(02 Dec 2016, 9:42 am)Jamie M wrote 29 does get used during the day, normally, as you'd expect from concessions.
I don't think there would be much point changing the system, and here's why.
In county durham, the company gets around 60£ off the counsil for operating a single 704 trip, regardless of how many people ever get on it. It will cost a lot less than 60£ to run, and there's normally one or two full fare payers a day too. There are 3 704s a day, so GNE are making 200£ extra a day for running a contracted route. I'm confident enough to say that the 29 is contracted, so it will be the same situation, but on a larger scale. If GNE got even 50£ per run, that would work out as 21 runs of a 29 service. 1050£ a day for just running the 29, if my guesses are correct. There then all of the other requirements for the contracted route that I have no clue about, but from my perspective - there is no point changing a system that earns a lot of money just for running it.
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It was contracted, but I believe it is a commercial operation now. One of those that was subsidised cos the route wasn't commercially viable - but it suddenly became viable when up for tender.