Local Transport Bill [HL]

I hope that my noble friend will acknowledge the difference between railway franchising and the legislation that brought that into being and the legislation before the Committee. They are as chalk and cheese. They might refer to methods of transport, but the sort of provisions and difficulties to which my noble friend referred were envisaged and drawn up as part of the railway franchising process. They have not been for ““bus franchising””—if that is the right term of quality contracts, which I believe it is.