Not surprised the operators are speaking out in favour - less commercial risk for them. We're not going to see a return to pre COVID levels for sometime and that will put a strain on the coffers.

Franchising and local control is seen as some big evil and it worked for a long long time up here with the PTE and it worked really well. The concern of course would be Gannon and Co and Nexus being in charge of the implementation. Just look at the utter farce that is the lack of regionwide smart cards or contactless.

None of it really addresses the age old problem of tempting car users out of their cars (and away from taxis) onto buses but it's a start.