Finally, a route out of bus privatisation | Letters

Philip Bisatt and Fran Postlethwaite hope that Andy Burnham’s move to end the deregulation of bus services in Greater Manchester will be adopted by other transport authorities

It is good to read that bus deregulation is to end in Greater Manchester, 35 years after being introduced by the 1985 Transport Act (Greater Manchester bus services to be brought under public control, 25 March).

Bus deregulation has arguably been one of the worst legacies of the Thatcher years. A policy adopted in virtually no other western democracy, which managed simultaneously to deprive most of the country of evening and Sunday services, prevent integration between buses and trains, and widen regional disparities (since buses were never deregulated in London, or indeed, Northern Ireland).