I'd love to see one of the big three operators set up a customer based focus group/consultation panel. There's a real opportunity here, and one for these companies to really interact with their passengers. All for the sake of a couple of hours a month. Heck, I'd even donate my own time and experience to chair such a thing if any of them were willing to give it a shot.
I have thought about this many times, and my idea was to have Customer Reps from each area covering services in the area they represent that would feed into a North East Bus Users Forum manned by Representatives from The Big 3...
My Idea would be to split up areas either, by the Buzzfare Zones with 2 reps in each colour or go for splitting into areas (Sunderland South and East Durham, Sunderland North and South Tyneside and so on) and then they would attend either monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly meetings with the top dogs and also meet with Service Delivery Managers and Depot Management every now and again. That said, I also thought Arriva and Stagecoach could do something like this and between the three of them setup a North East Forum for bus use that is Customer Led and it is just another metbod of communictating with each other only through the mouths and opinions of customers.