A month or so ago I visited Manchester, a city where I lived for a few years in the early 1980s. The orange buses of that time have given way to the corporate liveries of First and Stagecoach, while the Tram - an artist's impression when I lived there - has become a reality.
What struck me about Manchester is that although deregulation is much in evidence, the bus services by and large appear to be frequent and well patronised, even during the late evening (unlike Colchester where buses all but disappear after 7 pm). You may well say that this is because Manchester is a big city (it is) but I think it goes beyond that. Manchester has a dedicated authority co-ordinating transport (the PTE) whereas Colchester - and Essex - does not.
Given that deregulation shows no signs of going away, I feel there is an argument for setting up Passenger Transport Executives for non-urban areas. These would be independent of the local authorities and might even be set up to cover a region (e.g. East Anglia) rather than individual counties. Establishing a regional transport authority would also address the issue of bus services terminating abruptly at county boundaries, often when there is a more obvious destination a short distance away in the next county.
At the moment, local authority support for bus services has to compete with other demands within that authority - such as Social Services, Education and Libraries. Establishing a PTE would remove that element and allow strategic planning of the transport network. If the PTE were to cover a region, there might also be an argument for it to assume responsibility for determining rail franchises.
My visit to Manchester has left me with the impression that we have a three tier transport system in this country, based on where one lives. The regulated London system (70p for any distance outside zone 1 as opposed to £1:20 per mile in Colchester), the PTE co-ordinated systems in the former metropolitan counties and the free for all in the shires, the diverse attitudes to public transport support generally mitigating against comprehensive transport provision. It's time to redress the balance.