🚍 From the Plimsoll Line to the Bus Bill: 150 Years and Still Fighting for Safety Over Profit

In 1875, Samuel Plimsoll stood in the House of Commons and thundered the words:

> “I am determined to unmask the villains who send to death and destruction.”

He was fighting against shipowners who knowingly sent overloaded, unsafe vessels to sea — putting profit above human life. His courage led to the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, a landmark in public safety and accountability.

A century and a half later, we face a strikingly similar battle — only now, the arena is our bus network, not the high seas.

Despite years of campaigning by bus drivers, trade unions, safety advocates, and campaigners like Tom Kearney (#LondonBusWatch), the Government has stripped every major safety clause from the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill. These included proposals to:

Publish bus safety performance data quarterly

Give drivers access to confidential incident reporting (CIRAS)

Limit excessive driving hours

Ensure qualified oversight within franchising authorities

Every one of these measures was grounded in established best practice — in London, they’ve been in place for a decade. Yet the Government blocked them all.

It’s a bitter irony that Transport for London, once dismissed as a bureaucratic obstacle, now stands as the only region consistently publishing safety data. Meanwhile, authorities like Greater Manchester Combined Authority have refused to release even basic safety information under the Freedom of Information Act — citing “commercial interests” as justification for secrecy.

As Tom rightly pointed out to me this week, we’re watching history repeat itself. When decisions about safety transparency are left to local or political discretion, the default is silence.

But just as Plimsoll refused to accept silence in 1875, we shouldn’t accept it now.

This isn’t about politics or procedure — it’s about people’s lives.

Every bus driver, every passenger, every pedestrian deserves a system that values safety over profit and openness over convenience.

If Parliament won’t act, then Combined Authorities must. And if they won’t, the public will keep demanding to know what they’re hiding and why.

Because the moral principle remains unchanged since 1875:

No one’s life should be the price of someone else’s profit.

—

Lee Odams

RMT Bus Branch Secretary – Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Buses

RMT National Busworkers Industrial Conference Secretary