Hypothetically, how would bus professionals feel if ...

[Deleted]

... Metroline, having now acquired most of First's London bus franchises, went on to somehow acquire all other London bus franchises, and then, seeing that Metroline was now the sole operator of London's red buses, London Buses itself sought to acquire the London Buses part of Metroline's business and so we would be almost back to the good old days of centralized control. Good or bad?

[snoggle]

TfL has to sign off on any sale of London bus businesses given they are the principal source of income for these businesses and for competition reasons. TfL signed off on the Metroline acquisition of part of First London so I assume they are not unduly concerned about the impact on competition.

TfL does not have the money to expand the bus network so where on earth would it find about £80m-100m to buy out Metroline? If you know then please say where the "money tree" is growing?! The Mayor is not sympathetic to public ownership of bus companies by TfL given he instructed the sale of East Thames Buses. I may well upset some people here but East Thames never really lived up to its "show the private sector how to do things better" billing that Mayor Livingstone gave it. Your buy out scenario is simply a fantasy.

And who says there isn't centralised control these days? TfL are in control of the money and that means they are in ultimate control despite the operators being privately owned. The "good old days" never really existed - LT had a dire reputation for service quality and reliability in the 70s and 80s. The bus crews might have had fun dashing to the greencrocers part way round a bus route (as mentioned in the Routemasters programme) but what did that ever do for the passenger? At least there is a focus (usually) on actually running the service these days because the bus companies don't get any money if they don't.