(06 Nov 2014, 5:00 pm)Andreos1 wrote Not sure hate is the right word.
I have already pointed out my issue with the streamlined direct services and it being partly based on the impact caused by the 2006 changes.
If a customer has a bus, which is affordable and takes them to the heart of a city/town and that is axed and then replaced by a journey that involves at least one change (sometimes two) and at the same time, you are asked to pay twice the price for the privilege...
Those changes, don't just impact on the customers pocket though.
It can be (and has meant), people are forced to change plans, arrangements, social lives, shifts or routines - based what can be a longer, more circuitous trip, involving hanging around at interchange points, which quite often aren't designed for that.
Before anyone suggests it, Nexus, DCC or whoever else shouldn't be left with the bill to improve the facilities based on an operators commercial choices either.
The point Chris makes about hitting lucky with the X1, X66 and 49 was interesting.
I imagine his opinion would be totally different should the journey be done regularly, facing delays or missed connections during the rush hour in the morning or afternoon.
You may like changing buses; however people with kids, shopping, bags, laptops etc don't always appreciate it - particularly when (which is the point of this thread) they pay what can be, quite a lot of money to do so.
More than they would do on a direct service...
We have also identified many pricing anomalies in bus fares throughout the region in this thread too. Chris pointed out that, at one point (and possibly still is the case), a BuzzFare used to be cheaper than a return ticket on service 69. One could also consider this to be another anomaly, but a BuzzFare ticket in this example would therefore allow this journey to potentially be shorter, cheaper, and have greater flexibility due to the fact a BuzzFare ticket could be used on multiple services (with higher frequencies) rather than just one.
Changing buses will always be subject to opinion, but if streamlined frequent services manage to offer the aforementioned factors, it could be argued that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Granted, this won't be the same in every example...