(15 Nov 2015, 8:58 am)RobinHood wrote GNE have a pretty well established set of Boxing Day services, whereas Arriva have never done it.
I therefore suspect that Arriva would have much more rejection from drivers and engineering staff internally due to the historic nature of no service on these days, that they wouldn't be able to cover the service provision if they planned to. That lack of definitive heads to cover is probably the main reason why it doesn't happen.
That said, a decent pay rate can tempt pretty much anyone, but you wouldn't open a garage to run just one route (as that initial overhead cost of engineers and supervisors would all be loaded onto that single service along with drivers), you would want to run as much as you can to make it all worthwhile (just like GNE do when they run more routes from one depot for example) - then we come back around to the beginning of this post...
I suspect if it ever happens, it would be in the Northumbria end of the region, given demand already expects a service there. Darlington will never open just to run Service 7. It would be at a loss by lunchtime by the time overheads and background staff are taken into account.
I'd argue that tradition has little place in business, nowadays. Just because something has been done for the last 20 years, doesn't mean that it should continue being done like that, for the next 20.
I appreciate that there'll be staff there, who are not contractually required to work on a boxing day, but I'd be surprised if that were still the case for new starters. As you say though. a decent rate of pay can tempt pretty much anyone. I know of a number private sector businesses, where that their staff aren't required to work bank holidays, but they appreciate that their customers want to use them on a bank holiday. They all tend to manage staffing through a volunteers basis, and they always get the volunteers they need. Simply because they offer an incentive on top of the usual pay rate.