(28 Jul 2022, 2:20 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Just to clarify, I was saying JH Coaches, rather than Nexus, could possibly compete with North East, if there was sufficient demand and other services could be established to connect with.

The Metro costs money, likewise it costs more if you need multiple operators (there is ticket acceptance in place for now, but there is no guarantee it will continue). Nexus already compete anyway, there is a day ticket for Gateshead Central Taxis and Phoenix services (not sure if this is accepted on JH & Weardale).
Besides, not everyone likes the Metro, and direct links are better, so they should be an option. 

We don't need more buses crossing the river, definitely not, but if ticket acceptance was removed, or it was cheaper to use just Nexus services (which it already is) the 82 being extended to Newcastle would make it a good option for passengers to use.

Someone could argue we don't need Eldon Square, buses could terminate at High Level Bridge and passengers could use the Metro to reach Eldon Square from Central Station. 

If the 82 is popular between Gateshead and Birtley, I assume some passengers would use it to and from Newcastle.

I doubt the management team at JH Coaches will have much of an appetite to compete with GNE after what transpired when they last tried around 30 years ago. Everything comes down to resource. While the prospect of competition, leading to cheap fares and more choice for passengers, might encapsulate the spirit of deregulation, the reality is that whomever has the most resource, usually the incumbent operator, wins the battle. Sure, there might be a brief period of competitive fares, but things aren't always what they seem. The attractive fares on offer are usually loss-leaders designed to persuade passengers to use their service, and again, it is usually the operator with the most resource and financial backing who is able to offer the lowest fares and absorb the costs. Once the competition is eliminated, all those loses which the winner has absorbed have to be recouped somehow, which means higher fares for passengers in the long run.

Unless the service is offering something truly original or tapping into a market which no-one has exploited, competition on existing routes is probably not a commercially viable prospect. 


BTW, if anyone wants to read about bus competition in the North East, there is a fantastic report commissioned by the, then Monopolies and Mergers Commission (Now the Competitions Commission), available in the reference section of Gateshead Central Library. See link below:

https://prism.librarymanagementcloud.co....s+services&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dthe%2Bsupply%2Bof%2Bbus%2Bservices