Cornwall Council has launched a bus market engagement exercise as part of its participation in the Department for Transport (DfT) Franchising and Bus Reform pilot.
The engagement process opened on 9 December and will run to 14 January 2026. Through it, bus operators and other industry stakeholders have been invited to assist the local authority in developing a future delivery model for bus services in the county.
Under the DfT pilot, Cornwall Council will investigate potential models including Enhanced Partnership Plus and various franchising approaches. The latter will capture different levels of risk sharing between operators and the authority; phasing; and procurement methods.
The council describes the engagement work as “a soft market testing exercise” and says it will provide critical insights into interest and help to inform the procurement strategy for bus services in Cornwall.
March 2028 may sound like a long way ahead but that will soon go by. It will be interesting to see what model Cornwall go with.
With luck this should be my last posting made on my trusty PC which has come to the end of its natural life. There may be a bit of a wait while I get everything installed and up and running on the new pc. Based on previous experience there is always something I have missed…
I've said it before but TFC needs to take a trip to Manchester to look at the BeeNetwork. It's seriously impressive! Having visited when it was first being set up in 2022 and going back in 2025 the difference in accessibility and access to the entire cities transport network and knowing that once you have done so many trips whether that's on tram or bus (eventually trains too) you won't pay anymore than £9 peak or £7.80 off peak (after 9am) is really good value. If Cornwall could get anywhere near this then it would be a massive improvement.
ReplyDeleteYou can do that in Cornwall using Tap-on, Tap-off! Capping is at the countywide day ticket rate, ie £9.
DeleteI'm not sure that many people in Cornwall realise just how integrated the bus network is compared with other areas. Back in 2021 the council struck a deal with the operators to allow full interoperability of ticketing such that it doesn't matter which operator you buy your ticket from - it's the same price and same validity. That is not the case anywhere else in non-franchised areas.
But there is basically only 1 operator in 95% soon, so its acompletely meaningless thing. Also, there are much better day tickets that cover wider areas and can be bought on any company.
DeleteThe constant tinkering has created a much worse situation going forwards and its cost a fortube to create this mess. Its not somethung to be proud of.
As long as Tfc is predominantly Gcb (plymouth citybus) can't see anything improving, appalling company and even more appalling management, don't care about passengers, just profit for Goahead
ReplyDeleteAll supported routes are up for retender soon. Stagecoach will no doubt want to be a big player now they have a base in Cornwall.
DeleteAs for "profit", there's not much being made if any!
Off topic but the remaining 9 electroliners due to arrive have Wright’s new e handbrake platform
ReplyDeleteWrightbus has upgraded the Electroliner range; visually the new version is little different but there is a raft of improvements to the onboard electronics and the battery range. I expect the nine additional Streetdeck Electroliners for Plymouth will be to this new spec.
Deletehttps://www.route-one.net/bus/wrightbus-targeting-further-growth-with-latest-gen-electroliner/
If there's no profit to be made, Stagecoach will think very carefully before extending their reach into Cornwall. The last thing they want to end up with is a loss-making operation. Their best chance is if Cornwall Council decides to franchise the whole of Cornwall and shares (or takes on fully) the financial risk.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing to stop them bidding at a rate that allows a decent margin for profit. If they don't win, they haven't lost out, it's not like they *need* they work. Presumably Go-Ahead bid low last time and maybe they won't be able to afford to do that again. First won't be bidding and if GAG think few or no other bids will be lodged, they'll bid much higher, not having to worry about what First does.
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