Bus passengers will have weaker legal rights than rail passengers, despite a government pledge that they would be treated equally by a new public transport watchdog.

People who make complaints about bus services will have no right of appeal to an independent body. They will have to take their complaints to an organisation funded by the bus industry. Rail passengers, in contrast, are able to appeal to Passenger Focus, a well-regarded independent body.

The Department for Transport is planning to give Passenger Focus some responsibility for promoting the interests of bus passengers but is refusing to allow it to consider complaints appeals. The Campaign for Better Transport said that the Government was treating bus passengers like second-class citizens in order to save money.

Cat Hobbs, a campaign representative, said: “Passenger Focus will lack credibility [among bus passengers] if it doesn’t deal with complaints appeals. The industry-funded Bus Appeals Body is not independent, well known or passenger friendly.

Buses receive less than half the public subsidy granted to the rail network despite carrying twice as many passengers. Some passenger groups believe that bus travel still suffers from a stigma that was fuelled in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher’s reported remark that a man over 30 who was still catching the bus was a failure in life.

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