(21 Apr 2014, 5:53 pm)Marcus wrote I'm not quite sure, I think after the investment they made in the Key a few years back they are unlikely to do any massive change at the moment anyway. Although GNE are the biggest operator in the region, I don't think they're always striving to compete with operators other than Arriva and Stagecoach; basically while they are ambitious I don't think the board of directors discuss improving the system so it's more efficient than the one down in London. I really can't see credit cards being accepted on buses up here, I think thats more of a capital city thing. London have a lot of things in their transport system I doubt we'll ever get.
All 12 local authorities in the North East, GNE, Stagecoach, Arriva, Metro and Northern Rail are invested in the NESTI project. NESTI is managed and ran by Nexus on behalf of the local authorities, and also provides the back office infrastructure. I'd hope we'd see something of a trial towards the back end of the year, but I honestly don't think we'd see the real benefits of such system (fare caps for example) unless QCS comes in.