(16 May 2022, 1:08 pm)Andreos1 wrote Undoubtedly the pandemic has played a part. But this fall in numbers isn't a new thing.I think most of the criticism is fair. When you issue a document called "fit for the future" and 10 months later it's in the toilet, it's only right people are angry. I'd be very surprised if somebody doesn't ask questions as to why its went wrong when SNE and ANE are stable (ish)
The pandemic is something easy to attach the blame to.
You're looking at an operator who has stagnated and not evolved to suit changing needs.
Cutting an early morning run or the back end of a route doesn't increase numbers and doesn't take in to account the changes in where passengers want to go.
Personally, I think they've been dealt a bad hand through no fault of thier own due the high runnings costs of new buses and very low passenger numbers due to the pandemic.
Those running costs (which would be high to be fair) don't dissapear when passenger numbers are at 80% nationally at a time they probably would have been looking at being at least 100% of passenger number compared to 2019. That is a big shortfall.
But I also think they've played the hand they've been dealt badly with the multiple service changes, even during lockdown 1, while still receiving levels of support meaning they didn't need to.