We say: fully nationalise public transport
by Dara Fitzgerald, West London Socialist Party and London Regional Committee
Transport for London (TfL)’s 2026 business plan raised the prospect of setting up a “publicly owned bus company”. TfL is under the control of Labour mayor Sadiq Khan, and is responsible for the capital’s public transport network.
Londoners will know the experience: waiting for buses that never turn up and, when they do, crowding into them like sardines. London largely escaped the mass bus privatisation and deregulation Margaret Thatcher enacted in 1986. In cities outside of London, bus passenger numbers have dropped by over 50% since privatisation, despite the population growing by 21%. The centralisation under TfL of bus routes has undoubtedly led to a better situation in London than the rest of the country – London bus journeys doubled in that same period.
Currently, TfL operates bus services and routes in the ‘franchising’ system, where private bus companies bid to take on routes in a tendering process. TfL awards the contract to what it considers the most suitable bid. Private bus companies try to maximise their profits from these contracts by cutting costs – which includes driving down workers’ pay and conditions.
Failures of privatisation
Khan’s move towards creating a publicly owned bus company may seem like a shift from him to the left, but in many ways, TfL has been forced towards this measure. Bus companies are increasingly exiting early from contracts or turning down picking routes up as there is no money to be made for them, as their ‘margins’ are getting tighter.
As it stands, the details of the plan are currently very thin. While bringing failed tenders ‘in-house’ is a step forward, why stop there? Khan could standardise the pay and conditions of all London bus drivers. As it stands, drivers at different companies are played off against each other to prevent collective industrial action and bump up the profits of the bus companies. Khan could make this a condition of tendering immediately, with a publicly owned bus company taking the routes if not. As it stands, Khan’s record has not been stellar – tube workers have taken strike action to defend their pay and conditions, and he has stood on the side of the bosses when workers have taken strike action against bus companies, such as against victimisation at Lea Interchange in recent months.
Nationalise public transport
Why not bring the whole bus and train network fully into public ownership, on a democratic basis, with workers themselves in control over transportation? These policies also cannot be paid for with ‘cost-cutting measures’ such as reducing services or cutting down on staff. If Khan doesn’t have the money to invest in the vital transport system of the capital, he should send the bill direct to Keir Starmer’s desk.
Kicking out private companies from all areas of our transport network – from cleaners to bus drivers – would enable the investment for the free, good quality and environmentally friendly public transport system we need without private companies extracting profits from it. On the recent strikes at Lea Interchange by bus drivers organised in Unite, workers had “nationalise the buses under workers’ control” on their banner. We need that, not just in London but across the country. However, it’s not on the agenda for Labour, which Unite continues its affiliation to. A number of the Lea Interchange workers are preparing to stand in May’s local elections, pointing towards the mass workers’ party with socialist policies that is needed. A fully nationalised high-quality public transport system, including buses and trains, with the investment needed to make it free and work for us not the bosses.