#Railnatter

Author: Gareth Dennis

Join railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis plus a wide range of guests on his semi-topical weekly talk show about all things rail... This podcast is uploaded after the live (or live-ish) show has finished on YouTube at 8pm (UK time) on Wednesdays.
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The man who destroyed Britain's buses | #Railnatter 282
Episode 281
Wednesday, 12 November, 2025

We need a laugh (?) so this week we are going through a report written by Professor John Hibbs for the IEA (the bad one) nearly twenty years ago, and twenty years after Britain's buses were deregulated outside of London and proceeded to be completely decimated, where they weren't engaging in outright urban combat. In its pages, we see why he and the IEA maniacs think that deregulation was great, and why moving away from it would be a disaster. As the architect of deregulation, Hibbs was (RIP) a dangerous, dogmatic extremist who has caused untold misery to millions, but reading this will be extremely funny because what he has written is extremely and obviously stupid and his elevation makes a mockery of academic transport "science". Hahahaha (cries). Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways