(24 Oct 2018, 8:43 am)Andreos1 wrote A few points to note. 
I've no idea what the impact of an ENCTS pass is on a route. Successful or not. I'm not privy to that data. 
I would suggest it has a positive impact on some routes, where margins are supplemented. 
The opposite on others. 
But that has the potential to open up a whole other can of worms with regard to other financial support operators get and that was done to death (much to eezypeazy's chagrin) in the QCS thread.
So I won't touch on it again. 

Hartlepool's bus service is a mess. I believe it points towards greed, mismanagement or other factors within the operator. 
You will know about the impact it has on communities, along with other decisions by hospital bosses has hit the town hard. 
I would suggest there aren't many spare £1 coins kicking around amongst some in the Hartlepool area. 

The point you make about express services is an interesting one. 
Whether connected to increase in ENCTS passes or not, the express services that were nominally limited stop, have more stops now. 
Granted the X10 was done for operational reasons, but I would bet a few quid, that when Dalton Park was chosen for a split, fiancial factors and the prospect of picking up ENCTS passes played a part in the decision making process. 

My other point, relates to the whole idea in general. The 'no worse off' process is partly because of EU State Aid rules and how UK Governments perceive the potential of the scheme to break those rules.
There is a line or two about this within policy documents. 
Would the potential to break those rules still exist under the £1 or £6 surcharge?

Really don't like the prices of the child tickets me when using the X10 between Dalton Park and Newcastle or Gateshead as its still £2 between these even though I'm only travelling between 2 countys. I can find it understandable why going to Middlesborough would be £2 but if kids are travelling only between 1 county then GNE should only charge the £1 flat fare. Find this a bit of a scam and god even going to sunderland on the metro and getting a child return on them would be cheaper. Not happy with this as i also use this section a lot. If the ECNTs were going to get a fare, making the fare the same as the child or dropping all childs to £1 with the ECNTs would be fair.