WECA Bus Service tendering: Results and analysis

This is a companion piece to the tale of how this procurement process was carried out. All references made here refer to contracts due to commence from September 2021. As the results have now been published, there are some interesting facts to report: 100% of large operators were successful in securing work through this tendering…

WECA: Where flawed metrics replace informed decisions

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has recently undertaking their first local bus service tendering exercise to procure replacements for expired contracted services in B&NES and South Gloucestershire. 74 lots for bus services ranging from a single return journey once a week to frequent weekday services were offered for quotation, with services to replace…

One way or another, we’ll make you wait.

Today (Tuesday 6th April 2021) saw the launch of another four North Somerset Council supported bus services. Service 56 (Clevedon - Walton Bay) had been supposed to start last Thursday, but belatedly made it's debut today after somebody copied and pasted the wrong bit of supporting text to Facebook. Source: North Somerset Public Transport Facebook…

Secret Squirrels

Foreword: I apologise for breaking the promise to try and divert my attention elsewhere from the start of the last post on this blog. I am trying my hardest to move on, but the source material is too rich to pass up. Bus operators are expected to begin the registration process for bus services at…