(18 Jul 2025, 4:03 pm)Superman wrote You're still talking about Stagecoach, right?
(See Services 13 & 35 in Stockton and 3 in Hartlepool. TLDR - Stagecoach told TVCA they will cancel them, TVCA fully tender them, Stagecoach win them.)
Really the question should be, where is the scrutiny on allowing BSIP funds to be used in this way?
Truthfully forgot about those, if I was being honest. Ironic speaking of the 35, there's that, the 18 and the 32/32A in the Newcastle area tbf which I also forgot about.
Agreed on the BSIP funds being used like that though, it's just not what it should be used for as it was meant to be about growing the network and spending it on existing services doesn't do that imo.
The 1/30/31/36(SNE), 21/56(GoNorthEast) and X16(Arriva) is the worst of the worst for it though, least stuff like this new 12/13 in South Shields is opening new links and improving an existing tendered route which might one day become commercially viable. It shouldn't be used to increase existing frequent corridors when there's streets a few streets across without an evening bus service to Newcastle (reference to Portobello in Birtley here), it's just so wrong imo.
I'm not a betting man but I'd be fairly confident that someone isn't using the 1 or 21 because it was every 10 minutes instead of 7.5 minutes. It's neglible.