I just remember the days before de-regulation and i dont remember buses been old and needing replacing. In fact didn't The TWPTE just invest in new double dickers before this and becoming busways. I'm sure also united which became northumbria had just invest in a load of deckers to so i dont think there is a problem with investment. As for ticket offering, onboard wifi etc I would prefer it it the buses ran regualrly ( my bus on an evening is every 70 minutes ) and actually arrived to get me to my destination.
(31 Dec 2019, 3:13 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Exactly, businesses want to make money so they try to be better than the competition.Do lothian buses waste loads of $$$$$. I only as as I spend 4 times a year in Edinburgh and the bus service up there is 10x better than here
If it was run by the council, they'd want to waste as much money as they can so they can get a bigger budget next year. There would be no competition, so why would they make their services better.
The operators would just lie about how they're going to make the services better when they put in for the tender, and we'd be in exactly the same situation were in with the rail network.
You can argue all day whether it would be better nationalised, but the half arsed franchise system isn't working. Either go all in and let them operate fully independently, or renationalise them
I only really have experience with Arriva Durham, but from that it looks like they have the edge on Stagecoach when it comes to the likes of NSA, WiFi and charging. At least with the MAX and Sapphire services.
I think Arriva must have one cleaner, and they've been on the sick for the past few years!
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