(29 Jul 2021, 10:07 pm)Ambassador wrote The commercial success of the £1 fares and Seasider/Toon Tour shows the leisure opportunity is there, how long the post staycation boom lasts is another but as football restarts if you can tempt a few thousand Newcastle fans onto your bus for a quid, there’s profit to be had
For a while, even before Covid, I've thought of the leisure market being the main area for growth.
For commuting, there's realistically only ever going to be a specific pool of people who you're appealing to. Unless you live on a direct route, cannot drive, have issues with parking, or would need to plough through heavy traffic, chances are most folk will drive to work.
On top of this, you have the income from leisure that can really make the difference. Just about everyone I know considers using the bus for a night out in Newcastle, or to get to the match on a Saturday, or for shopping in town. Lots of these people, family members included, only do so because of the promotions when their routes were upgraded a few years back and they were made aware of the reasonable fares and late journeys. Out of those people, every single one of them uses a car for their daily commute. It's clear they will never change how they commute, in many instances it just isn't feasible, but it is clear that the correct marketing can easily get car users onto the bus for leisure.