LCR Bus Franchising

[Barney]

RE: LCR Bus Franchising

(27/02/2022 21:01)CX06 EBK Wrote:  All I will add to this is Merseytravel have systematically reduced tendered services through "reviews" under the pretence of making services "better". If you believe a franchising model in which Merseytravel have anything to do with it will be any better, I am unsure what to say. Deregulation may well have been a mistake but it is not the 80s any more and a franchised network isn't going to bring back the "glory days". I'd rather the government focused on getting my energy prices from spiralling out of control before enforcing a council tax hike for a service I have no intention of using.

I find it quite odd that the very people who set up this site are so anti-bus and state that they have no intention of using buses now or at any time in the future. As for not wishing your taxes to be spent on services you don't use, I pay over £300 a year for the police and fire and rescue services neither of which I have ever required.

The reason why tendered services have been systematically reduced - particularly since the austerity cuts were introduced in 2010 - is because bus grants across the whole of the UK have suffered more than any other public service. In large swathes of rural areas of the UK now there are many, many people in possession of your maligned concessionary pass but without any bus service.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50166423

Nobody has suggested that franchising will bring back the "glory days" overnight but it is hoped that it will halt the decline in bus usage which now seems to be in terminal decline.