Are you planning for traincrew to be provided by both companies in the partnership, rather than the operating company?
I'd see the partnership as a stand alone entity. If it was a limited company then the company would be the employee. If it is instead a brand and management organisation that procures services then I assume that organisation would be employee.
I am not suggesting franchising when I talk about tendering. I have a model closer to TfL's rail services or Merseyrail in mind.
Yes, so why not set up Northern the same way, to allow for the very obvious issue that the Liverpool to Hull conurbation has overlapping catchment areas. In fact, services across the North are less distinct than those serving each terminal in London.
Because London, the South East and Eastern regions are dominated by London. Geographically London is also broadly if not actually central.
The 'North' isnt a cohesive region. Manchester has far less of an impact on York or Newcastle than London has on say Colchester or even Cambridge. The transport demands and needs of the north are dominated by the 5 major connuerbations there. Yes I know there are other major cities but relatively speaking they are small in comparison to Merseyside, GM, West and South Yorks and Tyneside.
The North has never been planned as a single entity. Whereas and strategic plan for the SE or East would inevitably have to coordinate with London. It follows that transport would need to as well.
That would be operated by Inter-Regional under the TPE brand.
Regional Express operators between the regions of the north is one option similar to what I have outlined.
Taking this a step up, rather than Regional Express type services being tendered or owned by Westminster, perhaps a single brand that covered all of England could be created but owned jointly by all of the regional TAs. It isnt such an outlandish idea.
The Polish regional division of the Polish Railways was transferred to the ownership of the provincial governments who each own a specific number of shares in the company. I assume broadly based on their relative share of Polish population.