(06 Jul 2026, 5:31 pm)Storx wrote Personally still think this will be disaster but more because of the clowns in charge. The absolute state of the Transport North East website, or whatever it's called, just sums everything up.

Tobyn Hughes was part of a team which couldn't even win a tender which they set, embarrassingly bad stuff.

The Metro is an absolute shambles as it is, yet somehow these people are now going to run a bus network aswell...

It really doesn't though, does it? Have you read the franchise scheme assessment yet, or even started reading it?

From what I've read so far, It's been put together excellently, and I feel is fair in some of the conclusions that it reaches. Of course, this is only an extremely detailed assessment, so I'm not sure it'll ever compare to some off the cuff comments on a forum.

As enthusiasts, I guess it's noteworthy that the intended strategic depot acquisitions are: Ashington, Blyth, Consett, Deptford, Durham, Percy Main, Riverside, Slatyford, South Shields, Sunderland, Walkergate and Washington.

Winners of the medium (now large) contracts would be allocated depots from the above list within that area. From what I gather, and although it's not equivocal in what I've read so far, if an operator won say large contract A (Washington and Sunderland) plus a couple of the smaller contracts, they wouldn't be able to run those smaller contracts from the same strategic depots as allocated from the larger lots.

On vehicle acquisition, they haven't reached a final decision on it, but it appears they're looking at three options: Operators provide vehicles, Buses go to winning bidder at book value, Buses go to the delivery body and leased back to the operator.

Personally I disagree with the MSA looking at option 1 as the approach, as it'll deter bidders from outside of the region, so I'm surprised they're not immediately looking at option 2 or 3. I can see why the 2nd is more attractive to the MSA, but 3 must be best in the long-term, with further EVs coming.