(15 Jul 2014, 8:13 pm)busman101 wrote I take the point on the fares and the views of what local people might think, but a huge number of users on the route are out of the area and a huge chunk are from outside the country. The car point is also a good one as there's a £4 parking charge at all the National Park sites along the Wall.
On your other comment on the passenger numbers, there's a lot of people who are using the bus for a short hop after having walked a bit along the Wall - there's loads of singles from Housesteads to Once Brewed as an example and you only see them once. Equally, there's a few using the day tickets (including the + version) and each time they board they count as a passenger.
£25/30 petrol + £4 parking is still cheaper (and more practical) than the £37 it would cost me on the bus using the £25 family ticket AND a bog standard family ticket on top.
Tourists in their cars staying closer to the wall, will obviously incur an even smaller fuel cost (compared to the cheapest ticket and parking).
Honestly, the potential is massive with this one.
GNE have the buy in, audience and corporate backing that previous operators didn't have.
I don't know margins or anything like that on the service, but say GNE offered a £30 ad122 Day Rover+, which extended across the GNE patch. I reckon passenger numbers (and ticket sales) would go through the roof.
It is still a few quid more than a trip to the coast and I would love to see it closer to the £25 mark (twice the price of a normal family ticket), but it is more attractive.
Heck, villagers on the route could even apply for a special Key Card, reduced in price tickets - but restricted to residents within a certain postcode.