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If you listen to the team radios, they were all expecting the lapped cars to be released a lot earlier than they were & that's what normally happens. If they did that net result would be the same Verstappen wins. Start race & give those 4 blue flags, well we know they'd just have pulled straight over & let Verstappen past so as not to get involved in championship battle, again net result Verstappen wins.
They should have pulled Hamilton in, yes he would have lost track position to Verstappen but he'd have the faster car & faster tyres net result Hamilton wins.

5 sided shape = Pentagon
6 sided shape = hexagon
8 sided shape = octagon
Lewis Hamilton = titlegon

All I'll say is tfl has had more than twice as much as the whole UK in Grant's, so much for the franchise model.
Deregulation has saved the taxpayer millions

I think can remove the word "could" from.that sentence, unless of course more funding is made available.

Worth noting that even if a bus is deemed socially necessary then if the LTA can actually fund it or not is another thing. Budgets are getting tighter & there isnt the BSIO money that we've been led to believe (not nearly enough BSIP money.

Service 75 short workings between international station and the business park round trip of 15 minutes

It wasnt.
Simon has already gone into detail on here what the issue was.

When talking about BSIPS  it is important to note a few key points.
There is only 1.2 billion in the pot which is split into 2 key elements  capital £600 million which is for infrastructure bus lanes etc & revenue (fares/ticketing etc.
Areas which recieved City regional transport settlement funding of which the west Midlands is one, will NOT recieve any of the Capital element.
Only 20 of the LTAs will recieve a share of the revenue element.
So there is likely going to be a huge funding deficit come April 2022

Given that this is basically at the end of next week & the tender round only went in today with no results as of yet, it would be totally unrealistic to expect another operator to be in place by 5th December

No tenders (when announced) would start 2nd January. As that list was for December 5th changes that'll be why its removed

From what I understand the cracks are severe & with panels removed can be seen to open & close while the tram is moving on a flat straight bit of track. Orr are strict when it comes to safety.
Ask yourself this, if it was a bus that had severe cracks around the suspension would you be happy to get on it?

As for the new trams, they have had no test running & mileage put on them (certainly not enough to be certified by the ORR. With a defect on all the rest of the fleet I'd think it highly unlikely that the ORR would pass them as safe for service.

I personally don't see the metro in operation anytime soon.

It's hard to see nx extending any services whilst they are currently cutting their existing routes & PVR.

Would probably have to go out to tender as it's not commercially viable

Too much congestion country that one anyway

The thing with VDLS is when they go wrong if you dont have experience with the type then they can be a devil to sort out & even if you do know the intricacies of the type then if they have become problematic then it's best to let them go, that's speaking from a depth of experience as there were a couple of VDLs we were glad to be rid of.
Regarding the 1 etc then there was a requirement of CBSSG & BRG to operate (or have registered) a certain percentage or as close to 100% of pre covid mileage as possible. That maybe what led to some of these changes.