Pricing
Pricing
When I first moved up here I noticed that the fares were simply a rip-off, I live towards Rowlands Gill and my local bus service is the red kite offering of GNE. I had a car down in London for a number of months that was getting fixed and I had to use the bus for the best part of 6 months. 2 of those 6 months completely cleared me out. £5.30 for a return one just one bus is just ridiculous. That same money could get you around the whole London network for a day which is a far more expensive city.
There's a push to get people using public transport more, backed up by the talk of carbon emissions ect, but when your bus doesn't show up in the morning and there is little to no communication to tell you why, you won't care about the wifi, tables, leather seats and fancy colour schemes. You just want to get to where you are going. The model in London is different, there are no commercial services, it's all tendered work which means if a bus doesn't show up the operator is heavily penalised. So there is an incentive to run on time. In the rare event that a bus doesn't show, the frequencies can make up for it and buses are adjusted.
I remember once in Sunderland, there were delays for whatever reason and I remember seeing 4 16s in a row, none adjusted and thus leaving a big gap in service. Who wants to trade their car for that?! The buses will never be attractive to young people who now have their mind dictated by social media, everybody wants to fit the "image" and a car is certainly apart of this.
The lack of connections in certain parts of the city is just terrible and puts you off using the bus altogether due to the price again. I think people in my area would greatly benefit from a service that could run from Rowlands Gill - Whitley Bay via Four Lane Ends the Cobalt. A nice cross-city service linking the main hubs of employment and also a place of leisure in the summer months.
I think tendered services are the way forward, it creates better competition and not just operators trying to time themselves in front of the other, cheaper fares, an enhanced bus network and it would increase patronage. Manchester is another City who are going to adopt this approach and it cleatrly works. Look at London.
