This report describes the performance of three luxury express coach services offering travel to and from the centres of cities to commuters living in outlying towns or suburbs. The services were offered at premium prices and catered for journeys between 7 and 15 miles in length. They aimed to attract managerial and professional workers from their cars. None of the services was successful. Average loadings varied between 7 and 20. The proportion of allocated costs recovered was at best 39 per cent and at worst 23 per cent. Discussion of the findings centres on possible reasons for this lack of success. These are believed to be fares which were high in relation to the perceived costs of motoring, the inflexible service timings, the problem of attracting sufficient patronage from limited catchment areas containing a low density of potential users and, in one case, the method of fare collection which required payment for unmade journeys. There was no evidence to suggest that services of the kind considered offered scope for success in other locations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract