(02 Jul 2022, 11:36 am)Dan wrote It would, but I wouldn't under-estimate the impact that the reduction in service levels on evenings and Sundays has.I’ll send you a tin of Alphabetti pasta shapes so your ready!!
Go North East has admirably added a lot of resource in this area, and night buses, over the course of the last 12 months. Martijn has been quite public in saying that these efforts were in a bid to re-build the night time economy.
These efforts, however admirable, have probably been quite pointless. Any growth in this area has probably come at the expense of daytime customers, when they have seen such a significant number of daytime cancellations as a result of the increase in driver requirements associated with doing this (and other factors such as staff sickness levels, driver retention rates, and the industry-wide shortage for bus and rail workers).
Most services are returning to their pre-pandemic evening/Sunday service levels from 24 July. This, paired with the reduction in driver requirements for the school holidays (even with the work Go North East has won back under contract to the local authority), will probably mean that there are few to no short-notice cancellations from this date.
I may of course eat my words in three weeks time, and I'm sure I'll be reminded...
Meanwhile, I’m sure we’re all off to peruse our 2019 timetables to compare evening and Sunday timetables, to check if they really have “reverted to pre pandemic levels”