(12 Dec 2024, 4:56 am)DeltaMan wrote What West Yorkshire and Manchester don't tell you is things they can't do with service provision, infrastructure etc because they are using the money on cheap fares.
Discount tickets come at a price.
Do you have an example of something they're unable to deliver as a result?
We haven't exactly been great on that either. People losing vital links, whilst BSIP money is spaffed on successful services like the 1 and 21.
(12 Dec 2024, 4:48 pm)busmanT wrote Metro zones are designed to maximise Metro revenue (hence the small central zone) and wouldn't necessarily work for bus where journey patterns are different.
Yes, and I'd say it's easier to implement with rail, because your network doesn't change. It's a fixed route over where the track is.
Trying to implement zonal systems for buses throws up all sorts of anomalies. I recall the Network One system having dozens of zones, before it was simplified around the mid 00s, and most didn't understand it.