(28 Jul 2022, 11:47 am)Andreos1 wrote Too often I'm told on here that I'm cynical or I've encouraged people to jump on the bandwagon of anti-GNE bias.
So here I am, coming up with realistic strategies or ideas that operators could use to not only benefit the population of Washington and its surrounding environs, but also the shareholders (obviously it would need to be implemented correctly and not some half arsed approach).
And now I'm being told my views are being clouded by rose tinted spectacles for suggesting improvements to the network beyond 7pm!
Forgive me if I don't want to join you on that race to the bottom or embrace the 'we know best' attitude, the negativity and the stagnation that seems to permiate out of the bowels of the corporate ivory towers.
On a slightly connected note, I was following a Facebook thread about bus driver wage increases in Bristol. All sorts of suggestions about what could be done differently (all from a passenger perspective and totally valuable to any operator), yet one of the first on the scene was a guy who denounced other peoples knowledge of bus operations and admitted to working in the industry for 40 odd years.
A quick check on his bio showed the companies he had worked for. To be honest, if I was him, I'd not really shout about my senior roles working in a failing sector and how ineffective I'd been in halting or slowing the decline in routes, passenger numbers and a series of failed services.
But he knew more than each of the paying passengers. Apparently.
Any industry that has people with that sort of attitude, isn't going to sustain itself. As we see locally and at times, on this very forum. A shame.
That sums it up really well to be honest. These days there never seems to be anything innovative from bus companies that will genuinely make using the bus as a seriously attractive alternative to the car. All we hear is, "Oh well, theres not enough people using our services, so lets just cut them!". The last few years worth of major service changes have seen nothing but cuts. People have commented on here about there being not enough demand for bus services on an evening and that the cuts are justified, but this will force even more people into cars and will eventually effect day time service loadings too as they will use the car all the time instead. And with the price of bus tickets and the cost of fuel running a car, it is simply not feasible to use a combination of both from a financial view.
The approach to the decline in bus use should surely be, "How can we win passangers back and keep them coming back?" Take evenings for example, there is no excuse not to have a lower fare price where and when the service is being subsidised - something like £1 return ticket anywhere in your town or £3 unlimited travel anywhere in Tyne and Wear after 7pm etc. I would be tempted to use the bus if I was going somewhere on an evening if something like this was in place as well as having a frequent enough service. I'm sure other people would be interested in this if they were going out for a meal or to the cinema somewhere on an evening. Bus companies have to ask themselves, What's better? Staying in the status quo of decline, or trying something new to try and win more passengers?