Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(08/12/2018 21:58)Brickmill Wrote:  Strictly speaking, and industry wide query, but apart from not being sure whether a new subject is relevant on this section, in practice it mainly involves Northern because of their ever worsening capacity issues and the nature of some of their routes.

Does anybody on this forum know about factors influencing modal choice, particularly where trains compete directly with commercial buses (even if only from two or three stations). In particular, price. From the new year, the fare* gap between Reddish and Manchester (particularly beyond Piccadilly) widens further, with bus/tram increasing to £6.60 off-peak (currently £6.30) and train/tram frozen at £4.10. Bearing in mind constant short-forming, will this further increase demand for trains especially on the single-unit "shoulder peak" trains eg. 0833 from Sheffield (0930 RDN) & 1549 from Piccadilly.

*Day Return

The £4.10 off-peak ticket you mention is not valid before 09:30 or between 16:00 and 18:30 on weekdays, so there's very few busy services where the cheaper off-peak ticket is valid.

Also the £4.10 rail ticket from Reddish to Manchester is only valid on Metrolink in the city centre zone, the £6.60 ticket is valid on the entire Metrolink network. Therefore, you could just as easily ask why Altrincham to Reddish going out at 10am and back at 6pm is only £6.60 using bus and tram when it's £9.10 using rail, considering buses and trams are a lot more frequent.