Mayor initiates plans for ‘Angel Network’
Kim McGuinness’s first steps as the North East’s Mayor will be to address the region’s “broken” transport system.
During the inaugural North East Mayoral Combined Authority meeting, held in Durham, McGuinness reiterated her manifesto commitment to bring buses under the control of a centralised system: the Angel Network.
The announcement that the options appraisal process for bringing buses in the region under public control had begun came the morning of her first duties as Mayor. McGuinness told the meeting she was determined to set about “fixing that broken transport system”.
Support for the policy, which follows the success of integrated transport systems in Greater Manchester with its Bee Network, is widespread among the region’s councillors.
Cllr Martin Gannon, Leader of Gateshead and chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, said: “Bus services in this region are letting down the people that we represent.
“It’s not just about improving services, it’s about improving the quality of life.”
Bus services in the region are currently operated by Arriva, Go North East, and Stagecoach and currently 89% of bus services are run commercially.
The combined authority’s desire for an integrated bus network stems from public frustration with irregularities over ticket validity and a lack of a cohesive timetabling and pricing system.
Improving the efficiency of the bus network is intended to reduce the number of individuals using private transport to commute, which stands at around 60% of journeys to-and-from work.
Additionally, with less congestion on North East roads, bus services will be faster and more environmentally friendly.
The Mayor’s office said that a comprehensive plan of transportation, covering active travel and the Metro, will be published in the coming weeks.
Next: nation-wide railways, buses, power, water and telecoms which are all natural monopolies (a national economics term) and work most efficiently for every body in an integrated network. It’s not just national economic sense but also common sense; or else why not privatize the roads. Even the Tories are not that mad; or are they?
By Anonymous
Please improve the coastal routes in north Northumberland it’s almost impossible to go to an appointment and return home in reasonable time buses going to Alnwick are infrequent and a trip to the dentist is a days job
By Margaret Cross
I would rather have a commercial bus network where costs are kept to an absolute minimum and where you can already get multi-operator/mode tickets if you need them, rather than monopoly where in all likelihood fares will only ever go up to satisfy the pay demands of a workforce who will know they can totally cripple the region with a strike vote. It’s actually never never easier to use a commercial bus thanks to the use of trackers that rely on open timetable and real time location data. That is the sort of thing government should be doing to help passengers, rather than the thing they have never historically been very good at, namely running a bus network in times when passengers had a real choice between a bus and a car.
By Savvy bus user
Dear Savvy Bus User: bus routes, train routes, power routes, gas routes, and so on are “Natural Monopolies:” Commercial or private businesses are For Profit: Cutting costs or money paid to employees, supplier. Boosting money paid to executives and shareholders. That do not exist to prioritize a wonderful service to the community. If they did, the shareholders could sue the directors and top executives.
By Anonymous
I find it surprising that we don’t even have the times electronically displayed in bus stops so you know when the bus is due or if it is running late – something the majority of EU countries have had for years
By Anonymous