(21 Jan 2018, 5:45 pm)Adrian wrote I've long called for a 24 hour ticket, as oppose to having 'day' tickets. It doesn't seem right that you're charged the same price for a day ticket at 6pm, as you would be at 6am. Despite having some 12 hours extra use out of it. The same goes for Sunday and bank holiday; why should you pay the same price for your day ticket on either of those days, when you have about 1/3 of the normal service operating? You wouldn't pay the price for a pint for a 1/3 in a pub... you'd pay for a third. So why should public transport be any different?
I quite like the idea of evening fares too, and I'd like to think that they'd support the viability of more frequent buses on an evening. Arriva run a '5 for a Fiver' fare in Durham City after 7pm, which is bound to be cheaper than a taxi in all cases.
Overall, I would like to see a lot more integrated working between the major operators in the North East. It is quite clear that they are reluctant to compete with each other route by route, and I think we've seen since deregulation, that it provides little benefit for the passengers when they do. So why not take advantage of the Buses Bill, and have some proper integrated multi bus operator ticketing instead? Cut Nexus and the Metro out, and have a decent product that offers good value for money to everyone... we might actually get somewhat closer to the pipe-dream of an 'Oyster card for the North'...
I know First up here offer "Evening Tickets", which are £3 after 19:00. If you take into account a single into town is £2.50, that's a decent offer. I'm definitely of the opinion that if bus companies in university cities targeted students more than it seems they do, more would begin to use the bus to travel into the city centre for nights out, etc. This would, in theory, lead to the demand for a more frequent service, which everyone would benefit from.
I think the Explorer is something that can definitely be built upon if used and advertised properly. Although, I think there potentially needs to be something in place to see fares from that ticket be weighted more in terms of which services they're used on.