Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[Brickmill]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
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