Bentilee was served by 18 buses per hour (with the 1/2/26/a being every 10 mins)+ extra bits and bobs from things like the 80 pre the ill fated july 2014 network recast even with some competing services from bakers at one point. Shows how far the services have been cutback.
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Staffordshire Bus News
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A D&G bus caught fire on the 94 this morning glad nobody was hurt
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/new...AwQrJ14yHjUCwPLOLlCTQgFB500aDL52m-WKJv9grHUec
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/new...AwQrJ14yHjUCwPLOLlCTQgFB500aDL52m-WKJv9grHUec
martinsh
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Saw this at Stafford station this morning - loading very well, queue of at least 20 people !
Flange Squeal
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Hi all. I’m not local to the area but note First and Scraggs compete on the 5 to Abbey Hulton. I was wondering if anyone in the know could tell me if competition has been long or short term on this route, and what loadings on each operator are like (fairly even or one clearly in favour).
I'm not that familiar but I think first is the more dominant operator running at a higher frequency (15 min compared to 45?). Back when the old bus station was around I think there were more Skraggs buses around so it may have been more frequent or they could of been running other routes I don't know.
Baxenden Bank
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There have been two operators to Abbey Hulton since at least 2002. In 2003 there was a co-ordinated timetable for a time. In all that time Scraggs have put two buses onto the route (recently to an incomprehensible timetable fitting between school-runs and a lunch-time break). Since 2002 First have had up to six buses on the route, now down to three (but with a regular headway and longer period of operation).
As to loadings, I don't know. Seemingly everyone who uses the bus in The Potteries detests First, often with a vengeance, so any alternative has an immediate advantage. In the days of Bakers, who were well regarded, passengers would stand back and let the first (First) bus go past and wait for the alternative.
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I get the Scraggs when I can. mostly because it's much cheaper - £1.40 instead of £2.30 from Werrington Road. Get the first service 7.15 from shops, as it goes through Hanley, but it only runs term times, so it's the D & G 16 in holidays. There's supposed to be a Scraggs 5 at 16.00 from Hanley, but it runs at about 15.50. At least they run a bus on a Saturday morning before 8.30. First really are a dreadful company.
There was some council bloke on Hanley bus station this afternoon giving helpful advice on buses which have moved 1 stand. Of course it didn't help that the 16.00 D&G Leek bus pulled on to it's normal stann D rather than C. The man was rather upset that it would disrupt the 16.00 Scraggs 5. I pointed out to him that it never ran and usually left at about 10 to 4. If you want to know about the buses, ask a passenger!
Martin2012
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If anyone is able to answer I'd be interested to find out do all vehicles operating on Service 3 (Crewe to Hanley) normally go on to Service 25 (Hanley to Keele) upon reaching Hanley Bus Station and vice versa?
Last summer when I did a return journey from Hanley to Crewe on Service 3 on a Sunday the bus I caught to Crewe seemed to have come off a 25 (after I had walked to Hanley from the railway station) and at the start of the return journey when I mentioned to the driver I was going to the railway station I was told to remain on the bus once we got to Hanley as it would become a 25.
Are all workings on the 3 interworked with the 25 or is it just select workings or only on Sundays?
Last summer when I did a return journey from Hanley to Crewe on Service 3 on a Sunday the bus I caught to Crewe seemed to have come off a 25 (after I had walked to Hanley from the railway station) and at the start of the return journey when I mentioned to the driver I was going to the railway station I was told to remain on the bus once we got to Hanley as it would become a 25.
Are all workings on the 3 interworked with the 25 or is it just select workings or only on Sundays?
Not sure about the weekends but Monday to Friday they do operate as individual routes with mostly double deckers on the 25 and single decks on the 3. The frequency is also different on Saturdays and outside of term time on weekdays which may hamper interworking.
Robertj21a
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As far as I know, the 25 should be all double-deck during Uni term time, certainly Mon-Fri. It may interwork with the 3 at other times, but I've not seen it.
Martin2012
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Thanks to those who have taken the time to explain.
I clearly remember seeing a decker on the 3 when I was in Stoke On Trent on a weekday a few years ago but am pretty sure I've been told that deckers can't go on the 3 due to a low bridge. If so is that only on the Hanley to Crewe route (suggesting I saw a decker on a service from Talke)?
I clearly remember seeing a decker on the 3 when I was in Stoke On Trent on a weekday a few years ago but am pretty sure I've been told that deckers can't go on the 3 due to a low bridge. If so is that only on the Hanley to Crewe route (suggesting I saw a decker on a service from Talke)?
