(28 Jul 2022, 5:09 pm)MurdnunoC wrote I doubt the management team at JH Coaches will have much of an appetite to compete with GNE after what transpired when they last did tried around 30 years ago. Everything comes down to resource. While the prospect of competition, leading to cheap fares and more choice for passengers, might encapsulate the spirit of deregulation, the reality is that whomever has the most resource, usually the incumbent operator, wins the battle. Sure, there might be a brief period of competitive fares, but things aren't always what they seem. The attractive fares on offer are usually loss-leaders designed to persuade passengers to use their service, and again, it is usually the operator with the most resource and financial backing who is able to offer the lowest fares and absorb the costs. Once the competition is eliminated, all those loses which the winner has absorbed have to be recouped somehow, which means higher fares for passengers in the long run.

Unless the service is offering something truly original or tapping into a market which no-one has exploited, competition on existing routes is probably not a commercially viable prospect. 


BTW, if anyone wants to read about bus competition in the North East, there is a fantastic report commissioned by the, then Monopolies and Mergers Commission (Now the Competitions Commission), available in the reference section of Gateshead Central Library. See link below:

https://prism.librarymanagementcloud.co....s+services&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dthe%2Bsupply%2Bof%2Bbus%2Bservices