MERSEYSIDE will today be promised "London-style" powers to decide bus routes and fares to end the chaos caused by 20 years of private operators.
Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander will unveil radical changes allowing transport authorities to seize control of bus services by awarding a contract to a single firm.
The move will delight Merseytravel, which submitted its own plans to effectively reregulate its bus network to the Government back in July.
Mr Alexander hopes ending the "free-for-all" at bus stops will reverse an alarming decline in passengers outside London - the only area that escaped deregulation in 1986.
A Whitehall source said: "This will end the bus wars and give punters what they want - a reliable bus that turns up on time.
"Authorities will be able to franchise services on particular routes to particular companies, which will then allow them to decide the level of fares and the frequency.
"We want to get more people onto buses and, at the moment, quite understandably in some areas, fewer people are using them."
The shake-up - billed as the biggest since deregulation in 1986 - follows years of rising complaints about the effects of allowing private firms to decide which services to run.
Under deregulation, fares within metropolitan areas - including Merseyside - have risen by 85% over 20 years, while the number of passengers has plunged by 50%.
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