Had a long meeting discussing various transport issues today at County Hall.

A couple of residents have asked me why when they get a bus ticket on a concession the ticket doesn’t say the right end location – eg. Leaving Durham to Chester-le-Street but ticket says Newcastle.

I can reassure people that the bus companies are not fleecing the Council in that respect as a set rate per journey has already been agreed in the contracts.

Speaking of contracts, given the past problems with procurement, I have asked if there is any scope for councillor involvement in the upcoming tender for bus services. Unfortunately it looks like the deadlines are very tight, but still worth a try. The biggest bug bear I have is that there appears to be no incentive for bus companies to improve their service within the contracts, rather it is dependent on bad press. I am hoping something can be looked at on this. Also the bus companies in effect self monitor their service, so the Council is somewhat reliant on the companies informing them the correct details of delays/cancellations etc. this is probably the most cost effective way for this to be done, but does make me feel rather uncomfortable – not many examples of selfregulation working well.

I also raised the issue of some buses particularly through villages running within a few minutes of each other as the main companies seek to compete. What this actually ends up doing is giving passengers a choice of two buses for ten minutes and then nothing for 50 minutes – daft and counter productive – one of the problems which goes with bus deregulation!