(28 Jan 2025, 4:55 pm)deanmachine wrote They might have better control of the costs if they actually ran the services. Then they could use profitable services to fund these caps, rather than handing them straight to the operators' shareholders.
Ran the services or franchised them out, absolutely.
The biggest issue with our capped fare scheme is that it's almost entirely written to favour large operators, and as I suggested at the time, is likely the reason why it took so long to implement. Even if the TNE tickets created growth beyond our wildest dreams, there's a section in the scheme that requires a recalculation on actuals each year, so operators get to cash in based on a publicly-funded and ran initiative.
This is why people are so sick of private rail and buses. It's not because they believe it'll instantly be better, it's because they're sick of having the proverbial ripped out of them.
(28 Jan 2025, 10:16 pm)Andreos1 wrote The money being spent on subsidised services is absolutely scandalous.
It really rams home the state of the network and how those who supposedly have all that knowledge within the bus industry over the years... Well... Maybe they didn't after all.
Mind, NECA have wasted a fair chunk of BSIP too mind, as discussed on the forum in the recent past.
It's a disgrace, and many of the same people are still advocating for privately owned and operated buses now.
I'm pleased I was on the right side of the fence 12 years ago.
(29 Jan 2025, 7:36 am)DeltaMan wrote What is alarming to me is the amount of BSIP money being used to pay for every day supported services - that is going to be a huge problem.
The elephant in the room is there is no easy way of reducing the cost of running a bus service.
There might be marginal savings by franchising and removing duplication where it's not needed. But i'd argue that is already happening with fully secured services only really running where there is no reasonable commercial alternative. And despite what other say elsewhere, operators already cross subsidise - there is no way most of the Stagecoach commercial network would run past 19:00 if they weren't really really busy during the day.
As Leon Daniels, former head of surface transport at TfL recently said, it's Horsebus economics. Somebody has still got to feed the horse and pay the driver - and that costs.
I hope the Mayor has a functioning abacus!
Your costs are always going to go up, I agree, but that's the same in every other business or service. The difference is that growth still occurs in the wider-world, whereas two of the three principle operators up here have been more than happy to try and manage the speed of decline.
Both GNE and Arriva, in my opinion, have attempted to cut their way towards a profit for the best part of 15 years now. I could count on one hand the amount of workable initiatives, designed to build and retain customer numbers, over that same time period. If something is seen as not working, it's cut and that resource isn't reinvested; it's a cost saving on the balance sheet.
It's admirable if Stagecoach are cross-subsidising. It's how it should be done, but I know that other operators will look at services on a trip by trip basis, yet alone thinking about cross-subsidising others. Even though I'd say they have more need than Stagecoach to do it, due to their network models being significantly different.
I think in addition to a functioning abacus, she needs a good team around her to deliver this. We all know she has no background in transport, and I worry that the most senior people there that do, are the wrong people. Time will tell!