Christmas and New Year Services: The Reckoning

[JeffJones]

RE: Christmas and New Year Services: The Reckoning

(29/12/2014 19:00)Mayneway Wrote:  I agree with no services on Christmas Day but given the relaxation of trading hours over the last few years were finding more and more retail outlets open for most or all of Boxing Day. We have debated this on another thread in the past but I'm keen to know how operators such as stagecoach can say that there is only demand on certain services on Boxing Day and New Year's Day when as Barney pointed out above the last time most areas saw a decent level of services on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day was before de-reg when if were honest you were lucky to find a corner shop open on Boxing Day let alone a major retail store!

There will always be some sort of demand on any day of the year and from what I've seen there is quite a bit of demand in most towns for services on Boxing Day. Whether there is enough demand to justify paying double time to drivers, is another thing.

I was surprised at some of the services First Manchester operated on Boxing Day (98, 468, 472/474) which whilst popular services wouldn't support paying drivers £20+ an hour on a normal weekday!