(01 Mar 2020, 3:23 pm)Big O wrote I agree, it’s all ridiculous to be fair and only someone biased or trying to impress their overheads could disagree.
A bus will always be a bus, no one really likes them and gets on one because it’s has tables or WiFi. Run them on time and to places people actually want to go and you’ll get a return on your investment. I don’t use the WiFi on public vehicles anyway because it isn’t secure and data can easily be interfered with.
Maybe I'm biased then, as I disagree. There are numerous articles online which attribute improving customer experience, by way of more premium specification features on-board buses, to revenue growth.
A couple of Arriva examples, admittedly in the trade press a few years old now, are below:
https://cbwmagazine.com/arriva-goes-max/
https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/arriva-...re-growth/
In my opinion; providing a reliable bus service that goes to the places its users want to go to, maintains revenue. Operators have to do more to protect that revenue and grow it. Schemes such as Arriva's 'Sapphire' and 'MAX' - and more recently Go North East's 'X-lines' - aim to provide a better customer experience for the operators' passengers, with the view of boosting revenue.
Sadly merely maintaining existing passenger numbers and/or revenue is not sustainable. Bus operators' costs rise every year with employees' pay rises alone. That's before you consider other factors, such as fuel, insurance, etc. Operators need to do something more than provide a basic bus service to increase patronage to make this affordable, and I'd argue investing in new buses and refurbishing existing buses with better features, definitely contribute to doing this.
Clearly some operators see no other alternative but to reduce service levels in order to reduce costs and in turn maintain profit levels. This is a last resort, I'm sure, as operators know that reducing service levels will see a reduction in passenger numbers and hence revenue.