London tendered operators Abellio, Metroline and Tower Transit have sponsored a paper for the Centre for Cities think tank, calling for franchising in other British cities. The think tank is dedicated to improving the performance of UK city economies, with much of its funding provided by non-private sector organisations.
‘Because cities do not have control over bus services, they have done less to address the problems of growing car-based congestion and falling bus ridership,’ says the paper. ‘Cities are only indirectly exposed to the decline in ridership and fare revenues this causes, reducing the incentive to insulate buses from congestion.’