(04 Jan 2023, 12:09 am)Ambassador wrote I guess my point is who is this trying to attract?

Me and Mrs A. Low Fell into town and back. There’s £6, not horrendous….but makes you realise how shockingly overpriced GNE were in the first place.

The hassle of missing journeys remains, overcrowding on poorly allocated routes and general inconvenience remains. This isn’t tempting drivers out of their car, it’s not value driven enough to save weekly ticket holders any cash. It’ll drag in a few leisure loads and one off types but not long enough.

Not sure what the aim of this government is tbh aside tick a few boxes .

And I think this is why the £2 initiative is doomed to be as successful as MG's fare offerings.

It goes without saying that fares play a huge part in how successful or unsuccessful a route may be. 
However, there are many other factors to take in to account and I don't think this blinkered approach the government have, will be sustainable in attracting punters to make the switch long-term. 
Mainly because the de-regulated market has failed and will keep on failing the passenger. 

Ultimately, whether you are paying £2 or £4 for a journey, it needs to be a pleasant experience and it needs to take you to the places you want and need to be. On time and at the times/frequency you expect.

We could go back to the elastic/inelastic model I keep referring to and reinforce that theory.
We could tie it in with titivations and paint jobs. 
We could link it with the marketing and research operators need to do with the local population (passenger or not). 
We could look at demographics and population levels and work out what can be done to grow a route or corridor. 
Heck, research could be done to find out if they prefer paper timetables or not. 

This period (just like during the pandemic), is the ideal time for operators to make sustainable changes and improvements to their network and operations. 
I'd say there's never been a better time to do these things, but we all know there has been. So... I'll re-phrase it. 

There may not be another opportunity to do these things.