(02 Sep 2017, 9:03 pm)Ambassador wrote No. Low Fell and Birtley have high levels of car ownership, the only thing they have in common is virtual monopolies by GNE aside a half hourly limited stop express service from Arriva.
Here in GM, the highest fares are in low car ownership areas, and/or where there is no competition, which is a double failure of de-reg in terms of captive market economics. Why isn't there more competition in low car ownership (thus high bus use) areas? I suppose there was in the early days of de-reg, with the so-called "David v Goliath" battles - Piranha v Blue Whale would have been more appropriate. Trouble is, this brought low quality but without low cost. Now we have "Two Tribes" (as in FGTH) battles that leaves the rest of their respective territory to rot.