Nexus boss to retire

Director General of Nexus, Bernard Garner, has announced he is to retire. Bernard has led Nexus since 2006, overseeing a record £389m investment in the Tyne and Wear Metro, the roll out of smart ticketing and the Bus Strategy Delivery Project. The process of seeking a new MD for Transport Operations is now underway and is being led by the North East Combined Authority (NECA). NECA is to replace the former Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, for whom Nexus Director Generals have previously worked. Mr Garner is expected to leave his post by the end of the year as this new post is appointed.

Bernard Garner said, ‘It has been my enormous privilege to have worked at Nexus for almost three decades, and to have led the organisation for the last eight years in the delivery of important local services. I am particularly proud to have led an organisation that has strived to provide effective and high quality local transport for everyone in our community, no matter what their needs, through access improvements at Metro stations, encouraging the introduction of low-floor buses, and concessions including Taxicard and Companion Card for disabled people. We have completed the transition of Nexus into the Combined Authority structure, and the organisation is in a strong position to take forward the important workstreams to which it is committed: “Delivering the Bus Strategy”, “Metro: all change” modernisation and the continued roll-out of smart travel.’