(14 Mar 2022, 5:55 pm)DeltaMan wrote Burnham has pulled a bit of a fast one here. The £2 is reliant on BSIP funding. He knows if he doesn't get a settlement then its a proper dust up with Westminster

Some areas have been told in advance what their BSIP allocations will be. Manchester probably know.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Cheap fares, means less revenue, means local tax payer needs to contribute more. If it generates demand, then more resources needed to move that demand, which in turn will only be viable if a specific level of increased demand is met.

There is headline cheap and then unsustainable cheap, fear this is the latter.

Unfortunately, people see London as the pinnacle of how it should be, yet don't realise how much Central Gov funding is needed (even pre-COVID) to support the operation. Burnham won't have that Central pot to bail him out.

Short term, expect lots of high fives and positive news. After a few years, cutbacks, curtailments etc after the initial funding pool dries up and they need to balance the books.