Have your say on the future of NE buses – The NE Mayoral Strategic Authority is seeking feedback on its proposed NE bus franchising proposal. The consultation is open for responses until 9am 28 September 2026.
If bus franchising goes ahead, the Mayoral Authority would become financially responsible for the bus service and bus depots, receiving fare income and using that to pay bus operators, who will compete for contracts. It will set routes and fares and can set service levels such as frequency and punctuality. It will also be able to organise timetables and routes to integrate with rail and Metro, and implement integrated ticketing.
Consultation Information
See the consultation website for consultation documentation, including a summary consultation document, a Franchising Scheme Assessment and Independent Assurance Report.
There are also two drop-in events in Newcastle:
- The Royal Victoria Infirmary (Newcastle): Monday 20 July, 12:30 – 16:30
- Great Park Community Centre (Newcastle): Monday 27 July, 10:00 – 14:00
Video by NE Mayoral Strategic Authority
Issues with the current system
The shorter consultation summary document sets out some of the issues with the current deregulated system where private bus companies set routes, timetables and fares.
- In the past 15 years, passenger journeys have fallen by 31% and mileage operated by bus companies has dropped by 32%.
- Approximately 370 categories of tickets.
- No integration between bus routes or other transport modes.
- Public funding makes up 51% of bus company income.
In contrast, in its guide to bus franchising, the Centre for Cities says about London: “while both bus ridership and mileage have declined across the UK, London [which has had a franchising-style system for decades] has largely bucked the trend. Bus mileage [in London] has remained stable and bus ridership grew by 70 per cent between 2000/01 and 2014/15. Although ridership has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, it remains higher than in 2001 and higher than elsewhere in the UK.”
Bus franchising has more recently been introduced in Greater Manchester. “Since September 2023, franchising has seen some 577 routes, 1,600 buses carrying more than 160 million trips per year come under local control.” They have seen a “5% increase in passengers over a 12-month period,” and “the cost of running franchised services is reduced by a third (compared to having to intervene in the private deregulated bus market).”
In the North East, the NE Passenger Transport User Group has set up a website https://betterbusesne.org.uk to support the proposal, listing ten ways bus franchising will lead to better buses in the NE.
The SPACE for Gosforth view
London and Manchester have proved that bus franchising leads to a better service that more people use. We hope bus franchising in the NE will achieve the same.
Key to this will be maintaining and improving the network of high-frequency routes in and between urban areas. As the consultation document states, a larger, higher‑ridership network will enable “buses to contribute more effectively to economic growth, carbon reduction and public health.”
One of the biggest opportunities not mentioned in the consultation document will be to create a high-frequency route map of services where you can just turn up and know a bus will be along in a few minutes. Creating this map should be one of the first things the Mayoral Authority does.
Integrated ticketing and timetables would enable more journeys using a mix of buses, rail and Metro with quick changes between each and no need to buy multiple tickets. Under the current system, the Mayor cannot even get buses to stop at the new Newsham Station on the Northumberland Line.
If the Mayoral Authority can reduce over-capacity where it exists that will also free up buses to be able to serve more rural areas. A local example for how to achieve this is SPACE for Gosforth’s proposal, included in our response to the NE Local Transport Plan, for Regent Centre to be used as an interchange between long-distance buses, Metro and a high-frequency electric shuttle between Regent Centre and Newcastle. This would maintain service levels on the Great North Road but with fewer buses, meaning other buses can be used elsewhere for no additional cost.
This is also how Metro interchanges were designed to work pre-deregulation in 1986 when public transport services in Tyne and Wear were fully integrated and were generally accepted as being the best in the UK.
There are a few other areas where we think the plan could be more ambitious:
- As well as passenger safety, the Mayor should commit to bus safety standards announced by Transport for London to ensure the safety of other roads users especially people walking or cycling.
- Linked to this, we would like to see a commitment that bus lanes are not installed where their presence would create a safety issue for people walking or cycling as is currently the case on Gosforth High Street.
- As stated above, the creation of a high-frequency route network should be prioritised and expedited.
- The consultation document states that it expects traffic levels to continue to rise despite the introduction of franchising. The Mayor should adopt complimentary measures to reduce traffic, meaning higher bus usage and reduced emissions. This could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds if the traffic reduction means expensive road upgrades like Moor Farm Roundabout are no longer required.
Please let us know if you have any other thoughts or questions in the comments section below.
The consultation is open for responses until 9am 28 September 2026.
Have your say on the future of NE buses