trent barton has criticised YourBus after it started letting passengers on its services use the £5 Zig Zag day tickets, which entitle the holder to a day’s unlimited travel on trent barton’s network throughout Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
YourBus announced via its Facebook page that it would be accepting the tickets on its rival services. The message read: “Now there’s no excuse not to try our new services – Zig Zag holders go for free on services Y1, Y3, Y5 and Citylink until September 4. Just show your ticket and go for free.”
In the last couple of months the firm has announced a number of new services in Trent Barton territory, including the Y1 and the Y3 this month and the Y5 last month.
Jeff Counsell, trent barton MD, said: “This seems to be a move by YourBus to encourage users to ‘try them out’ and possibly then switch from trent barton to try their services. As YourBus receives no revenue by accepting these tickets one has to question the sustainability of this ‘offer’.
“My initial thoughts were that this is a desperate attempt by them to encourage users to switch allegiance but YourBus is actually providing my passengers with a greater service frequency at no cost to me so I guess I should really be thanking them for that.
“We don’t take our position for granted, far from it. We’ve worked hard to establish ourselves as a really good bus company and pride ourselves on delivering good, reliable bus services with a fabulously dedicated team.”
trent barton ruled out doing anything “in isolation” to counter YourBus, although Jeff Counsell said from September 8 the firm would be increasing the frequency of its H1 and Ilkeston Flyer services to every 15 minutes.
He said: “We’ll also be introducing a new service named ‘Zoom’, which will offer a fast alternative to those customers who travel between Derby and the Long Eaton area.
On August 7, trent barton gave passengers free breakfasts on some of its routes, although of course, it’s something it has been doing for many years as a thank you to customers.
Scott Dunn, MD at YourBus, said: “There’s been very little or no competition on certain bus routes around the area. We believe the market needed quality competition and over the last four years we have introduced routes offering quality vehicles and drivers while offering good-value fares.
“This can only be good for the passengers and the community.”
