Local Transport Bill [HL]

I am sorry that I missed a foretaste of this debate among Labour Party Members on this Committee the other day. I very much support these amendments in the name of my noble friend Lord Rosser. As he said, they are very similar in intent to what has been done with railway passengers. My noble friend Lord Snape said that there has never been a case of operators defaulting. That may be true, but there was not a case of operators defaulting or failing on the railways until Connex did it. Then there were powers in railway legislation for the Government to take it over until they could find another operator.