(15 Mar 2024, 10:38 am)DeltaMan wrote “Passengers who sat next to someone they didn’t know are significantly less satisfied than those who didn’t.”

Yeah, the industry is never going to keep new customers if that is what it's own customers think. There is no avoiding that one. It's the ultimate reason why a meaningful shift to public transport will simply not happen.

I think that one has to be taken in context though. This tends to only ever happen on really busy to crowded buses, and I'd say most of us are naturally more dissatisfied when on one of them. You add to this that when buses are that busy, and aren't express services, they tend to run late as it takes longer for people to board and alight.

I'm not suggesting everyone needs their own private bus or anything like that, but buses aren't the most comfortable mode of transport when busy, especially versus say a train or plane. It's even worst still when you end up with people standing over you. 

In my opinion, there's some practical and proactive steps that operators do to try and combat some of this. For a start, better regulation of late running services is key. To give an example, only last week I was in Newcastle, and there was a queue right back through the bus station for the X1. Half an hour's worth of passengers, as both the 18.11 and 18.26 were arriving at the same time. Instead of the late bus taking passengers for Washington only (for example) directly to Washington NIS, then starting back on time from there, we ended up with one bus packed, another with barely any on, bunny hopping each other all the way to the Galleries. The result? Two buses running late, instead of potentially having both running on time.