(02 Aug 2013, 10:41 am)ifm001 wrote Are most services at present not full of pensioners
I agree with that statement to the hilt.
They may be, but they've got enough fare paying passengers to make them justifiable as a commercial service. Without being too critical of any operator and the ways they operate services, I do believe Go North East evaluate how many fare paying passengers are on each service as opposed to an overall profit level made by both fare paying passengers and those that aren't travelling at full rate (child fares, concessionary passes etc). Conversely, I believe that Stagecoach in Sunderland (I'd assume it's universal for all depots within the Stagecoach North East subsidiary) look at overall profit levels made by all passengers.
There are some exceptions when it comes to Go North East though. Look at the 21/24. The 24 relieves the 21 when it comes to passengers, and you'll find that a significant number of passengers on the 24 are passengers who aren't travelling at the full rate. They'd prefer even more passengers who use the 21 to be full fare paying customers, and the 24 hopefully helps out with that on the somewhat prestigious Durham Road corridor. That said, service changes are going to commence from September. Could this suggest that GNE weren't even happy with this 'exception'? The passengers on the current "Coaster" 1 service may make up for the number of those travelling at a cheaper rate on the Gateshead - Wrekenton (24)/Kibblesworth (24A) section.
I'd love to give official numbers rather than observations made, but obviously as customers, we don't get to see them! :p