Merseyside Night Buses

[E400]

RE: Merseyside Night Buses

(25/08/2016 10:48)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  Completely wrong. The only benefit of the 699 is to those who study at UoL. Students that live in the same area also study at LJMU or Hope. Stagecoach will get their fair share of students too.

I am afraid not.

Freshers are the students with the cash - they will buy bus passes because they don't know the city. Most of JMU's freshers are located in halls in the city or just off-campus (by Taskers, Lime Street, Tithebarn Street, Cheapside etc; while most of Hope's Freshers are located on Campus with free shuttle buses to the city centre campus - they will likely not bother with bus passes, and if they do, they do not account for a big enough market share, plus the night buses do not serve Hope - the fact that the 86C only runs during office hours suggests that Hope campus isn't worth longer operational hours.

By second year, most students live in the Smithdown Road area, regardless of the uni they attend - very few students will pay for a bus pass at this point, most opting to walk or cycle, and will only occasionally pay for a single or return bus fare when it is raining or they are in a rush.

Stagecoach and Arriva need to hit this new batch of freshers hard, and need to market the night buses as best as possible in order to keep them viable. If the students use the buses, they will be worth running, and if the students have a 24/7 service from campus to their home, then they are much more likely to see the benefits of investing in a long-term student bus pass in their 2nd and 3rd years.