Holding Company to the new National Bus Company
* transferred the country services of London Transport to the NBC.
* transferred the Scottish bus companies of the THC to the Scottish Transport Group
* transferred municipal bus operations in the 5 large metropolitan areas outside London to new Passenger Transport Executives, together with some operations of THC companies in those areas.

Crewed buses and the move to Driver-Only Operation

Crewed buses, with a driver and conductor (colloquially known as a clippie) were very common in the United Kingdom until the mid-1960s, when labour shortages made recruitment and retention of conductors and drivers more difficult. The Ministry of Transport incentivised bus companies to purchase driver-only buses with the New Bus Grant, which was only available for One-Man-Operation buses, crewed buses began to decline across during the 1970s as rear-door buses were gradually phased out at the end of their useful lives, with buses mostly phased out by 1980.

Crewed buses enjoyed a brief repreive in 1986 as London Transport disposed of its routemaster buses - many of these were bought by bus companies in the provinces to be used to gain market share from competitors. Crewed buses were then phased out again as on-road competition died off and costs were cut. Contrary to popular belief, the last crewed bus service in Great Britain was not a routemaster bus in London, but the Tayway bus service operated by Stagecoach. These buses were conventional Driver-Only Operation bus vehicles, with a conductor onboard to collect fares. This service lasted until 2020 when the conductor was removed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Privatisation and deregulation

In 1980 the new Thatcher government embarked on a programme of deregulation and privatisation of bus services. The National Bus Company and Scottish Transport Group divided some of their larger subsidiaries into more saleable units. In 1986, under the Transport Act 1985, all bus services apart from those in London and Northern Ireland were deregulated. The NBC's and STG's subsidiaries were then sold, in most cases to their management and employees.

Bus services in London were transferred to a new company, London Buses in 1984, split into smaller companies in 1989 and then privatised. The PTEs were also required to sell their bus operations. Local authorities had to transfer their buses to arms length companies, some of which (but not all) were sold off.

Post deregulation, the intended model had been for competition between private companies to increase services. Regulations prevented neighbouring state owned companies being sold to the same concern, to create a 'patch-work' distribution of the operating areas. Competition law prevented private companies acquiring more than a certain percentage of geographical market share.

Competition did occur in many areas, in some cases causing bus wars. However, many of the smaller start up operators were bought up by their larger neighbours after a few years. After some initial mergers, five large bus groups emerged - two (FirstGroup

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