(05 Aug 2020, 12:33 pm)Andreos1 wrote Nights out needing a taxi back? Shift workers finishing or starting between operating hours? One way trips to the airport or railway station? Visiting a 'friend' or friend and stopping the night? Lack of Sunday or evening services rendering a 24 hour ticket worthless?
Just a few examples off the top of my head. There will be many more.
Now if those people could find an alternative methods of transport over the bus, before covid19, then what on earth would attract them to public transport now? Cheaper tickets perhaps? Just a thought... Or a shrug of the shoulder and acceptance that numbers are going to drop?
Tesco sell their nearly out of date bread for 10p if it means some money in the till. If they sell 10 of those loaves, even better!
Far from saying operators need to sell tickets for 10p, maybe they need to look at how an ignored market can make them some money. Some money is better than no money.
But the thing is, Tesco are selling the bread for 10p because if they don't they have to pay to get rid of it. It's cheaper to give it away than it is to keep it.
In a service industry, things like that don't exist.
The closest they could get is offering things like the evening ticket with reduced fares after 7pm, the buses are running anyway, so even at a reduced fare it's more money.
If you're buying a single ticket, chances are you're not going very far since it'd just be along one route, otherwise it'd probably be cheaper getting a day ticket if you have to change. In that case, it'll be cheaper getting the bus than a taxi.
The only thing I could really see them doing is having a group ticket that you can use throughout the day rather than evenings, as it's usually when you travel in a group that a taxi works out cheaper
(05 Aug 2020, 1:48 pm)Ambassador wrote But those are the Customers you need to attract or you'll never grow.
Most bus users are on the bus because there is no other option. It's a captive market in that sense. What you need to do is attract the 'on the way to the Fell or Durham or a pint' types who will spend and maybe begin to use your bus regularly on a weekend to go for a pint.
No amount of bus lanes or priority traffic management will help with that. It's got to be cost effective before you even think about bragging about anything else
But they aren't going to be buying a single, if they're going out for a pint, they'll want to get home, presumably the same day or at least before 3am, when day tickets expire.
I suppose, if they allowed day tickets to be used on nightbus services they might attract more customers