(24 Feb 2014, 7:12 pm)aureolin wrote It's not just Arriva doing that. GNE have also been guilty of it over the years. Both, in most places, provide a cracking service during the day Monday to Friday though. It's just a shame that the majority of fare-paying passengers are unable to take advantage of this.
In my own situation I have 8 buses an hour to Durham during the day. After 6pm I have 2 an hour, one of which is ran by another operator, so I can't use without paying extra. On a Sunday or Bank Holiday I have a bus every 2 hours. I'd therefore argue that the service I have is dire, as it doesn't exist when I want to take advantage of it.
When I lived in Washington it was a similar story. The 194/M1/4 being decimated on an evening, the W4 being withdrawn, and the W5 becoming once an hour. I lose the enthusiasm for going out socially on an evening when it involves a 20-30 minute wait in a bus station between buses.
There's a bigger picture here though surely? If you spend your time alienating your paying customers by the reduction of services and they'll find alternative transport. This tends to result in more cars on the road, not to mention less people buying weekly/monthly tickets, as they no longer commute by bus either.
Indeed. Andreos1 made the point in regards to Go North East doing it before, and I was commenting on the fact that Arriva are guilty of it likewise. I've no idea what the loadings were like on services 22/23/24 before but on the Tyne & Wear section of services 23/24, they're not great. Service 24 is indeed better, but that's perhaps due to passengers travelling onwards towards Durham rather than anything else.
Like I said before, I see both sides to the argument. While I do get the point being made in regards to the loss of passengers and agree with it somewhat, vehicle running costs as well as drivers' wages are often expensive. It's for that reason why propping an early morning/late night/Sunday service up by using profits generated earlier in the day isn't as good. I really can't relate though, which is why my views are skewed somewhat.