Theres an easy fix - give a trade route only to the side with a lot less players
Alberta event PvP died off soon and became a 5k power trade fest when lawfuls had a trade route in Liberty
Bering event Insurgency got PUMMELLED 5:1 or something first 3-4 days. It would die off quickly, but there it was - a great trade route. The side without numbers had to PvP protect it, or lose it to a single ship.
What happened? Insurgency had people perma-logged and actually caught up for 1:1 KD ratio ( in LIBERTY) and the event went on till the last second. I even paid out like 50 million extra out of pocket on the Insurgency side to people that were logging and protecting the route