What do YourBus cutbacks suggest?

From next week, the last Y36 on Sundays will leave the city centre at 10.30pm instead of 00.10am and the evening service on the Y28 to Bilborough will be withdrawn completely. I found this information on the YourBus website:

Today I came back to Beeston from Nottingham city centre on a Y36 and there was no information about this change on the bus. This is not good news. YourBus may be embarking on a slippery slope which will lead to the eventual demise of the Y36 (and Y28). Who in their right mind is going to buy a YourBus travelcard when Nottingham City Transport and Trent-Barton run more routes and operate late-evening services as well?

The arrival of the Y36 service a few years ago made NCT re-introduce double-deckers and a more frequent service on its 36 bus route between Chilwell, Beeston and the city centre. Before the Y36, the 36 was operated by single-deckers, which were often full to the point of bursting.

YourBus operate the most comfortable and quietest buses, so I would be sorry to see them go. 

If YourBus was successful, then they would be expanding their services and increasing the number of routes they operate — not withdrawing evening services.

I am not a fan of a 'free market' when it comes to bus services, but I have to acknowledge that the arrival of YourBus a few years ago, did improve local bus services between the city centre, Lenton and Beeston.

In March I wrote about how the Tram might impact on bus services in and around Beeston (The coming transport war in Beeston). Right now, my aim is draw attention to a little publicised change which may be of some significance in a few months time

A FOOTNOTE.

Below is a photograph from February 2010, about the time the first version of the Y36 appeared on our streets. The buses were painted orange and showed the route number as '36'. The buses were old and the drivers would stop at every stop trawling for passengers. A little later they changed the route no. to 'Y36', dropped the 'Orange Line' description and changed the colour of their buses.

The then competition between YourBus and NCT was fierce and, at the time, I expected YourBus to crumble and I have to admit to becoming an admirer of their tenacity. Their drivers were friendly and welcoming from the start. Back in 2010 NCT drivers were, generally speaking, a miserable lot and I am sure that we have YourBus to thank for the fact that most NCT drivers are now, for the most part, as charming as their rivals.