(10 Sep 2021, 3:24 pm)col87 wrote I personally thing if Stagecoach want to have all town services to themselves then they should do it properly including a good Sunday and Evening network and not just what suits them. Better buses in the fleet and and better evening would see more people using the bus or else the whole town should be giving to someone else. Same with Go North east in Gateshead should not be able to pick and chose what suits them. This is exactly the reason why I would be on favour of services been done on a franchise system as might actually get decent services then.Unfortunately, that's how capitalism works. Stagecoach or anyone else can pick and choose what they want to run. Even Paul's Travel haven't chipped in with an evening service because it isn't profitable. Asking Stagecoach to run an empty bus (and to be fair, they often do! I've been the only person on a Hartlepool local route several times) just on the off chance somebody might occasionally get on with their NCTS pass is like asking Tesco to to stock miniture condoms just in case somebody is big enough to admit their shortcomings. But they don't, as there's no profit to be made from using shelf space for something that will barely, if ever sell.
You don't seem to be grasping that the primary function of Stagecoach (and other commercial transport providers) is to make a profit and any gaps in the network are the responsibility of the local authority or PTE to fill. In this particular case it's Hartlepool Council that's at fault, not Stagecoach. You may remember that it was actually Arriva not Stagecoach that ran most of the tentered routes in the town before HBC cut the funding over a decade ago.