A bus chief has signalled that private operators could now get on board with sweeping reforms to put struggling North East services back into public hands.
The new £4bn devolution deal for the region, due to be signed off later this year, would hand a new regional mayor the power to take control of bus routes, timetables, and fares under a franchise model. It is something campaigners have pleaded for after mounting anger over cuts and cancellations, with public transport providers having suffered badly amid reduced passenger numbers and driver shortages since the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Andy Burnham is launching such a scheme in Manchester after winning a prolonged legal battle against bus companies who opposed him, making it the first area outside London to have a regulated bus network since the privatisation of the 1980s. But Ben Maxfield, chair of North East operators association NEBus, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he would “work within the confines of whatever model is in place” under the new mayor and that the investment that comes with a franchise system “can only be a good thing”.
