The issue with new housing is that all too often, it is impenetrable. Developers build them around car use and even where that may be restricted e.g. limited parking - one space per flat, you will often see cars parked on the road. Developments often fail to have bus access front and centre; even a fair sized development near where I live was basically given a couple of bus stops on the periphery and a bit of s106 funding for a service to pump prime it for a few years.
As for out of town locations, unless they're large enough to create a critical mass of passengers, or represent a small diversion off the route, then they are really difficult to serve effectively.
Now as for CityZap Manchester, that was doomed to failure. Not fast enough to compete with trains, and not distinctive enough to compete with NX.
Think you're underestimating how difficult it is to have a successful brand new service
That's section 106 funding (or at least in England it is). If you're a developer, do you lose the equivalent of x number of houses or do you plonk a bus stop at the road end and throw £150k at a bus company? And when do you start the service - from first occupancy or completion?
