(28 Jul 2024, 4:28 pm)cbma06 wrote As far as I’ve seen, the mayor (can’t remember the female person named) covers Northumberland/County Durham and Tyne and Wear), while Cleveland area including hartlepool comes under a male person mayor, which I’ve seen on media has mentioned has changed his mind about franchising.
Other neb members might have more info

Kim McGuinness is the Mayor. When they refer to North East now, theyre generally referring to the political boundary, not the geographical one. Political boundary is the LA7 area (5x Tyne and Wear Councils, Durham Unitary Authority and Northumberland Unitary Authority)

The remainder of the geographical North East is the Tees Valley Combined Authority (Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar & Cleveland)

You're correct. Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, has said he doesn't believe it's the correct way. They're not even going to look at it at this stage.

The only point of issue is going to be the cross-boundary services (e.g. 23/24, 58, X10, X12?). If they're a North East CA franchised service, then they'll have to be registered with the Traffic Commissioner for the operating area outside of the CA boundary. Inside isn't an issue, as the Combined Authority would replace the role of the Traffic Commissioner in service registration.

If they're a commercial service operating from outside the Combined Authority area (e.g. 1, 7, X12?, X26/X27), then the operator (Arriva in this case) would need to seek a service permit from the Combined Authority to serve stops within the boundary. As part of this, they could mandate ticket acceptance or rules, for example.

(28 Jul 2024, 5:36 pm)cbma06 wrote Not necessarily, any bus operator in the UK etc.. can bid for the Northumberland, if Northstar gets a big financial backing there could bid and win those routes in Northumberland, or Northstar could gain running Sunderland services from the Wheatsheaf depot, Stagecoach could lose areas in Tyne and Wear etc…., too much ifs and buts, it will be a canny few years yet.


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Yep, it's a competitive tender process, so anyone is free to bid for any work. One of the options that will be considered under the FSA, is whether an asset acquisition is deemed necessary. In Manchester, this was a depot acquisition. South Yorkshire are also targeting the purchase of the legacy bus fleets.

In terms of depots, with the cuts over the last two decades, I think we're missing a couple of depots in strategic locations. Not having a location in East Durham is problematic, as is the lack of depots further into Noerhumberland. 

The role of smaller operators will depend on how the franchising scheme builds the lots. I hope they learn from Manchester and take the time to ensure that there is sufficient levels of work for smaller operators to bid for smaller lots of work, or even individual services, either on a sole or consortium basis. Doing so, imo, should allow the tenders to remain competitive.