North East transport chief at franchising hearing: risks "keep me awake at night"

The North East Combined Authority's managing director for transport operations has said at a hearing into its proposed quality contract scheme that he would be "importing signfiicant financial risk into the public sector" that "keeps me awake at night," Newcastle's Chronicle reports today.

Hughes, defending the plans against claims from bus operators that the QCS could lead to higher fares and tax bills and worse services at the QCS board, said that attempts to arrive at a "mutually agreed position" through a voluntary partnership had been stymied and the QCS would "best enable people to move freely around".

Whilst Tim Ward QC for Stagecoach, the Chronice reported, claimed there could be "a big hole in [Nexus's] finances," Hughes said there was a financial buffer of £79m, "which is not there today in the current bus market... no bus company has got a pot of £79m that it wheels out to deal with risk. It is the job of me and my colleagues to make sure that risk is properly understood and managed".