(06 Sep 2021, 10:03 pm)Storx wrote Interesting take but not sure I agree. Personally I think there's more competition now than there ever has been now but it's not from other bus operators it's cars. The majority of households have more than one car nowadays and pretty much anyone can if they want to.
Back in the 80's that would be unheard of for most families especially in poorer areas to have 2 cars between them like nowadays. Independents wouldn't be able to make money nowadays if they tried and that's not because of GNE etc it's just lack of demand. There's also the Metro which has had a massive impact in a lot of areas aswell for better really (unless your looking from a purely bus point of view).
Competition argubly makes things worse, you just look at North Tyneside, Hartlepool, South Shields / Sunderland and Peterlee. The 4 areas with the most competition and argubly the 4 areas with the most fractured networks aswell with Stagecoach at South Shields and Hartlepool and Peterlee (GNE) being low cost depots and there's an awful lot of subsidised buses in the areas aswell even known they're all urban / semi urban (for Peterlee) areas.
Yeah the drastic increase in the use of cars has certainly had a big impact on bus travel, and there's no getting away from that. However, the point I'm making is GNE didn't think twice about creating new services when there was competition around. I remember when Redby started the 42/43/49 in the mid nineties and GNE suddenly had the 242 and 243 running to Sunderland. Also Redby had the 394 to take on the 194 by extending it to serve Newcastle. Then, guess what GNE extended the 194 to Newcastle and also started 191 service around the same time. It's the same with the bus wars they had with Classic. They could easily start up a new service then if they wanted. So I'm not sure whether I agree competition makes everything worse. If anything I think it keeps the big operators on their toes and forces them to provide a better service. I agree about the metro having an impact on some bus services mind. The old X4/X95 and 187/8 used to always get decent loadings until the metro extended to Sunderland which ultimately killed those services off. Having said that the 56 is a popular service which shows things can turnaround.
(07 Sep 2021, 8:30 am)Rapidsnap wrote St George Travel along with others such as North Rider, Compass Travel and George Bell closed down due to contract changes requiring low floor buses at a time when the cost of them was at a premium especially since these operators ran small sized buses.
Thanks for confirming that as I heard otherwise about St George Travel. Surprised these independents weren't offered a bit of financial support to help them upgrade their vehicles to the required spec. The big operators get plenty of help after all. I know for sure the likes OK Travel and Redby were bought out, as I was sure Stanley Travel was but they are still going? I remember reading Classic and GNE negotiated to settle their bus wars.