(24 Apr 2024, 2:39 am)solsburian wrote It has happened at the worst time (an inept parent company who checked out years ago + COVID + historic mismanagement) and the Northumberland Line. The saving grace is that the NL is car centric (the modelling for demand by the AECOM and NCC is "interesting") and will not directly offer direct services to Newcastle CC.

The elephant in the room is the likelihood of franchising (a step in the right direction IMHO) - the long term outlook is how the NL can actually serve demand in communities with walk up stations with direct links into Haymarket and how the wider bus network can support that. I digress.

Franchising is just side stepping the issues though really. The problems will just move with it. There's not enough drivers and they're just moving around lately. Under franchising it's all about minimum cost so if you give the drivers a higher wage you won't be winning contracts at all. 

It's really counter productive. The same strikes are rife in London aswell for example

At the end of the day it's the same operators running the buses just not under their rules which is took by other people who if Gannon and co are in charge are even more questionable. The Metro isn't exactly a beam of success because of lack of funds, the same problem which will affect buses unless they somehow find a magic money tree.