(19 Nov 2023, 11:47 am)RobinHood wrote In the face of all local authorities in this area doing absolutely sod all in respect of bus priority schemes, unfortunately the operator is left to pick up and pieces and try to make it work, yet again...

Every one of the authorities and political leaders in this region, already do and will continue to beat bus operators with a stick for not running on time, but not one has done anything meaningful in respect of bus priority.

Congestion unfortunately continues to increase and blight our major towns and cities, with buses end up sat in the same traffic as everyone else.

To boil this down, this proposal is essentially Arriva trying to get these services to work reliably again, which unfortunately means extra time = slower journeys.

Local highways authorities need to play their part, but they never will, as politically it would be suicidal to go against the private motorist. 

Expect more of this type of thing to be honest, from all operators.

Many local authorities have done this though. 
Whether it's bus lanes or bus priority measures - we've seen operators ignore them (Wardley Bus Gate and Centrelink as two examples) . Or, we've seen pollution increase (Newcastle City Centre being evident in many of the pollution hot-spot lists). 

It also pushes the narrative that public transport is only better, if travelling in the private car is made difficult. 
Isn't public transport strong enough to stand on its own two feet, without pointing the finger and acting like a petulant child? 
Don't they have enough nous in the industry to come up with something good - that doesn't involve standing with their begging bowl that helps fund new vehicles, a fancier ticket machine that links to an app or WiFi options?