Thank you to everyone who responded positively to the Mayor’s North East Bus Franchising Consultation which closed on Monday 28th September 2026 at 9am.
A summary of key points from NEPTUG’s response can be found below.
Overall position
NEPTUG fully supports the proposed Franchising Scheme and congratulates Mayor Kim McGuinness and the North East MSA. It sees franchising as a return to an integrated system with seamless ticketing, bus links to Metro and rail, better accessibility, better waiting facilities and clearer information.
Problems with the current model
• Members report isolation and frustration across the region, from Wooler to South Shields, South West Durham and even Heaton.
• Deregulation in 1986 has not delivered what was promised. Coverage and patronage have fallen while car ownership has grown.
• Congestion creates a vicious spiral: slower, less reliable buses push more people into cars.
• Services are unreliable, routes are cut at short notice, information is confusing, tickets and timetables don’t join up, and there’s nobody accountable when things go wrong.
• Around 40% of people in our cities don’t have a car, so poor services limit opportunity and entrench deprivation.
The five key benefits
• Accountability: Franchising mustn’t replace one top-down system with another. Bus users need a formal, democratic, open forum to scrutinise and challenge decisions. NEPTUG sees a strong role for itself in this.
• Reliability: Reliability matters most to users. We call for a comprehensive network of bus priority corridors alongside franchising, noting that little has changed since the £163.5m BSIP award and that the Coast Road corridor has been shelved. We also call for:
◦ parking managed to prioritise buses
◦ Danish-style cycle storage at rural stops
◦ financial penalties and incentives for punctuality
• Affordability: We welcome the £2.50 cap and the £1 under-21 fares, but ticketing is still confusing and archaic. We want London-style contactless, capped and integrated ticketing, and a simple fare like Manchester’s £2, with thought given to long rural journeys and bus–rail links.
• Accessibility: We want:
◦ consistent accessibility standards across the network, not left to individual operators
◦ good-quality shelters and interchanges with toilets, noting the poor examples in Gateshead, Newcastle and North Tyneside
◦ consistent branding, including the missing Calvert ‘B’ at Durham and Bishop Auckland
◦ real-time displays at every stop and audio-visual next-stop announcements
◦ consistent driver training in assisting disabled passengers
• Safety: Safety concerns, especially for women and girls, put people off. We want more staff rather than just CCTV, systems for drivers to divert to where police or support can intervene, and bystander training on harassment.
Concluding remarks
• 6–8 year contracts give security, but they must include performance management, penalties and termination clauses.
• Smaller operators and vehicles should be able to bid, especially in rural areas.
• We welcome the living wage commitment for drivers and staff, and want drivers to have a say in services.
• NEPTUG looks forward to playing its role in improving the region’s buses.
(A copy of NEPTUG’s full response can be found in the PDF below).
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