(31 Dec 2014, 6:03 pm)Greg in Weardale wrote Traffic delays will affect any bus service equally whether the frequency is ten minutes, thirty minutes or hourly; the bus will be however late the problem causes it to be, the frequency is irrelevant.
Can you explain to me how problems regularly arise with Go North East's service 21 and Stagecoach North East's 39/40 (as two quick examples), then, with these problems being seemingly more prevalent than a lower frequency service?
The frequency of a service usually dictates how many customers use the service. If an hourly frequency service was delayed by 5 minutes due to traffic on route, it would be picking up the same amount of customers as it would have done if it had been on-time, as customers aren't going to go to a bus stop 55 minutes in advance for the next service. If a service on a 7 minute frequency is delayed by 5 minutes due to traffic on route, there's a high chance that the driver is going to be picking up the load for two buses, not just one (as it is timetabled to do), and hence delays are made worse and worse until that bus is either regulated or reaches the terminus. Yet the frequency of a service is irrelevant?