(28 May 2021, 12:12 pm)mb134 wrote Realistically though, there's only so many night services that can be justified. It's not like in London and Edinburgh for example, where the night buses are mainly inner city routes, the GNE night buses are a different kettle of fish - particularly the ones you're suggesting.Makes me wonder why they bothering they can’t be that many people using them either especially during the week. Friday and Saturday and Sunday nights on Bank Holidays I can see working but not an average Wednesday night during the week. Saying that I wonder if a night time X10 would work with it been weekends only.
Demand for 5 of the 7 days per week on all of the services GNE are doing is probably minimal at best (reliant on shift workers who don't drive, I'd imagine), hoping for a boost on the weekends. Further increasing operational costs on further routes which don't even serve a large city, is only likely to make the whole nightbus operation cease again. You'd have to fork out for additional drivers (who will probably be on an enhanced rate given the hours), extra fuel, extra associated maintenance costs, potentially costs to keep an extra depot open overnight or costs for route learning. Couple all of that with the fact that GNE aren't even charging a premium fare (as they did previously, and as many other operators do) for those services, margins will be slim to begin with regardless.
RE: The return of Night Buses