'maintenance issues mean that Connexions has had to reduce its fleet so cannot extend its Wedderburn Service'
I find it hard to believe that either a 1A, 1B, 1C or X1 couldn't be diverted via Hookstone and Calcutt once an hour to provide a better service.
Maintenance issues? - that's a new one re the reductions in services.
The Wedderburn service in the past was worked by Blazefield using normal town, mid sized, buses (route 4 which use to run through to Bilton on what is now part of the 2B) and Connexions have worked it at times with full sized buses so there does not seem to be specific reason for using a small Solo on it as they normally did. The cut in service was more reasonably simply down to it being not commercially viable and NYCC will not fund it having chopped it previously as being unsustainable even with assistance. If was commercially viable as a fill-in duty then Connexions could readily work with a bus between school duties as they on weekdays with the Cardale Park and Duchy services - presumably if they loose a stack of school contracts those services may well also get axed.
Cannot see either operator commercially running a service via Calcutt; the bigger catchment and quicker route would be to run a service from Knaresborough along the Route1 route to Forest Lane Head then down Forest Lane and along Hookstone Chase. The problem with Hookstone Chase is the traffic lights with Wetherby Road from traffic backs up significantly in both directions and in the past when their was a regular service they were blamed for its unreliability; their use to be a half hourly local service (9) together with a hourly village route via Calcutt to either Ripon (56) or Boroughbridge (57) - the latter got increased to half hourly usually through additional services doing a loop through the villages close to Knaresborough (58) rather doing the full 56 or 57 route with the local service being withdrawn. When the 56/57/58 were cut in number I was expecting that the local service would return but it never has. As aside there was also one year when their was a Sunday service as a 36 (pre Geminis) was run that way to terminate at Knaresborough.
The alternate would be to divert off Hookstone Chase to pick up part of the Wedderburn route to regain Knaresborough Road, something similar to what Connexions have done in the past when the normal route has not been available.
The Volvo Electrics seem to be settling down (all are now named after local primary schools) although the two retained Versas at Starbeck, usually along with B7RLEs, seem be in use daily on local services; the Pateley Bridge service is often also a B7RLE or the sole retained B10BLE rather than an Electric Solo - the B10BLE typically working the short peak am 2B and the 0830 24. The use of B7RLEs on these service means an increased use of non-36 Geminis and the ex-National Express Presidents on Route1 and Leeds via Wetherby (7) services.
