(06 Dec 2020, 1:10 pm)cbma06 wrote I hope the daytime bus company that does the services commercially during the day doesn’t get the evening or Sunday services under secured contract
If the bus company does the daytime service and say it’s evening service is not viable to run, why should the taxpayer funds the evening service for the same operator to still run it, I thought GNE mentioned awhile ago that there were prepared to take back some evening services, Has GNE taken back any of the evening/Sunday services which there mentioned awhile ago?
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Why not?
Both Go North East and Stagecoach have evening/Sunday services in this batch of tenders, and if another operator (regardless of who it is) is awarded the contract, the only person that loses out is the customer. It is complex and difficult for customers to understand, and quite often the daytime operators' tickets aren't valid on the evening/Sunday service (unless they pay Nexus to accept them). The daytime operator certainly doesn't lose out if they do not operate this contract currently (which they don't, Gateshead Central Taxis do) as they've already made the decision not to operate them on a commercial basis as they've deemed those journeys not commercially viable.
There's no bias at all here, as I'd argue the same even if Go North East operated the Stagecoach service 32A on evenings and Sundays, despite the fact that when Go North East did operate this contract last, they allocated Euro 6 Wright Streetlites, which are newer and of a higher customer specification (Wi-Fi, USB charging points and next stop announcements) than the Stagecoach buses allocated during the day.