Today marks 30 years since the Thatcher government deregulated the bus industry.

In doing so, it created a free-for-all in which the market for bus services in this country has become one of the most privatised and profit-driven in the world.

It is curious, given Scotland's steadfast opposition to Thatcherism, that the SNP government in Edinburgh should be among the last adherents to that model.

Bus remains the most popular form of public transport in Scotland. Yet, as Transport Scotland's own figures have shown, since 2007 the number of bus journeys has dropped by 74 million and 66 million vehicle kilometres have been slashed from routes.

Over the past five years fares have gone up by 18% on current prices.

Deregulation has not worked for passengers and there is a compelling case for intervention. Twice in the past nine years Scottish Labour has brought forward plans that would have delivered re-regulation and prevented the further decline of bus services. Twice the SNP failed to support us.

Meanwhile at Westminster, the Bus Services Bill making its way through Parliament would give certain city mayors in England new powers to suspend indefinitely the deregulated market.

Labour in the House of Lords, with Liberal Democrat support, recently amended the Bill to in a bid to ensure that every local authority in England would gain the same powers to intervene as the city-regions.

The Tory Bus Bill is by no means perfect but the renewed prospect of public control of bus services in some of England's major cities shows just how far Scotland has fallen behind the regulatory curve.

If the Tories and Lib Dems at Holyrood re-evaluate their position on regulation, as their counterparts in Westminster have done, then a majority for intervening in bus markets, along the lines proposed by Labour, could be assembled in the Scottish Parliament too.

The tide is turning, a consensus is emerging and the SNP's position on bus regulation has simply become untenable.

Right now in Scotland bus companies can slash services with little or no consultation, as we have seen in Glasgow this week, whilst passengers are expected to take a back seat as the bus barons chase profits.

In London, services continue to be regulated to a high standard and are well integrated with the rest of the city's public transport network.

In Edinburgh and the Lothians, councils managed to keep Lothian Buses in public ownership and now provide the best bus services in Scotland.

London and Edinburgh have proven that public control of buses can and does work. We can secure a better deal for passengers and deliver a first-class service to the travelling public without relying on the market.

When in power in Scotland, Labour boosted the bus sector massively with the introduction of nationwide concessionary travel and took the first steps to roll back deregulation.

Now, as a minimum, we want to see bus operators obliged to consult meaningfully with communities before making substantial service changes or withdrawing valued and vital bus routes altogether. It is far too easy for bus companies to walk away from routes that people depend on and that has to change.

The SNP government could also legislate for a statutory code of conduct for bus operators, requirements on bus companies to be part of a transparent national complaints procedure, a common framework for reporting on service reliability and they could give bus users a real voice in how services are run with a strengthened passenger-powered watchdog.

If we want to bring real, transformative change to public transport then we should also give local transport authorities the power to go even further.

Everywhere in Scotland should have automatic, London-style bus franchising powers. That means the power to create a system where the public sector specifies what services the bus companies can provide.

The franchising model works across Europe because it allows transport authorities properly to co-ordinate public transport and requires the bus companies to deliver high levels of service if they want to get into the market. In practice, it can mean joined-up journeys, affordable travel, integrated ticketing, improved accessibility, greener buses and socially necessary services run together with profitable ones.

Bus franchising can be cost-effective too, curbing excessive profits from bus operators to reinvest in the network and making better use of public subsidies.

Already 45% of bus operator revenue, around £297m, comes from local and central government and increasingly we are seeing commercial routes supplanted by publicly-funded, tendered services.

Franchising authorities could pool some of those subsidies into a single pot to purchase clearer, more defined services from operators and they could design contracts which allow less busy routes to be cross-subsidised with income from busier ones.

Equally, the franchising model could eliminate wasteful duplication of services on some routes and end the leakage of public subsidies into profit-making enterprises, taking taxpayers for a ride.

Thatcher's deregulated market is not working but there are alternatives - proven, popular, democratically accountable alternatives. There are better, fairer ways of delivering bus services in Scotland, with a genuine transport policy that puts passengers first.

Comment by Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour's transport spokesman. Neil is an MSP for the West of Scotland.