(11 Jul 2020, 10:24 pm)mb134 wrote Absolutely this. It's unlikely (though I perhaps should have made that clearer), but infrequent bus users often simply look for where they want to go, see whichever bus is first then get on that.
Over the years, the amount of times I've seen people catch an X21/2 to Ashington over the X20 because the X21/2 leaves 2-3 minutes earlier is too many to count. I've steered them the right way if I've noticed in time (if I've overhead their conversation!), but all too often I'd get off the X20 then 10 minutes later they'll get off the X21/2. (Note that this was just as frequent in pre-Sapphire days where there generally was no internal spec difference either)
What's the price difference between the two services? I can imagine them timing the more expensive journey first to get more passenger to take that!
It's also why I hate the Durham timetable so much, even if we forget about the fact they're so confusing to understand, they don't tell you how long a journey takes. Two services could go to the same place and you'd have no clue which one would get there first! Whereas with the Nexus timetables, they have the key stops listed with the journey time underneath