Bags on buses

I took a bus to Victoria station last Friday and had to edge past two men standing in the aisle beyond the driver. One of them was standing next to two huge suitcases that he had managed to heave onto the railed luggage holder and he clearly did not want to abandon them to possible thieves. The other man had carefully placed two orange carrier bags, each on their own seat and was hovering over them like a fussy parent. So is there a way that one could solve the problems of security and the inconvenience of having to lift heavy bags onto a raised platform and then subsequently managing to get the bags off the bus. Do we need to accompany our bags or could they travel unaccompanied? Could we secure them without having to watch them fade to face? There were empty seats but they didn't dare use them.

This is a picture I took on the bus.