Public Transport in your particular part of the region

[james2001]

C2C, Central Trains and Midland Mainline for example. Also "One" until they did rename it National Express East Anglia.

In fact I think that and the very short lived NX East Coast were the only train companies they ran under their own name.

[stu]

My local independent bus operator has put their weekly pass up a massive £12 overnight with no notice, warning or even telling the poor drivers who keep having to apologise to the miffed passengers!

[Pete]

I wonder whether the rebranding and sell off of Xplore Dundee (formerly NX Dundee, formerly Travel Dundee) was done with the stagecoach merger in mind. Or if it’s just coincidence.

Dundee being the only place where both brands operate although strictly speaking “strathtay” is really the Angus country bumpkin buses where two of them happen to belt through Dundee providing a fast link between the city centre and the hospital. That said their depot was in Dundee and they run the bus station so who knows.

[scottishtv]

I wonder whether the rebranding and sell off of Xplore Dundee (formerly NX Dundee, formerly Travel Dundee) was done with the stagecoach merger in mind. Or if it’s just coincidence.

It does look a bit like it was part of a plan. Quite funny for local management to suddenly be working for 'the other side' if this all goes through. That said, it does also look like competition in the local bus market has been settled (read: "agreed") for some time in a lot of the country.

[JAS84]

Yeah, here in Hull, for the most part, Stagecoach does the inner city routes, and East Yorkshire does the journeys that go to other towns. That status quo has been the case for a long time. There used to be other independents about 20 years ago, including one that cheekily used the old blue and white KHCT livery (KHCT being Stagecoach Hull's name before Stagecoach bought it), but they were run out of the market within a year or two by the two established firms.

[Jonwo]

The TFL managed decline is interesting to see although there does seem to be an element of scaremongering from the Mayor because I cannot see the DfT wanting TFL to fail given how important London is to the UK economy.

[thegeek]

It's clearly a bargaining chip, but it's surprising to see how few outlets (including the more analytical ones) have taken that angle on it.

The local press are lapping it up as you'd expect, though the comments sections mostly seems to be full of people claiming it's down to Khan being rubbish with money, rather than the Tories making TfL's funding so dependent on farebox income which has largely vanished due to unforeseen externalities.

[Jonwo]

It's clearly a bargaining chip, but it's surprising to see how few outlets (including the more analytical ones) have taken that angle on it.

The local press are lapping it up as you'd expect, though the comments sections mostly seems to be full of people claiming it's down to Khan being rubbish with money, rather than the Tories making TfL's funding so dependent on farebox income which has largely vanished due to unforeseen externalities.

It's one of those things where politics needs to pushed aside to get things done. My hunch is that a compromise will be reached in December.

[Jonwo]

I'm not sure if TFL's threat of closing a Tube line is likely to happen as surely it would risk overcrowding on the rest of the network.

I wonder if in the event of TFL issuing a Section 114, would a new London Transport be created in its place? I assume that no one would allow the transport system to grind to a halt.

[thegeek]

London Reconnections did a good article on TfL invoking section 114 last spring - it's worth a reread now:
https://www.londonreconnections.com/202 ... -pandemic/

[Jonwo]

London Reconnections did a good article on TfL invoking section 114 last spring - it's worth a reread now:
https://www.londonreconnections.com/202 ... -pandemic/

Things would have to get pretty dire for TFL to get that far and TBH it would be very embarrassing for all sides if there was global coverage of London's transport network not being able to function properly.

It's a shame that TFL is used as a political pawn in these negotiations when IMO it should be independent of both central Government and local Government.