Recent content by paulprentice

There is no public policy statement to that effect, but it is something that campaign groups are pushing for, and once unitary and eventually mayoral authorities are established I have a hunch that this will be the direction of travel. It will depend on the local politics of the next few years.

Franchising is on the cards for East Kent regardless….

The Weaver Network is a great name and trust me, other parts of the country look on in envy at areas that have directly elected mayors who have been able to draw down these powers and create locally accountable and branded bus networks. The public have a lot more trust in a franchised network...

I agree it is wise but boring! The thing I'm not clear about is whether Ipswich Buses ends up under the auspices of a Suffolk/Norfolk Mayor and a Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA) potentially headquartered some way from Ipswich, or if it ends up under a unitary authority of some sort - a...

Indeed, I wonder whether the appetite for franchising exists in Suffolk or whether there just needs to be a better partnership with the existing operators with the new mayoral authority/unitary authorities putting in place the infrastructure to make buses work better. I’m sure some of the...

Have a strong hunch this apparent drift and lack of direction is more about the upcoming changes to local government and devolution to Norfolk and Suffolk. The Suffolk County Council elections were postponed this year, and of course there will be a Mayoral Combined Authority for Norfolk and...

Southeastern’s video on the Class 376 refresh:

Very good point - never once seen revenue protection on a replacement bus, on any TOC.

It is fair because your journey is timed appropriately for those occasions when the rail infrastructure is unavailable, because the industry has made efforts to tell you about it through its many customer information channels and/or media outlets, especially for the bigger blockades. It also...

It is entirely fair. Under the National Rail Conditions of Travel your train ticket gets you from point A to point B. The need to undertake necessary and safety-critical engineering works on the railway, for example, the renewal or maintenance of track and signalling, means that sometimes your...

Agreed on the fleet age profile and the contrast with the First fleet, which looks very impressive. I'm sure those ex-Nottingham E200s have been looked after, but emission free they're not. On the eve of a future government that might look more kindly on traditional municipal ownership, I...

The mainstream media is the railway press in this instance - Paul Clifton writes for RAIL.

The first unit (395012) went in on June 12th and was back in traffic on Monday. The next in line for refurb is 395015 and it should take around three weeks, with the remainder taking around two weeks.

This is an interesting debate, and Ipswich itself is a microcosm of other places in many respects given it has two long-established companies, one in public hands, the other in private. I'm a close observer of our politics and in fact I'm a Labour candidate for the May 2023 elections in...

Yeah, I'm well aware of difficulties elsewhere - it's obviously very sad what happened in Halton etc - but poor management can be found in the private and the public sectors (and whether the council is Labour, Tory or LibDem run - or whatever). Personally quite relaxed about taxpayers' money...