(21 Nov 2015, 12:01 pm)Dan wrote No - I should have been clearer in my previous post by stating 'some'. The Arriva North East 44 and 45 services to Dinnington are a prime example of a service being secured by Nexus on Boxing Day in previous years, but this year will be operated on a commercial basis (morphed into Go North East's Q3 service). I'd suggest that the demand is likely to be there given that NUFC are playing at home.
Perhaps in the future Go North East will operate the extension to Heworth commercially - there'd be nothing stopping them from doing it, but given that it's usually secured by Nexus on evenings and Sundays, I can't see there being sufficient demand to supply this service (especially if Nexus thinks that too!) Each year has seen a new commercial risk taken by Go North East: last year it was extending the 4 from Fallowfield Way to Houghton-le-Spring (via Fencehouses) once per hour, which has notably been continued this year, and this year sees Boxing Day services go to places such as Bishop Auckland, Cramlington and Sacriston, which hasn't been done in a very long time.
It would be good if they did take a risk one year, the one thing what annoys me is though is that the bigger bus companies seem to be worrying more about profits than the passengers and where people need to be.... Arriva is the biggest example of that.
Its good that GNE are expanding their services on boxing day and hopefully this increases every year.