(04 Apr 2022, 8:00 pm)busmanT wrote We should be rejoicing at the amount the North East has been given!
(bearing in mind that there is also £600m waiting for the North East in the City Region Sustainable Travel Settlement, once the region gets its act together on an elected mayor).

Although it's not the full amount asked for (local authorities always overbid of course) £89.7m (almost £30m per year) will go a long way towards improving services and reducing fares. It would, for example, fund an extra 150 all day buses (7 days per week) without any offsetting revenue!

And almost £74m on bus priority measures will see some significant improvement in journey times for bus passengers - provided that local councillors don't object to individual schemes. 

I wonder what the "new and consistent brand for The Partnership that will be applied across the network, so that it becomes a recognisable symbol of public transport for the North East" will be?

It does, of course, need the operators to play their part through the Enhanced Partnership.
https://www.transportnortheast.gov.uk/wp..._FINAL.pdf
https://www.transportnortheast.gov.uk/en...rtnership/

It's probably unhelpful to look at the proposed CRSTS as making up the BSIP shortfall here, given that the two schemes funding are completely separate - as are the objectives of each. In my opinion, it's only been put together in the DfT's press release to cloud over that the Bus Back Better funding was slashed from £3bn to just over £1bn.

If we ever get our hands on the CRSTS money, there'll only be a fraction of it spent on buses, the sheer scope of what that money has to cover, including funding to councils to maintain and repair the existing state of their roads. Tees Valley are allocating around £40m of their £310m to buses.

We also know that Transport North East's major objective is the reopening of the Leamside and extension of Metro services, which will presumably have to come out of this money.

The almost £74m on bus priority is of course a good thing, but there's now a big decision to choose which of the schemes listed in the BSIP gets funding. Two of the most expensive schemes, West Newcastle and the Coast Road, are likely to be the most deserving, but I'd expect other councillors to argue support for schemes within their authority area.

I'm not convinced the near £89m over 3 years will go very, nor will it be sustainable, unless there's rapid growth like we've never seen before. The example of 150 extra buses running all day, 7 days a week, sounds great, but it doesn't take into account the ambition around fare reduction and capping. I don't think its unfair to assume that operators won't be taking a financial hit out of the good of their heart, and a proportion of the money is going to have to subsidise these cheaper fares and price caps.

£163m is clearly better than nothing at all, but rejoicing in acceptance of 20% funding doesn't exactly match the ambition of the BSIP!

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk