(29 Oct 2023, 7:25 pm)Andreos1 wrote And that's why I think the idea of cutting fares could have played a part in the growth.
You've said yourself it's only a handful of passengers per run across a variety of services.
The long gone eezypeazy never really liked what I said when I brought up similar points to the one you've just made, in the past.
That 21 from Chester that relied on the early 71s and 34s feeding in to it in Chester, inevitably saw numbers drop when the loss making runs on the 71 and 34 were axed. Only small numbers dropped off those 21s, but it somehow came as a huge shock when particular 21s on a morning were axed too.
I'd love to know what the impact on the X1 has been with the constant meddling of the Washington locals over the years.
Whether it was ANE doing the evening runs, JH doing daytime runs or GNE running it commercially, there must be a consequence and impact with the X1.
Aye totally agreed, I always found the splitting of GNE routes quite bizarre, it's the complete opposite of Arriva. I know some will jump in and say it's stupid to have a bus from Sunderland to Durham via everywhere in the world, no-one is going to do that but totally ignore the parts where it gives the 1/4 and 3/4 passengers the choice of both Sunderland and Durham which they wouldn't have.
I know I've made my feelings about local town services known before but I really don't understand stuff like the Venture network in Consett, just send the X45/X46 for example to Delves Lane and be done with it, now they've got a direct bus to Newcastle and nothing else changes. The 30 was the same in Stanley, easily could've been an extension of the X30, now they've got a link to Newcastle. GNE were the only ones which really kept the town services going and by god did they meddle with them aswell like you said.
I think some fare promotions would work, the catch-22 is when you drop the prices you move the goal posts on how many passengers you need, some of the reductions were completely stupid. £1.90 maximum fare on the 19 for example. You could have full bus loads of Ashington and that wouldn't make money, I really don't know what they were thinking tbh. Some of the Durham fares were just as bonkers, believe it was the same on the X21 from CLS to Bishop Auckland - it's no wonder the Crook outstation became unsustainable with fares like that and 65 from Seaham to Durham.