Go North East service levels during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Go North East service levels during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
(12 Apr 2020, 2:16 pm)Dan Are you forgetting about the fact Go North East's bus fares have been largely frozen (if not reduced!) for the past two years? Very few people are paying more for their bus fares now, compared to two years ago.Although GNE's fare are slightly more in some aspects, at least they have been investing in their fleet. In GNE's defence, the price of a single fare on a competing route to the nearest stop close to my house where the route operates is only 40p cheaper compared to the GNE route that I 99% of the time use. Yet, the route in question ended up getting older ex Yorkshire cascades when the B5LH's went to Yorkshire rather than getting new vehicles. Yes they were refurbished but in comparison to the treatment 6099-6117 got, they're poor from a passenger perspective.
I believe streetdeckfan shared an insight into Go North East's profitability recently. Certainly not making a head-turning amount of profit. So, if incentives such as BSOG weren't there and the company wanted (or needed!) to maintain existing levels of profitability, I don't think they'd be in a position to freeze and/or reduce bus fares as they have done for the past two years, or invest in as many new vehicles (to improve reliability, customer experience etc) as they have done. If that didn't happen, would more passengers have ditched the bus and started travelling by car? There's lots of questions that neither of us, nor anyone else, know the answer to, here...
(12 Apr 2020, 2:16 pm)Dan Are you forgetting about the fact Go North East's bus fares have been largely frozen (if not reduced!) for the past two years? Very few people are paying more for their bus fares now, compared to two years ago.Although GNE's fare are slightly more in some aspects, at least they have been investing in their fleet. In GNE's defence, the price of a single fare on a competing route to the nearest stop close to my house where the route operates is only 40p cheaper compared to the GNE route that I 99% of the time use. Yet, the route in question ended up getting older ex Yorkshire cascades when the B5LH's went to Yorkshire rather than getting new vehicles. Yes they were refurbished but in comparison to the treatment 6099-6117 got, they're poor from a passenger perspective.
I believe streetdeckfan shared an insight into Go North East's profitability recently. Certainly not making a head-turning amount of profit. So, if incentives such as BSOG weren't there and the company wanted (or needed!) to maintain existing levels of profitability, I don't think they'd be in a position to freeze and/or reduce bus fares as they have done for the past two years, or invest in as many new vehicles (to improve reliability, customer experience etc) as they have done. If that didn't happen, would more passengers have ditched the bus and started travelling by car? There's lots of questions that neither of us, nor anyone else, know the answer to, here...
