(02 Sep 2019, 9:15 pm)Storx wrote
Hopefully as it would improve it massively imo.
Personally I always thought it was down to the transfares with the metro and it effectively causing a cap on the max they could charge however when your cross the boundary they basically have a free for all and abuse it.
Some anomolies on the 20 though mind just looking at the prices, £4.60 for a single from Houghton to South Shields yet it's £3.70 for a two zone transfare for example. However in general they tend to be under the transfare. £3.60 East Rainton to Sunderland vs £4.60 to Durham for example.
Whatever it is it's delibrate (I'm bored tonight and was curious) and it's the same all over when crossing boundaries:
X45 Newcastle to Hamsterley £3.60 a extra on mile or so to Ebchester it's now £5.30
28 Newcastle to Birtley is £3.10 then to Ouston Crossroads it's now £4.60
55 Houghton to Easington Lane £2.10 but to South Hetton it's £3.60
19 Northumberland Park to Holywell £1.70 but to Seaton Delaval £3.10
20 Houghton to East Rainton £1.70 but to West Rainton it's now £3.10
Some of those fares are quite frankly shocking.
Increasing massively because of a change in LA.
I wonder how many of these cross-county fares are a legacy of pre-86 structures? The above inflation fares obviously are, but I can't think of any other reasons as to why it costs money to cross an arbitrary county boundary, dreamt up by a suit 40 odd years ago when T&W was invented.
One fare that often annoys/amuses me is that of the 71 between Houghton and Chester.
Single fare: £3.60
Return fare: £6.70
Yet, they have the gaul to constantly change, revise and update the service cos the predecessor didn't work the way they want it.