As much as the bus network is a mess up here, francising it would make it 100x worse and that's down to one thing - Nexus.

Nexus are clueless, everything they do goes overbudget or is delayed by stupid amounts of time (Tyne Tunnel anyone) or is a total stupid idea (full refurbishment of the life expired Metro trains, North Shields Metro station rebuild which still isn't finished as surprise surprise it went overbudget). They can barely run the Metro as it is right now and the quality of some of the buses on the current contracted bus services leaves a lot to be desired. I've also heard the management is a lot to be desired aswell; at least the local bus companies aren't constantly on strike for whatever reason.

Wouldn't want them anywhere near the rest of the network.