(11 Jun 2023, 10:28 pm)Countydurhambuses wrote Demand responsive transport has been working in quite a few areas, tees flex in the north east always seems to be about so with the plans to create a north east combined authority do you think we could ever get a regionwide DRT? Likely it would only work if most companies accept to receive funding to run a combined DRT network for local areas but it could be better than the current funding of under used buses in the area while still giving smaller towns and villages transport options. The problem with a lot of areas here especially the west of county durham and northumberland is that the population density is very low these small communities could easily be connected to bigger towns with DRT allowing them to access the wider bus network.

The choice is likely to be taken out of their hands. Looking at the vote share across the region, the Mayor elected next May is most likely going to be the Labour candidate. The front-runner has already committed to urgently taking buses back into public control.

I remain to be convinced about DRT vs other options, such as redistributing the network, but clearly we need to find a sensible way of serving these smaller communities and not cutting them off.