(30 May 2015, 3:03 pm)aureolin wrote But where would it stop? Two companies could continuously submit amendments to their timetable until they're back to square one, or alternatively, could improve the marketing of their service to make it appeal more. Whether this be cost, on board technology, or whatever else.
But that is the way that it works I'm afraid. On a busy corridor, passengers jump on the first bus that they can get in the majority of circumstances and the bus that can provide the service after waiting the longest, nigh on always makes the most money. Arriva could easily rebel but, they could also look at it from a P.O.V that they might get more passengers in their turf down towards Billy Mill due to fewer reliability issues that the common corridors outside of cities (i.e Low Fell, Old Durham Road) can cause with high volumes of passengers in very built up areas with traffic lights and high volumes of traffic.