(24 Dec 2017, 9:18 pm)Malarkey wrote But if GNE offered fares similar to Lothian (£3.50) for those who go out after 6pm for the evening then that would entice more people to use the service than getting in a taxi home thus covering the costs of running each bus per hour, perhaps trialling the cheaper fare offering on the N21/N56 first before looking at expansion of the Night Network.
Flip side of the coin think of how much it must cost to run a taxi per hour, more so if a taxi who usually operates the Asda rank at The Galleries ends up doing pick ups from Newcastle, Sunderland or Durham which a driver I had on friday night was going to do after he dropped off with my xmas shopping, so like the bus operator is a taxi firm breaking even and is that impacting overall profit figures.
It costs a lot less to run a taxi per hour. Because if the taxi is empty, then it is not moving and the driver is not earning any money. A bus still has to run to a registered route, and a driver is still paid an hourly rate for driving that route.
I'd be a fan of reduced evening fares, but that should be for your existing evening services, with a view to being able to expand the offering over time. That doesn't instantly produce a night bus, and to be honest, would make you even less likely to hit that target of £690 an hour to run your proposed night buses...