(08 May 2021, 11:03 am)cbma06 wrote I’m all in favour giving the secured contracts to independents rather than the daytime operator, why should the taxpayer pay for the same bus company to operate the evening service etc.. while there operate the daytime service commercially, what happened a few years ago when northern said that there will start operating some secured services commercially again. (probably because there didn’t want another big operator to run them secured) didn’t GNE started to take on some east Durham network commercially as Arriva were one step away of winning the contracts?

I wonder how much incentives and grants did northern get from the government to purchase adl’s and streetdecks

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If the daytime operator offers the best value to the local authority, then why shouldn't they be given the contract to operate the evening/Sunday service, just because they have decided it isn't commercially viable and the local authority has deemed it an essential service?

Go North East paid for their new ADL Enviro400s and Wright StreetDecks commercially. They did not receive any incentives or grants from government.

(08 May 2021, 11:03 am)cbma06 wrote Didn’t Northern win some contracts and contracted them out to independent operators?

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Yes, although this has only really been common over the last twelve months and Go North East was open and honest about why it sub-contracted them out in the press release below:
https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/go-north-e...-operators

It wasn't because the company was unable to run the contract entirely of its own accord, it was to share the extra work with local SME coach operators who were particularly financially impacted as a result of Covid-19.

Prior to this, it was fairly uncommon for Go North East to sub-contract out any extra work such as Metro Replacement.