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Shropshire buses and coaches
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10. Easing the regulations: 1981 to 1985
Did the reduction of regulations help bus companies?
Company freedom1980 was another landmark year in the story. The Transport Act of that year loosened the restrictions on newcomers applying for operators' licences and deregulated all coach travel involving journeys of over thirty miles in length. The scene was set for new operators to try out inventive solutions to the declining bus industry such as rural minibuses and taxi-buses. In Oswestry two companies were given licences to run the same town services in competition with each other in 1984, whilst in neighbouring Herefordshire the government set up a test bed for full bus deregulation in 1985. The large constituent companies within the National Bus Company were split into smaller units to act as local cost centres prior to being privatised and sold off. Midland Red was split into five parts and Crosville into two. There events were preludes to the wholesale deregulation of the bus industry in October 1986. ContinueFind out how the introduction of competition changed things: Next |
Page created February 2004 and last updated 1 August 2007
