(18 Jun 2016, 8:44 am)palatine3833 wrote I would question that, since they are judging their passenger numbers on the ticket machine data. This works but only to a certain extent. If 30 people board at Blackhall Mill, but only 2 of them buy single/returns to the Business Park and the other 28 have passes, what method do GNE (or any other company for that matter) have of determining when they alight the bus? Or do they just assume they all went to Newcastle?
Feel free to question it - but how do you know that Go North East are measuring passenger numbers between two locations on ticket machine data alone?
The news page refers to the real-time information system fitted to each bus which has allowed the company to build more realistic and achievable timetables - but I see no mention of how the company gathered their information regarding passenger numbers.
For all you or I know, Go North East could have allocated a resource to stand at Newcastle Business Park to record how many people were alighting at these stops. If this was done over a few days/weeks, the company could get an average figure for how many passengers are alighting at Newcastle Business Park over the course of the day. I am not suggesting that this has been done, but it is a possibility, and a way in which the 28 passes could have been captured.