(06 Jan 2020, 5:14 pm)OrangeArrow49 I think bus services are unfair, some places are 'territories' exclusively operated by a single operator, other places are dominated by an operator but have some rival operator services, and then we have places with lots of buses from lots of different operators, possibly too many buses in some cases. In the West End of Newcastle, I always found Stagecoach to be the exclusive operator, but Gosforth is actually dominated by Arriva and Denton Burn has all the big three and other services, despite being dominated by Stagecoach. Thankfully, I am therefore able to access services from all of the big three if required, although Stagecoach is the main player across the West End. Territories are ridiculous, they limit where passengers can travel without being 'disloyal' and having to pay more. Dominant is fine, if slightly inconvenient, but exclusive operations I don't like. Ideally passengers should be able to choose from the big three, not be forced to use any of them in particular.
While I dislike the idea of operators having their own territory, I can see that on some routes it's a necessary evil. Some routes just aren't busy enough to support two operators
Where I think it could be improved is having key towns served by multiple operators
Crook is a decently sized town, yet if I want to get there on GNE I have to either change at Durham or Bishop to an Arriva service
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