(07 Jan 2020, 12:57 pm)streetdeckfan I disagree that a capping system would be any better. The price would likely end up going up from what we have now.
There is no way that GNE would set their daily cap the same price as a single ticket between Gateshead and Metrocentre, which is what I pay per day for my All Zone monthly ticket!
If we take into account that on an average week I will use the bus for 6 out of 7 days, that still averages out at £3.65 a day. Better yet, if I only use it on average 4 times a week, that's £5.48 a day, only slightly more than a single journey on the X21.
Competition always has been, and always will be the answer to having a better service for the consumer.
The thing is in just about any other industry, collaboration between competitors would be seen as highly frowned upon and seen as anti-competitive
Now, I'm not saying it shouldn't happen, but I think letting the operators work together to bring a 'solution' is only going to end up making things worse and probably end up with a price fixing scandal
And when GNE and Arriva agreed to not compete in each other's territories they were in breach of Market Sharing rules. Obviously there will be no evidence to back it up, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't still going on between the SNE, ANE and GNE, at least in an unofficial capacity.
I know you've said in the past that you like a good troll now and again, but really?
Care to share any examples of competition benefiting the consumer - whether this is related to public transport or not.
We could look at the bus wars seen on and off since 86.
We could look at the continual bail-out of private firms on the ECML and lack of competition on key sections of the route.
We could look at the aggressive buy-out of smaller bus ops and associated agreements stopping the firms re-appearing under another guise for x number of years.
I could go on, but would love to know if you really are trolling or not.
'Illegitimis non carborundum'
