(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?

I've had my own thoughts about the X10 through Dalton Park. I was sceptical at first though clearly it's been a success. Don't know why we were so surprised, it is in effect a half-hearted replacement for the range of Newcastle express from the Parkside/Seaham/Murton withdrawn around 2008 area that GNE are now trying to flog as a new connection, just with the added bonus of having to change buses. 

I can't say I know too much about the legality around the legal detail of the no better/worse off rule. As I envisage my proposal, however, I don't see how it's any different to the current scheme. I propose operators keep re-imbursments at the exact same level as present. The £1 surcharges are perhaps best described as a levy, which are in effect protected funds passed to the LA. The LA then has a fund of £1 levies it spends on supported bus service, I.E. the money they had to spend prior to 2010. Again, as per current rules, this public money can only be spent on services that cannot be operated commercially; low patronage routes, evening and Sunday extensions of daytime commercial routes. It is entirely the LA's money and the LA's discretion on which routes to spend it on. Going further down the rabbit hole, there's discussion to be had if they would be legally compelled to spend all money raised within a time-frame, rather than hoarding money intended to provide services. Also whether improvements in infrastructure and alternative transport schemes (e.g. dial-a-ride) would constitute as appropriate ways to spend the levy. My thoughts would be money raised from ENCTS stage-carraige journeys should be spent on improving similar stage-carriage services.