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only way this would be good would be if good routes was brought back some good routes and get deckers on routes like the 10A

The way these London style bus powers would probably work is for example that the 10 would be operated by one operator and the 10A would probably be operated by another operator .

Im not sure the length of the some of the tenders for some of the routes in London , but the routes could be of similar length .

(15/06/2012 16:57)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]Im not sure the length of the some of the tenders for some of the routes in London , but the routes could be of similar length .

Standard tender length for London is 5 years with a performance-based optional 2 year extension.
As vehicles are linked to contracts, theoretically the maximum age for London is 14 years (2 rounds of 7 year contracts), however some may be older due to longer running contracts.

With regards to fleets I think Stagecoach and Arriva are about on par. I find Arriva are ever so slightly better for leg room on their modern vehicles. In short both companies have R reg vehicles running, both have buses that could rattle the skeleton out of you and both have buses people over 5ft can't sit on. The only difference in fleet i could see is Stagecoach having to source more and newer deckers, as if I am not mistaken they have 6? and most are 11-13years old now? Not including the Olympians in storeage for when the "newer" ones head back down south for the Olympics.

Right at this moment in time before the old vehicles come back out the eldest stagecoach vehicle in service in merseyside is the S-reg BLE's. With regards to buses with legroom, trust me the ex hk darts leave a lot to be desired in last row of seats before the back and even the back seats. With Arriva the X reg ALX200's are the worst for leg room in similar areas. With the rattling, nothing beats some Marshalls except for the worst of the X-ANC Darts.

Until Merseytravel gets full compliance with QBP's then the next stage on from that these powers shouldnt be sought .

All sounds very interesting , if it does work I wonder if we will see another major operator or local company (i.e Peoplesbus, Cumfybus) take on a few routes hmm

thats what am thinking (and wanting)

Go ahead would probably drop in and it really would be at the expense of some of the smaller companies .

The smaller companies that do the Merseytravel work at the moment are the ones likely to lose out.

Would be nice if Go-Ahead or Transdev came into the fray tbh, but that's IF the plan goes ahead with the voters who want London style powers to suceed. As much as municipal companies may be sold on , the likes of Peoplesbus could also compete on routes specially with the amount of Deckers they have at present