Buses

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Mind The Gap: Britain's Transport Divide. For more than 30 years buses in the UK have run under two systems. In London, a powerful transport authority commissions and pays for bus routes it deems necessary. Outside the capital it is up to the bus companies which routes they run and to local authorities which gaps to fill, if they are able. In the first of two episodes on Britain's transport divide, public transport user and non-driver Lynsey Hanley rides the bus and speaks to bus users in one of the UK's most isolated communities- which is bounded by not one but two motorways- visits the English city least well served by public transport and hears from the local authority that tried and failed to regain control of its buses. She finds a country where in one corner there is a world class public bus system and the rest; where there isn't and concludes this is not merely a matter of inconvenience.