Pouring rain as I dash to the Hilton Hotel for the – yes wait for it – Bus Industry Awards. I get hundreds of invites to things as a GLA Member and particularly in my roles as Chair of Transport and Member of the Met Police Authrority.

I only accept the ones I ‘should’ be at to fulfil my roles. This is one such. I want to show support to the bus industry so I am there.

Transdev have invited me so I am on their table. Bill Morris is handing out the awards. An editor from Newsnight is the compare and each award is sponsored. I actually quite like these type of events and believe they are important for the industry concerned.

Richard Bowker of the former SRA (so to speak) was the key note speaker – but I thought he got it entirely wrong as he was comparing the industries and saying how great it was that access to the rail network had improved etc.

My view on those ‘improvements’ is that it means less services for the customer – easier profits for the operators. I very much hope the bus industry does not follow that route. Also a lot of talk about buses being regulated as per the London experience across the rest of the country. As one speaker pointed out – probably supremo Peter TfL Suface Transport Hendy – no use having regulation without the support of the partners in terms of congestion relief, enforcement and so on.

Lunch was good too!