(21 Jul 2024, 9:40 pm)markydh wrote Legally they can’t go much faster than that. Andy Burnham first presented his plans recommending franchising to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on 28th June 2019. There were several legal hoops to jump through, including a judicial review requested by Stagecoach and other bus companies (said request being made in March 2021). The review found in favour of franchising in March 2022. Rotala appealed and the original ruling was upheld in July 2022. The law was set up by the Tories to be deliberately cumbersome to encourage authorities not to bother, given it all costs money. It was never going to be a quick process as Kim herself said when she was elected. The hope is that the Better Buses Bill about to go through parliament will remove some of the legal hurdles which will, in theory, make the process much easier and allow the combined authority to speed up the process. They can’t assume it was pass, though (even though it definitely will), so have to proceed as per current legislation.

Yeah no arguments, I honestly thought it might have been quicker now that Manchester has done it, ie the first time takes longer than the rest type thing. Hopefully though as the limbo right now is less than ideal, especially with GoAhead.