(23 Aug 2023, 6:28 pm)Storx wrote Yeah that's a fair point to be fair, and not surprised either to be honest. Loads of people who work nights nowadays aswell.

Mind it doesn't help a lot of work places don't have a bus service during the day never mind at night. Places like Team Valley are a nightmare to get to and Amazon at Wynyard and Durham have arguably no bus service at all. Pretty impressive considering the 2 at Darlington and 4/58 at Follingsby are packed to the rafters at shift times. Then they wonder why everyone is in a car, as if you drive to work, why bother paying for bus fares on top to go shopping etc.

I know it's never mentioned much, but I always wonder if some routes would work as loss leaders. ie a bus to a business park makes a loss, but the people on there use other buses at other times which counteracts it who otherwise would be nowhere near the bus in the first place. Similar argument for night buses tbh.

We argued that point when they cut the later 56s between 3 and 5am, yes they were probably losing money but you occasionally had Nissan workers who worked a bit later who we no longer cater for, which is happening again with the 2am from Sunderland to Concord in September. Even if it was a service losing money the rest of them were making so much money I think it just benefits having a true 24 hour service, giving night worker customers reassurance that if they missed their bus there'd still be something in an hour to take them home. I think those type of services need to be funded though, a for profit company won't keep a loss making service on even if it benefits them in the long run.