(15 Aug 2022, 10:01 am)MurdnunoC wrote No. I'd argue a higher frequency does not make more people want to use a bus. Why would it? If you're using your car to get to work then you're probably going to continue to use your car as it offers more utility than the bus. The only way that might change is if public transport was either cheap or free; then that might convince people to leave the car at home and accept a longer, less convenient journey.
In the example you've provided, you're friend, presumably a bus user, decided to use car because the frequency of their was reduced from, I'm guessing every ten minutes to every fifteen minutes? Now, I don't know the particulars of your friend, but why were they using the bus to begin with? Did they have already have a car? Have they recently passed their driving test? Ditching the bus because the frequency has been reduced from six (or five, if every twelve minutes) to four buses an hour seems a little bit whimsical as having a bus every fifteen minutes is still a decent frequency, in my opinion. Reading between the lines, there seems to be more which has influenced their decision to take the car instead.
I'd say journey time is a more important factor than cheap (or frequency, for that matter)
Go North East pretty much reduced all their fares last Summer for an extended period of time, to a point where some on here were arguing that they were too cheap. Irrespective of that, it hasn't done much to encourage people back on board, as we're still told passenger levels are still only around 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
No one with access to a car, in their right mind, is going to commute to Durham on the 50 for example. It now takes 50 minutes from Washington to Durham, and 25 of that is spent getting from Washington to Chester-le-Street, via a route that could have only been devised by giving a toddler some crayons and a map.
(15 Aug 2022, 10:01 am)MurdnunoC wrote Don't understand that either, plus, on another note, who are all these people who are still working in Cobalt at 11pm? The bulk of people who work there are away by 6pm, hence why it is a pinchpoint for traffic around that time.
On the second point, buses used to terminate at Whitley Bay Cemetery regularly. However, it is not really possible now as the road layout as changed and I'm not sure the caravan park (another old terminus) would want buses in and out of the site late at night.
They'd have to go up to Seaton Sluice now, which seems a bit of a waste to turn a bus around.
I can't see Whitley Bay Cemetery needing more than a skeleton service, to be honest...