(17 Sep 2023, 12:07 am)mb134 wrote This seems to be quite a pessimistic view on things.
As I think I've said on here before, I commute daily by bus. I have a car parked outside which I could use, and occasionally do if it's going to be a long day. The bus is unbranded and on an hourly frequency.
In the past year of me using it, it hasn't shown up in the AM on one occasion (breakdown), and on the way home on one occasion. It's generally very punctual, the fares outside of the £2 cap aren't too bad, and the vehicle is generally pretty clean inside. In that year, I've watched the service go from carrying 15-20 or so on my morning commute to well over 40 most mornings across the entire journey, and it appears to be getting even busier the past couple of weeks. I imagine the people using that service are probably pretty happy with the delivery of it, and the money they're paying to use it.
Maybe the folks that get my bus don't grumble too much, but even on the few occasions where stuff has gone wrong (gridlocked traffic, bus late because of roadworks, ridiculous council road closures and diversions etc.) they generally seem pretty understanding and have a laugh about it rather than getting irate with the driver or wishing it was ran by First Bus/NatEx/Lothian/insert bus company name here.
You seem to be suggesting that branding is used to attract new customers to a service, and is the only way of achieving this.
In my reply to Storx I've highlighted that the service I use on a daily basis is completely unbranded, yet has ballooned in popularity over the past year of me using it. There's also been very little in the way of promotion of the service as far as I've seen. How do you propose they've managed this?
I don't know you know, I genuinely do believe it'll be low, low. I'm not going to brush every depot as there's a minority which are doing ie. Ashington but outside of it things are bleak.
I won't say people will get irate on the bus but the numbers of cars are increasing lately and a lot of bus routes have been decimated at the same time and locally around here things are bleak and it's not just here as places like Sunderland, Redcar, Gateshead, North Tyneside are all just as bad.
I can't imagine there'll be many people openly in support of the local operators - Stagecoach might fare a bit better, but not the other 2 but that's mainly because their services are so frequent it's unnoticeable.
Arriva Durham County, excluding Stockton and Blyth are absymal lately and GoNorthEast across the board - especially when no doubt these strikes come in which won't help matters at all. I could be wrong of course and that's before going into places like Langley Park, Coundon etc which have had their bus services destroyed by cuts.