This bridge (carrying the Stoke to Stockport line over the A50) is low enough that only single-deckers can use it. There aren't any low bridges on the 3A route (via Talke) but some of the roads are pretty narrow.
Baxenden Bank
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No, you can get a double decker under that bridge. Just not a standard height one.
Not sure what First Potteries have at the moment in terms of deckers but the Hanley to Crewe route, when it was the 320, had deckers on it - hence one of the current 'historic livery' fleet trundling around in fog grey with stripes.
Martin2012
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Thanks to those who have taken the time to respond. I saw that PMT heritage liveried bus at Adderley Green depot during an open days few years ago.
Back in the early 90s I went on those olympians a good number of times as my mum used to take me and my sister on the bus into Crewe from Haslington to go shopping. Can't remember much about what they were like as vehicles sadly.
Back in the early 90s I went on those olympians a good number of times as my mum used to take me and my sister on the bus into Crewe from Haslington to go shopping. Can't remember much about what they were like as vehicles sadly.
I bet he got grief about the weekend bus cuts from First
At Christmas First used a ex PMT VR on duplicate workings on a few routes including the 3, as it fits under it
they use deckers sometimes with the 3A (both Talke and Butt Lane shorts)
The 320 some years back did divert via Butt Lane (only on Cedar Ave), turned right at the lights down Congleton Road South, then left at Red Bull. I think it was a divertion due to road works, but I also heard Tesco paid First so it went past by their store?
According to the fleet list on ukbuses the only remaining solo (53155) at stoke has been withdrawn.
Staying with First, has the legal lettering changed recently as I noticed yesterday on one of the vehicles that the address was somewhere in Chelmsford which I find a bit odd.
Martin2012
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Thanks ever so much for explaining.
It has given a Chelmsford address for some time, sorry I cannot remember when I first noticed it.
It gives a whole new meaning to 'Remote management' doesn't it!?!?
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
The management isn't there though - it's just the legal registered office.
First Potteries is part of First Midlands. This includes Leicester, Worcester and Stoke On Trent. its head office is Leicester
The legal address is
First Potteries Ltd
Westway
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 3AR
First Potteries is part of First Midland (includes Worcester and Leicester) and its head office is in Leicester
Legal address
First Potteries Ltd
Westway
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 3AR
3piece-wheel
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Stantons of Stoke are in the process of launching a new Cheadle to the Potteries service called Route 1N2 on a Mon-Fri commencing September 3rd it departs Cheadle Bank St. 09:30 & 12:30 to Hanley via Brookhouses, Boundary, Dilhorne, Forsbrook, Blythe Bridge, Meir Park,Meir Broadway, Parkhall & Bentilee. Returns from Hanley at 10:45 & 13:45. Another feature of the route is Blythe Bridge 08:36 to all stops to Cheadle arriving 08:57. Only a twice a day offering but a vast improvement on the no service at all since D&G gave up on it a couple of years ago. Lets wish SoS every success in this venture..
Baxenden Bank
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I can't imagine who those timings will be convenient to, but I wish them every success with their venture!
Baxenden Bank
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Recently introduced D & G services 12 and 13 to be withdrawn due to poor patronage. Who would have thought a bus running just five or six times a day on an hourly frequency would not be a roaring success.
Other trimmings and adjustments by D & G from early September.
Other trimmings and adjustments by D & G from early September.
I'm increasingly loosing faith in D&G as an operator.
The 12 & 13 had routes primarily designed to avoid treading on any First route, rather than being of any use to passengers. It seems like they were offered Saxonfields & Meir Hay in return for backing down from Bentilee on with the 10, on which I never seen an empty bus. They could have reworked the former PVR & routes of the 10, 26 & 40 into a City Circular Hanley > Bentilee > Park Hall & Meir Hay or Saxonfields > Longton > Mount Pleasant > Fenton > Stoke Station > Hanley. A much better use of resources which would have provided actual useful links for passengers and had a commercial shot at success. Alas their obsession with not competing with First leaves a series of disconnected shuttles rather than a network.
You have to question of the commercial wisdom of having 4 buses per hour between Hanley & Smallthorne (8, 8A, 9) - yet running them at xx:03, xx:05, xx:33, xx:05 rather than a 15 minute headway. They did the same when the 2 ran though to Newcastle - cat and mousing with the 9 all the way to Hanley. Bizarre.
Also, whoever at the company agreed to a good number of the fleet wearing full rear ads for Lucky 7 Taxis needs to give their head a wobble.
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