(15 Mar 2021, 3:40 pm)Ambassador wrote Not surprised the operators are speaking out in favour - less commercial risk for them. We're not going to see a return to pre COVID levels for sometime and that will put a strain on the coffers.

Franchising and local control is seen as some big evil and it worked for a long long time up here with the PTE and it worked really well. The concern of course would be Gannon and Co and Nexus being in charge of the implementation. Just look at the utter farce that is the lack of regionwide smart cards or contactless.

None of it really addresses the age old problem of tempting car users out of their cars (and away from taxis) onto buses but it's a start.

Less commercial risk and potentially more support for bus lanes.

I genuinely don't get the mentality of forcing people out of cars or making it difficult for them to use cars.
No matter how many bus lanes and white paint are thrown about in wild abandon across Birtley and Low Fell, cars will continue to be there as long as its quicker, easier and more efficient than hanging around waiting for connections and paying a premium for it.

Vigo to Newcastle Business Park and all after dropping the kids off at school and needing to be back to pick them up afterwards. Buses aren't an option.

The journey on the buses needed between Great Lumley and the Arnison Centre is going to be slower than the car making the same journey by virtue of the bus making stops along the way. Regardless of how many bus lanes there may be.

A car journey between one of the many villages in Washington to Team Valley vs the two/three bus marathon which heads off in the opposite direction for most of the trip, is always going to win for those with a car - regardless of how many bus priority measures there may be in Wrekenton.

To see this constant drivel about priority measures and less parking spaces does my head in. 
It's unbelievably narrow-minded and smacks of desperation and a total lack of imagination and creativity.
If something was done about the actual network over the last 35 years, we may well be chatting about something else tonight.
Instead, we are chatting about failed political dogma and operators using yet another potential financial hand-out to fix problems of their own doing.