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Friday, 26 March 2021

BBC News

• Greater Manchester bus network back under public controlThe region will be the first area outside London to have a franchise bus system since the 1980s.

The Guardian

• Greater Manchester bus services to be brought under public controlBus services in Greater Manchester will be brought under public control, with one integrated service to replace the dozens of private operations in a “broken market”, the city’s mayor, Andy Burnham, has announced.

Birmingham Post

• Greater Manchester bus services to be brought back under local authority controlIt's the biggest change to local public transport in the region in more than 30 years

London Evening Standard

• National Express back on the road from Monday after 11-week suspensionLockdown restrictions in England will be eased next week with the end of the ‘stay at home’ rule.

Manchester Evening News

• Fares, timetables, tickets and colour - what bus franchising changes will mean for every passenger in Greater ManchesterAll buses in Greater Manchester will be one colour under the franchising system - just one of a range of major reforms announced today by Mayor Andy Burnham

Coach and Bus Week

• Greater Manchester to adopt franchising model for bus servicesThe Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has confirmed that Greater Manchester is to adopt a franchising model for its bus services – making it the first city outside of London to have local control over the operation of its buses.
• Coventry to become UK’s first All Electric Bus CityWest Midlands Combined Authority has backed plans for Coventry to become the UK’s first all-electric bus city
• Organisations join forces to lobby DfT to keep school bus fleets on the roadEducation and transport management platform provider Kura has assembled a working group to engage the Department for Transport (DfT), lobbying to update accessibility legislation which it says puts thousands of schools at risk of sanctions.

Route One (Bus and Coach)

• Greater Manchester bus franchising to go aheadBus franchising will be introduced in Greater Manchester after Mayor Andy Burnham decided on 25 March to proceed with the measure. His decision represents what latterly had become an inevitable conclusion to multi-year proposals for reregulation of buses in the city region after two public consultations returned huge support.
• Transdev is teaming up with the tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire to build tourism back in the region.The partnership will see the two organisations work to welcome visitors back to Yorkshire as pandemic restrictions relax, attracting tourism in a sustainable manner with bus at its heart.
• Mango app by Trentbarton surpasses one million journeysThe Mango app introduced by Trentbarton last summer has surpassed one million journeys, the operator has revealed.
• Coach industry goes unheard by ministers at Select CommitteeUK-wide bespoke support for the coach industry looks farther away than ever after a Transport Select Committee evidence hearing on 24 March examined COVID-19’s impact on the sector.
• Pantograph rails among extended BYD ADL charging optionsPantograph opportunity charging via roof-mounted rails for the Enviro400EV double-decker is one of the additional charging options that have been introduced by manufacturers BYD and Alexander Dennis (ADL) to their joint battery-electric bus range.
• First Bus and Abellio connect to new cloud services with Journeo EDGEFirst Bus and Abellio have installed 21st Century’s Journeo EDGE intelligent gateway on their fleets, which enables them to connect on-board systems to new cloud services.

Transport Network

• Burnham takes back control with bus franchisingGreater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has confirmed that he plans to implement bus franchising in the city region ‘as part of plans for a joined-up and truly passenger-focused transport network’.