Judging by the number of visitors about so far this bank holiday, you’d be forgiven for thinking the good times are still with us. Or perhaps it’s because of difficult times that people are looking for a break…
Lower demand for bus travel results from an unusual mix of affluence and recession.
Affluence, because car ownership remains high. Those who can afford to own and run a car are still very plentiful. Even where budgets are tighter, the car is seemingly the last thing people wish to surrender. They will do anything to keep theirs on the road. If operators thought there’d be a plentiful stream of passengers who, through difficult times, might convert to the bus, they are mistaken.
Recession, because there is a general dampening of demand nationwide from reduced leisure/shopping and work-related travel.
Which means, of course, that operators are looking to tighten their collective belts. And there’s a resultant pressure on fares which, as we hover somewhere between low inflation and deflation, can seem at odds with general trends in other economic sectors, at least in passengers’ eyes.
Monday, 4 May 2009
Conundrum
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2 comments:
... went to Yorkshire today to watch Rugby. Interestingly the trains seemed well loaded while the buses were loaded as one would expect for a Sunday, the timetable for which they were running. This would seem to suggest that buses are still struggling to encourage discretionary traffic. Though it may just be more of a statement of the demographics of bus users.
Perhaps because the trains cover most routes with a reasonable service on Sundays and BHs, so allowing connecting travel in to inter-urban routes. Compare that to buses, where usually the feeder routes do not run. Apart from the reasons operators do not provide services, few are going to drive or walk to the inter-urban stop: for the relatively short journey, as compared with those by train, they will take the car.
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