Trident in the Lakes

PICTUREVIEW

Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 17490 (LX51 FMK), a highbridge Alexander ALX400-bodied Dennis Trident new to Stagecoach London as TAS490, at the Borrowdale settlement of Seatoller on the Lakes-branded open-top 78 service to Keswick. It was painted into this livery style for the 2019 summer season.

JOHN YOUNG

Nexus’s attempt to introduce a quality contract scheme – what we now know as bus franchising – may have failed in 2015, but the authority, still formally the Tyne & Wear PTE, has not entirely abandoned its ambitions in that direction. 

Dig deep into the official report and there is praise for what Nexus tried to achieve. The examining board said that Nexus ‘has done exceptionally well to get where it has got to today’ and ‘can be proud that it has led three bus companies to put forward a proposal that is in itself novel and groundbreaking’. 

The three operators were Go-Ahead, Arriva and Stagecoach and the proposal was a voluntary partnership agreement, under which service change dates have been coordinated, more joint operator ticketing has been implemented and there is a much improved dialogue between operators and transport authorities.