(22 Sep 2017, 4:09 pm)Andreos1 wrote Are they saving more money by not operating it (and the service TO Newcastle) and closing the depot for the night, than they are making, running it and keeping the depot open for that half hour or so?
I suspect that is going to be the answer. You've got an extra half hour (roughly?) of not only fuel & driver but your engineer, cleaners/shunters and other depot costs. If it's only really carrying two days a week that gives 4 days where it's running at a loss, probably quite significantly so!