(13 Jun 2022, 8:25 pm)Andreos1 wrote Between you and me, the best value option for the taxpayer, is the commercial operator.
And whilst that was the most predictable response, clearly that doesn't seem to be an option in today's market as we've seen from all three of the major operators in recent months (some more than others)...
If the stance from the commercial operator is that they can no longer run some of their commercial bus services and the local authority does step in to save them, the options they have are that the cheapest/best value price wins the contract (as per standard tender protocol), or that in some cases, they will purposely choose a more expensive price to exclude the incumbent from winning that contract (unheard of, but it would keep members of this forum happy).
I know which gets my vote, even if in some cases it will result in the incumbent no longer running that same service...