(10 Nov 2021, 1:48 am)peter wrote It's not that simple tho, fundamentally GNE are the cause of the problem because they chose to give up the evening and Sunday services. If they cared that much about the evening/sunday services being run by another operator, they could take them on commercially again. You can't get mad at Nexus for not awarding the contract to GNE, cause it's their prerogative to give the contract to the lowest bidder. I'm sure everyone, including GNE, would prefer for Nexus to award the services to GNE, as it would be better from a passengers point of view. But when considering the two solutions to the problem, it should arguably be GNE who ends up out of pocket, taking them back on commercially (or even agreeing to match GCT's bid in order to keep the service), not Nexus paying more for them to operate a service one might argue they could, or should, operate without support at all.

Agree 100%

Also need to get out of the mantra on here that Go North East are good and that means independents are bad. If you have concerns over quality, then raise them to the authority that has awarded the contract. GCT might not replicate the GNE £1 fares on an evening, but that's an oversight (or perhaps decision) by Nexus when awarding the contract. Nothing to do with the operator.