Let me state from the start here that I am not aiming this at First or commenting specifically on (Croydon) Tramlink. The few tram systems operating in the UK for fifteen or more years, and LRT systems too, have seen changes of operators on one or even two occasions, and given they do not choose routes, timetables, fares or even the vehicles used the only real criteria are cost and performance, and, as stated, many of the costs are borne by the commissioners. So what we are really talking about are PEOPLE and trying to operate a system with the minimum requisite number at the lowest possible cost. That means what some might consider to be cutting corners (and I do realise that is not a good phrase to use, perhaps) can result, particularly if one of these operators has been told, officially or unofficially, or maybe just is feeling paranoid, that their contract is under threat of non-renewal. Something akin to this situation is certainly a feature of the TfL-contracted bus services where different companies vie with each other week by week and there is plenty of evidence of route controllers under pressure to produce the best service in a cosmetic sense, if maybe not to a great proportion of the users of that route at time i.e. the passengers. Such pressure is then transferred to the individual drivers who, with congestion increasing month by month in most areas of London, can only meet it by driving faster and spending the absolute minimum time at stops when they are able to. Some drivers will (rightly, imo) resist this but many, particularly younger and more inexperienced ones, will heed the call and, perhaps, drive dangerously. I will say this, as someone who has been travelling on London's buses for well over sixty years and made thousands of journeys, that I had only felt on about four or five occasions until about fifteen years ago that I'd travelled on a dangerously driven bus, but now, even though I can unfortunately not get to London very often now, if I spent a day on the buses I would certainly come across two or three badly-driven ones and a very good chance of one I'd place in the dangerous category. Now, if a tram is a 'bus on tracks, basically' as Andrew Braddock of Tram UK said on the 'Today' programme yesterday (he could of course have said trolleybus but he would probably have to explain what that was) I have no doubt that drivers are experiencing the same 'challenges' as those bus drivers. A system operated directly by a transport authority, as still occurs on most trams around the world, may not have quite the same financial pressures: whether that is a good thing is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I would suggest there could be a subtle difference between how a private or public operator runs a system.
