ALL CHANGE

摘要

There seems little doubt that the organisation of Britain's bus services - at least in some of the English city regions outside London - is about to change radically, and in different ways in different places. The coalition government - crucially the Conservatives who make up the bulk of it - has offered Greater Manchester a raft of devolved responsibilities including the option, subject to consultation, of an elected mayor from 2017 and a bus franchising regime like London's. Labour politicians in Tyne & Wear are pushing their own plan for a quality contract franchising arrangement - without a mayor - while their party promises to lift the barriers standing in the way of more quality contract schemes elsewhere in England if it wins the general election on 7 May.