(06 Nov 2014, 6:27 pm)tyresmoke wrote Having spent plenty of time talking to various people in higher positions than me I can see the argument from both sides.
Streamlining networks into a number of high frequency services makes them much easier to market and easier to understand for customers, however it's not great when parts of the network see a reduced (or no) service just to make them simpler.
There has to be an argument for early and late services to all link up, it would be great if we could have early morning services that all connected... however what happens when those services use 8 buses instead of 6, as an example? There is no way that the extra cost could be justified.
I myself used to use the bus to get to work regularly, but unfortunately council cuts saw the early morning subsidised services removed, and therefore I now use the car to get to work. A lot of people are in the same boat, I know on my regular morning run that I used, there was a number of people that connected onto other services, both to Durham, Middlesbrough and beyond.
Which essentially means, that although the marketing may attract custom, the operators could be loosing custom too.
Depending on the changes, the operator may be worse off - despite spending thousands of pounds in associated costs in the re-jig.
Of course, it could be the opposite and numbers rise. Which is of little consolation to those with a poorer level of service, but paying more.