(19 Jul 2023, 2:26 pm)busmanT wrote Tees Valley is a different combined authority which gets its own funding stream (BSIP+) and can make its own decisions on how to use the money.

For those who want to travel across the boundary between the “North East Combined Authority” and the “Tees Valley Combined Authority” there are still operators own tickets and Explorer.

---

 
If the new fares attract new passengers then the sticking plaster won’t need to be as big. 

I'm a big fan of lower fares. 
But as we've seen many times already, lower fares don't guarantee success. 
They're only part of the cure.

The biggest issue is finding out where passengers are going and needing to be and adapting the network to suit.
There's that famous map at Beamish of the Northern network way back when.
It's not really changed much in all the years since, despite huge population, demographic, workplace and culture changes.

Nobody went anywhere on a Sunday, they all went to town/city centres for the shopping and those who worked, generally worked in the major local employer.
We all know that's not the case now and if we are honest, a lower priced day ticket and a couple of additional bus lanes/traffic lights, that do nothing but inconvenience car drivers, isn't going to make that much difference in the grand scheme of things.