(14 Dec 2024, 11:12 pm)Storx wrote Not everyone wants singles though and I'm not Ashington either.
Ashington to Newcastle (Train / Pop / Bus)
Daily: £6* / £6.20 / £5*
Weekly: £24 / £30 / £31.50
Monthly: £92.20 / £105 / £112
Yearly: £960 / £985 / £1120
Blyth / Seaton Delaval to Newcastle (Train / Pop / Bus)
Day: £4.80* / £5 / £5*
Weekly: £19.20 / £25.50 / £31.50
Monthly: £73.80 / £94 / £112
Yearly: £768 / £864 / £1120
*Return tickets
Personally I'd say they're substantial differences. The bus doesn't win at all at Blyth or Seaton Delaval and that's ignoring the off peak fares and the numerous rail cards around altogether. Obviously I'll acknowledge some people aren't going to be paying for the weekly and monthly tickets right now asit makes no sense but still.
The Cramlington Routesaver, imo badly needs expanded across to Blyth and Seaton Valley and the Morpeth routesaver needs extended to Bedlington and Ashington if they had any sense to make them at least competitive. I assume they exist nowadays because of the trains there anyway rather than the legacy bargain bus routes since the Ashington fares got scrapped.
All I'll say to those is that generally people are buying day/weekly/monthly tickets out of them being cheaper than 2x singles, which is no longer the case.
I would imagine that a decent percentage of commuters using this line to get into Newcastle will be on flexible working arrangements/4 day work weeks, or in other words won't be commuting 5 days per week. If we say that they're on a 4 day work week, and they're in the office for all 4 of those days, then it looks something like this on the bus for those from Ashington/Blyth/Delaval to Newcastle:
Daily - £5
Weekly - £20
4-weekly - £80
'Annual' - £960
For the annual cost I've done it over 48 weeks, as most people will have 4 weeks holiday across the year where they don't need to commute.
Those costs are either cheaper than the train or equal to it (for the annual cost) for Ashington to Newcastle. For Blyth/Delaval, the daily and weekly costs are not a huge difference at all, only when you get into buying an annual ticket do you see a significant saving.