(31 Mar 2024, 2:08 pm)Adrian wrote  
Is it the people that are bad, or is it the direction that they're under? 

I've no doubt that Nexus, TNE and all the operators have some excellent people working for them, but look at the direction they're under. Nexus and Transport North East both dance to the tune played by the JTC, and there's just no direction from the membership of that. Looking at the membership, I don't believe any of them even use public transport. 

With the main operators, to me, it's more that they've all lost sight of the primary objective of what they exist for. I follow Go North East more than I do anyone else, and it's bloody evident that the Featham era of cost-cutting from Arriva has transitioned to them. I've used buses more in the past couple of days than I've used in the last 6 months, and if I was leading that business, I'd be embarrassed at the state of it. I'm sure there's people there that want to do good things and make things better, but they'd be better off talking to a brick wall.

Without trying to get into a completely different debate, I think the BSIP had a lot of potential. Sure, it's delivered a decent range of day tickets at a decent price, but there's been very little else on the face of it. Of course, most of the problem with that is the lack of public engagement (which was always typical of Nexus, and has translated into TNE). If you can't take people with you, then you're often onto a hiding to nothing.

If we do go down the franchising route, as almost certainly we will, then the best decision the new combined authority could take is to get a proper bus person on board to lead it.


I agree with you about the comparisons to Manchester. I don't think there's another network similar to what ours would cover, servicing three Cities, within five Metropolitan boroughs and two rural counties. It's not going to be easy, but doing nothing is a non-starter. The majority of the commercial networks are on life support right now, and if we do nothing, there will be nothing. 

A completely public network would be my preference, and hopefully that'll be something that can be aspired to, if Labour keep their promise of scrapping the ban on municipal operators, but I don't think it's impossible for a public-private partnership to work in the interim. It does need almost a blank canvas approach though.

The funding comes from the devolution deal, and depending which candidate you talk to, there's various ideas about drawing in additional funding.

I'd argue it's the people. Maybe not initially, but once the culture becomes ingrained, how difficult is it going to be to change the mindset of one person, never mind 10, 20+.
Particularly when you've got 'well respected' traditionalists such as RF and a certain desire creator, making their mouths go?

Look how long it has taken established monolithic organisations such as the Met to change (we all know they haven't, despite all the reforms).