(24 Dec 2021, 8:22 pm)Dan wrote You seem to be forgetting that the X85 has also seen a huge marketing drive (digital and print both targeted), faster journey times offered (more direct route via A69 than pre-Covid), and much later evening journeys introduced as well as Sunday. This is in addition to the investment into brand new buses with all the bells and whistles.
Aside from fundamentally changing the purpose of this route, what more do you think they could have done? I am really interested to hear.
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That's right it has. And did any of those strategies work? Has the advertising resulted in a service which has grown and developed to something which is sustainable and profitable?
Or are we in a position where the operator sees it as disposable with the ROI lower than forecasted in its business case?
Regardless of me proposing X, Y and Z, the people who make these commercial decisions and being paid to see it succeed - have lost out to a 35 year old train.
They've failed to capture the market and are seeing people travel to out of town railway stations before commuting to their places of work or leisure (presumably places the X85 doesn't go to).
I'm all for commercial operators taking commercial risk. However when the same old doesn't work, it makes sense to try something else.