Local authorities, bus operators, unions and transport campaigners have joined forces to plead with the Government to maintain Whitehall funding.
Bus travel accounts for two thirds of public transport journeys every day, according to research commissioned by the Government.
The industry as a whole is under investigation by the Competition Commission.
But this inquiry is being conducted against a backdrop of a public spending squeeze, which has led to fears that the £437 million a year Bus Services Operators Grant could be scrapped.
Campaigners fear that this cash could go even though the Coalition is expected to allow the elderly to continue to enjoy free off-peak travel.
“Scrapping BSOG could do for Britain’s buses today what Beeching did for the UK rail network in the 1960s,” said Stephen Joseph, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport.
“In many areas, it could tip buses into a spiral of decline with fares rises, falling patronage and service cuts, all with impacts on some of the poorest in society.
“It would trap people into dependence on cars and add to local traffic problems. Pensioners could find themselves with free bus passes but no buses on which to use them“.

Again, as with the increase in rail fares, how is this going to help the "green" agenda they're trying so hard to promote?

I believe it was a former Conservative Prime Minister who said 'Anyone riding a bus over the the age of 25 should consider themselves a failure'.

Conservatives don't like public transport. Never have.

That could have been Thatcher. The problem is that while the Conservatives may hate public transport, its demise will drive up the costs of employing staff and reduce their profits. Typical short sighted Conservative thinking.

Thatcher and her lackey Tebbit only required you to a have a bicycle, no other form of public transport involved …

That could have been Thatcher. The problem is that while the Conservatives may hate public transport, its demise will drive up the costs of employing staff and reduce their profits. Typical short sighted Conservative thinking.

The entire policy of predict and provide in road building, to which we hear the Conservatives are returning, led to the huge interest in the motor car to the exclusion of all forms of public transport.
The hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) said that the Conservatives had no policy on buses, but that is hardly surprising in view of the most famous quote of all time about the buses, delivered by Margaret Thatcher when the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale was working in Conservative central office as her speech writer. This is what she said in 1986:


"A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure".

Was the hon. Gentleman responsible for writing that?

That could have been Thatcher. The problem is that while the Conservatives may hate public transport, its demise will drive up the costs of employing staff and reduce their profits. Typical short sighted Conservative thinking.

thank god for that far thinking visionary Labour government of the last 13 years that ensured a fair and equitable public transport sytem thats in place now... oh sorry I must have been in another dimension.

Lets not ignore the fact that the previous governmnet stood by and let and in some cases encouraged the stranglehold of two companies over the public transport over the majority of the country.