(06 Jul 2026, 8:27 pm)Adrian wrote I don't mean to sound patronising, but you really need to spare some time to properly read and consider what is in the documents that have been published. You're not going to get that from a 'quick flick'. 

There's whole sections on the economic and financial cases, covering hundreds of pages. The 'not much scope' on fares is a commitment to "A significant simplification of the fares and ticketing offer, replacing the approximately 370+ different bus tickets on offer with a simple zonal system for single tickets and multi-operator / multi-modal daily plus weekly caps." and "Fares will not increase above inflation, and the size of the network will be maintained, for at least the first ten years of franchised services." for a start. Is that not scope? Fares have generally risen above the rate of inflation for as long as I remember.

The child poverty action plan parts of the assessment also cover things like free travel for under 18s and maintaining the £1/£3 for under 22s.

Like I say, you really need to spare some time to read it properly. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but you're not going to get a big bang improvement on day one.

Don't worry didn't take it offensive. I just see serious funding issues with this, and I honestly hope I'm wrong. 

Honestly, I think the whole franchising is just flawed in general doing this tranche stuff. If we provide the buses, provide the depot, provide the routes, provide the timetables, provide the drivers then what the hell are we paying for as tax payers? It's a shareholders pipe dream, take 7.5% I think it was quoted in the documents, for bluntly doing absolutely nothing and if things go well you'll make even more money, if it goes wrong then you'll banging on the door demanding more and the councils reserves are going to be used to fund it all. Not to mention your locked in.

Franchising has it's place for the likes of Stanhope, Berwick and Rothbury where opening a depot wouldn't make sense, but this ban on municipal bus companies needs to be removed asap and that's where all the local areas should be going. 

Promising no fare increases, all these extra cheap tickets etc is dangerous. It's the exact thing Khan done in London and TFL's Buses have been out of control the past few year with huge cuts to try and get it under control since the Underground isn't making as much. 

I hope I'm proven wrong, but I can see one of these schemes and not particularly the North East crashing and burning big time.

(I don't think there'll be actual issue with implementation for the record btw)