A SCHEME to refund bus passengers affected by poor service has been proposed by giant bus company Stagecoach which last year took over Oxford bus firm Thames Transit.

Passengers would get at least twice the fare paid under the scheme, which is part of a Local Bus Service Licence plan put forward by Stagecoach aimed at raising service standards.

Stagecoach would like to see all but the smallest bus companies having to operate under the licence.

Such a scheme would require bus operators to:

Run buses no more than 15 years old

Publish service performance statistics at four-weekly intervals

Be subject to a passenger charter which includes a complaints procedure awarding refunds for poor performance of at least twice the fare of the journey concerned

Co-operate with rival companies on promotion and ticketing.

Stagecoach chairman Brian Souter said: "We firmly believe that a combination of licensed national standards and local partnership initiatives between bus operators and local authorities working together will provide the better bus services needed to help deliver the Government's integrated transport objectives.

"By publishing these proposals, we hope to start a debate which will eventually lead to a licensing system that provides an even better service to local bus customers in the future."

Mr Souter's initiative could be seen as a move to pre-empt any Government plans to bring bus services outside the London area under regulation again.

All non-London services were deregulated in the mid-1980s. London's buses are privatised but still regulated by London Transport.

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