In a few months' time it will be 18 years since the start of bus deregulation (how time flies). What do people think about its effects in Sheffield? What have been the advantages and disadvantages of it? Which routes have benefited and which have lost out as a result of deregulation? Also, what are people's memories of the bus companies which have come and gone in this time?

I was working on the buses at the time as a bus inspector, many small companies sprang up, using old buses which could be bought cheaply, Yorkshire Terrier was set up by a group of ex S.Y.T. emploees, who used redundancy money to start the company. They have now been bought out by Yorkshire Traction, and I think most of the original members did quite well out of it.
One of the big problems was only being to get timetable information from the companies about thier own services, the days of an overall timetable for all routes was gone. The private companies only wanted to run on profitable routes, the less well used one had to be subsidised by the P.T.E, or dropped altogether if the P.T.E. thought it not viable. A lot of people in more remote areas saw a big reduction in service.
The other big effect of course was the scrapping of cheap fares, a disaster for any government claiming to want more people to use public transport. I could go on for ever, but the typing finger is starting to ache!

Meh, as if the buses aren't bad enough already...