(07 Sep 2021, 5:01 pm)Washingtonian wrote 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.
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.
I often wondered if people buying those extra cars was partly down to a poor standard of public transport.
(07 Sep 2021, 6:15 pm)busmanT wrote St George Travel actually had their Operators Licence revoked by the Traffic Commissioner. And one of the partners in North Rider ended up being made bankrupt.
Yeah, didn't think that the low-floor thing was the case with St George.