(Yesterday, 6:27 am)Superman wrote Based on the 'expert' comments on here, Arriva have no idea what they are doing and we shall look forward to the North East going out of business in the next 12 months.

I do agree, on the face of it, things like Teesside increasing significantly higher than the Stagecoach Megarider makes no sense, but if you look more deeply, unless you live in central Stockton or Middlesbrough areas, where you have a real choice, you probably need to buy that ticket.

The Middlesbrough zone, which quietly sits right over the common sections of network noted above is still matching the Megarider for price. 

They know exactly what they are doing, whether we agree with it, or not.

To be fair no-one said they're going out of business. They could charge £50 and some people would still have to buy the tickets as they've got no choice, like you said.

Sadly one of the big negatives of privatisation and the monopoly of areas. Just thankfully there's the £2.50/£3.00 in cap in place right now as I wouldn't want to know what the price would be without it, which they're likely abusing at the same time, by removing any form of discounted tickets so they can no doubt grab more money back from the tax payer.