(03 Mar 2020, 11:19 am)Andreos1 wrote Some interesting points there.
Quite amazed that you would pay the same from Fram as streetdeckfan fan does from the arse end of Bishop, yet others (myself included) who don't have a direct bus to Newcastle need to buy a ticket which costs £7.00, involves a change of buses and can take twice as long as the same journey in the car. Certainly not the sort of incentive to work away on the laptop.
*indicates he's gonna stop talking about prices and then continues to talk about prices*
Seriously though, maybe you have highlighted an issue there. Maybe the operators have the same 'I'm all right Jack' attitude. It works for them, so stuff everyone else who it doesn't work for. Or, maybe they're just ignorant of the fact that it doesn't work for everyone.
As I said yesterday, when I apply a Cost Benefit Analysis, a number of journeys don't work. It's just not feasible at all.
For others it will be.
I'd argue that it needs to be feasible for the majority of the population (and not just the 'sort of passengers' they want - remember that 1% figure you seemed so happy to ignore).
The number of people operators shift versus the population they're not shifting has a huge disparity.
Maybe offering pricing which is attractive for the majority (not just you) and their various needs (not just yours), is one way forward.
Another issue is the zone boundaries, areas which are quite close can have considerably different prices
Let's look at a few hypothetical commutes. If we assume an MPG of 40 for the journey, which is quite reasonable considering the type of roads
Blackhall Mill to Eldon Square- ~12.5 miles
By Car = ~£1.70 each way, so £3.40 for the return journey.
By Bus = £4.60 Single, or £5.30 return. Or, for the same price as the return you can get a Purple day ticket
Hamsterley Colliery to Eldon Square- ~12.5 miles
By Car = ~£1.70 each way, so £3.40 for the return journey.
By Bus = £3.60 Single, or £6.30 return. A day ticket is an extra £1.70 as it would require an all zone day ticket
By car from both places it is the same price (as they're less than a mile apart), but by bus the prices are quite different.
Because the journey from Hamsterley is over 2 zones, the price of the return ticket isn't capped at £5.30, so while the single ticket is £1 cheaper than from Blackhall Mill, the return is £1 more! Assuming they do that journey 5 times a week and therefore decide to buy the monthly ticket, that's an extra £20 a month for living less than 1 mile away. I'm sure that there are plenty of other examples of this, I just happened to know of that one from experience.
You'll also notice that both those journeys will always be cheaper by car, even when buying a monthly ticket, but I haven't take in to account the cost of parking in Newcastle, which I'm guessing for quite a lot of people won't be free, assuming it's available at all. Or the other costs of running a car.