On 9 July, the Policy & Sustainability Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council considered a report proposing that the council's partly and wholly owned public transport organisations be merged, and that a new public transport strategy be adopted. Before tram operations restarted in 2014, the council decided to create a group company structure for the delivery of an integrated transport system in Edinburgh and the surrounding area. This was partly to ensure compliance with competition and procurement law and to provide a model to enable maximum integration. Currently, that group structure comprises Transport for Edinburgh as parent company (wholly owned by City of Edinburgh Council), with a wholly owned subsidiary Edinburgh Trams, and a 91% ownership of Lothian Buses and its subsidiary companies. The rest of Lothian Buses is owned by East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian councils. This has delivered high quality public transport, but the report says the inefficiencies within the operating model have led to challenges regarding collaboration and integration.
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