(25 Feb 2022, 6:11 pm)Dan wrote Nexus has today invited operators to tender for services across Sunderland, Washington and Gateshead.

An anticipated decision to award will be made by 30 March 2022, with contracts awarded on 12 April, with contracts commencing from 15 May.

These tenders do include some services which are currently operated by larger operators on a commercial basis, as well as amendments to existing secured services to accommodate some of these changes.

As with the March 2022 tenders, the tender documents which are now available on the e-portal must be treated as private and confidential and a specific line has been included again to instruct that details of the tender document must not be released other than on an ‘In Confidence’ basis to those who have legitimate need to know or whom they need to consult for the purpose of preparing this tender. This is to give operators time to undertake internal communications, so I'd like to ask that we respect that at this stage.

In to the last few days of companies bidding for the contracts...

Are the changes to commercial services still going ahead,(such as NEXUS taking over unprofitable routes) as I'm sure I read the government were continuing to fund bus companies till October 2022.