On-road competition, positives and negatives

[Planesandtrain]

Just don't expect Arriva to accept the Explorer if you buy it from Redline.I had so many problems with Explorer tickets being accepted round High Wycombe because I'd bought from Carousel. Arriva Twitter and Customer services confirmed validity but senior staff at High Wycombe agreed with drivers.

Thats odd, 5 years ago I had problems using it, but I had no problems using it in that area two weeks ago as company names are no longer printed on the ticket, I did however fold back the qr code out of view when using it on the other companies as it's not compatible with scanning on other companies ticketer machines.

 

[PeterC]

I visited Buckinghamshire recently to try the Arriva/Redline bus war on the High Wycombe-Aylesbury corridor. Both companies are using a random assortment of buses with Redline undercutting Arriva. The most absurd part of it is that you have Arriva running every 15 mins daytime on their 300 service and Redline with a 20 min freq on their 130 service. Thankfully the Intalink Explorer ticket is now also valid on the red group ops outside Hertfordshire which solves the ticketing problem. It doesn't really make sense to me to be competing on a not very lucrative corridor with such a high frequency and only competing on price. Surely this won't last long.

300 timetable: https://bustimes.org/services/300-bus-station-to-bus-station?date=2021-05-10

130 timetable: https://bustimes.org/services/130-aylesbury-princes-risborough-high-wycombe

It would be interesting to see which flows are actually compete for as they take different routes on the Wycombe to Risborough section.

 

[johncrossley]

Ridership in London is now declining as well; partly as the subsidy levels reduce (subsidy outside London is minimal or none existent depending on each county council).

But per capita is still way above its level in 1986, 1990 or even 2000. Not many places in the UK outside London could say the same. Bus ridership in London has in recent years been lost to cycling and trains. Car usage has continued to go down.