Nottingham's Buses, Are Municipal Bus Operators Better? 

I worked for NCT from 1985 to 1995, including during the privatisation debacle, ‘bus wars’ as they were referred to locally. From my perspective as an ex driver, the privatisation model was a disgrace. Their drivers were paid much less with no pensions, sick pay etc and many of them were drivers NCT had sacked for various reasons including poor driving and dishonesty. Private fleet was old and substandard. The private companies only operated on profitable routes and as busier times. Ultimately, privatisation made large shareholder profits for the privatised companies while reducing staff pay and quality of fleet. The difference in ethic can be summed up in the change of name from ‘bus service’ to ‘bus company’ or ‘bus business’. Give me a council owned transport network every time! I would also extend exactly the same argument to the privatisation of the train companies which has also been a disaster from start to finish. And also to the creeping privatisation of the NHS which is well under way.

Some of the profit goes into the city and some of the remaining goes into investment of new vehicles. This keeps nct modern. Also heavy investment in the bio buses has made nct the world's largest fleet in the world. Meaning, the most vehicles by one operator in a single area. London may have more vehicles but they are split up into smaller fleets.

The Nottingham Express Transit (NET) could extend to East Midlands International Airport and East Midlands Parkway. And maybe extend to Derby.

Arriva Yorkshire satisfaction 2019: 90% Arriva Yorkshire satisfaction 2022: 9%

In fact it's egsat fire only on nct