Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

[iMarkeh]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(25/06/2023 08:11)Barney Wrote:  2. The examples you have cited as failed operators (Halton and Warrington) were/are in fact arms length operations meaning that the local councils have to compete commercially with competitors.

Yes and no. Halton CHOSE to compete strongly on some of the routes. Warrington has no competition really except for the 32 which they introduced to compete against Arriva, their choice. When there was stronger competition, they had to compete a little on some routes but with their fares being as high as they are, people don't like using WOB.

(25/06/2023 08:11)Barney Wrote:  3. The franchising model gives a single operator a monopoly on specific routes thus reducing overall costs by eradicating wasteful and unnecessary competition.

Given the state of the industry over the past few years, how much 'wasteful and unnecessary competition' actually exists now? Very, very little.

(25/06/2023 08:11)Barney Wrote:  5. Fares will be lower under franchising.

Fact check? Fares for some passenger such as students are actually going up in Manchester with franchising and London bus caps are higher than many private operators tickets in the rest of the UK.

(26/06/2023 08:50)Walton 46 Wrote:  Although the proposed franchising scheme is going to cost a few bob in the short run, I think it will be worth it in the long run for the following reasons:

1) At the moment, some parts of the city region only have a bus service every 90 min Monday - Saturday or 2 hourly evenings and Sundays. Under the proposed scheme, all bus routes will have a minimum 1 bus an hour between 5 am and Midnight, a vast improvement on today.

So you're advocating wasting public funds on many routes? Throwing thousands of pounds per day down the drain on buses which people aren't using. Yes 5am-0am would be a great idea for some routes but certainly not for all! You know it's a stupid idea when it goes far in excess of what even TFL do. TFL has routes which run a few times per day and adjust according to demand.

(26/06/2023 08:50)Walton 46 Wrote:  2) At the moment, The LCR doesn't have night buses. There have been calls to reinstate the the ones which where withdrawn when Covid came in, but the bus companies have refused to do so. Night buses are important for two reasons: firstly, supporting the Night Time Economy - giving people more options to get home instead of forking out £20/£30 for taxis. And secondly, breaking down barriers to employment. My brother went to a jobs fair at the airport in February but found he couldn't apply for any of the jobs on offer because they all had morning shifts starting at 3am. My brother doesn't drive so his only of getting to the airport for 3am would be taxis.

Night buses we all agree on. Merseytravel won't fund them now though so what makes you think they will in a few years? Granted the private operators don't help with the night buses and they should really do more to run later buses.