Crescar Lens
Has Bus Franchising in the UK settled into a stable, innovation-free procurement cycle?
Some with longer memories will recall (chose to forget?!) the UK Rail Franchising cycles. Bus Franchising in the UK feels like it has settled into a similar pattern but in true bus industry style, somewhat cheaper and less glamorous… Where rail franchising had teams of 10s of people and entire floors of offices of consultants, Bus Franchising feels more earthy and well connected to the procuring regions, with smaller teams on both sides of the procurement process and a high level of accessibility of the leaders of the Operators and CAs.
Crescar have been involved one way and another in all of the biggest and most of the smaller competitions and what we can conclusively say is that the processes are not really getting any simpler for the bidders. No-one wants ‘cookie-cutter’ delivery plans and a race to the bottom on price, but the focus of the competitions so far has certainly been on compliance rather than innovation in the delivery of bus services and not a lot on modal shift & growing the share of journeys. I think this is of concern.
The industry needs to find a way to include the delivery of innovation and supporting demand growth in a meaningful way, into the ITNs and then the evaluation process. This is not to say the procuring Authorities cannot innovate, but lets be real – the current structure of these contracts simply does not incentivise innovation. No financial upside for the operator, no potential contract extensions linked to outstanding performance or innovation, no revenue shares for new services or growing authority revenue. Just a lot of Contract Variations, back and forth approvals and slow contract-led governance processes to make what used to be a quick change now a slow change or not at all.
Talent and quality in the industry will always find its way out, so we don’t need to be too despondent. But as someone who grew up in (and marvelled at) an industry that delivered the halcyon days of the 36, the Magic Bus, TrentBarton, Reading Buses and Brighton and Hove – and buses every 6 minutes all the way the Outer Circle in Birmingham, while we have gained a lot, we’ve certainly lost something that needs to be considered in future competition rounds.
– Mark Kipling
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