Anthony ross
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....*says sarcastically * I wouldn't be surprised if Lothian moved in and hovered up McGills
That would be interesting but very doubtful lol
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McGill's Buses - Renfrewshire & Inverclyde
- Thread starter overthewater
- Start date
That would be interesting but very doubtful lol
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RailUK Forums
It is not even 18 months, as that was the time they scrapped the student day ticket as well as a general increase.
It was £2.20 for a student all day when I went to college in Paisley and that was only in 2012/2013. They're going about keeping customers very poorly these days
Article in Greenock telegraph giving details of the brothers spending spree on property and estates including old IBM plant at £1.5m and lots of money spent on Morton from their PM man If hey are as rich as this why do they need 5% dates increase ?
Thought it was a quick two years maybe Ralph has different type of calendar
Mcgill s now down to PVR of 18 although with lots of evening work at Coatbridge I am not sure that their services there will be able to support the overheads.
I wonder if it's leased which is most probable so will they persevere until the lease expires
I wonder if it's leased which is most probable so will they persevere until the lease expires
GaryMcEwan
Established Member
Probably not much if the last ones are anything to go by...
PM0000015/239 Cancelled
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Airdrie, Stirling Street to Chapelhall, Honeywell Crescent via Sikeside Primary School
Service number: 287 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 11 Sep 2019
PM0000015/245 Cancelled
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Coatbridge South Circular Road to Coatbridge Kirkwood Sports Barn
Service number: 216 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 11 Sep 2019
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Airdrie, Stirling Street to Chapelhall, Honeywell Crescent via Sikeside Primary School
Service number: 287 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 11 Sep 2019
PM0000015/245 Cancelled
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Coatbridge South Circular Road to Coatbridge Kirkwood Sports Barn
Service number: 216 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 11 Sep 2019
overthewater
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The last two Commercial services are gone. I doubt Coatbridge depot will last much longer.
AlexanderPS
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- 118
Wonder if Miller's will return to the chapelhall route? Or if United will go for the 216?
overthewater
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United Can not operate 216 as it has no spare disks, and in fact I would be rather pushing it to get an increase with the TC, with what happened last time.
EDIT I tell a LIE! There, have two spare disk left, meaning there could well operate 216 and that would take them to 9.
EDIT I tell a LIE! There, have two spare disk left, meaning there could well operate 216 and that would take them to 9.
Really small number of their services would need to be run from Lanarkshire now ie 243 Hamilton to Carluke Glasgow routes such as68 71 72 329 72 for examp!e can be operated from Renfrewshire
So they are dead in the water now on Lanarkshire The PI is on Tuesday when they might announce coatbridge's c!osure
So they are dead in the water now on Lanarkshire The PI is on Tuesday when they might announce coatbridge's c!osure
I personally do see Coatbridge depot closing very soon. They might want to focus on their Glasgow services improving too as I've now witnessed a lot of very quiet 23s, 26s and 38s around the city centre towards Paisley Road West which didn't really used to be the case. Some of these have been at peak times too
NorthClyde320
Member
Not sure if anyone else has spotted it but McGill's Evening SPT 213 service now only operates between Baillieston and Coatbridge/Airdrie with the Glasgow section axed (unsure if this is to do with vandalism or just poor use), but with the August changes to First service 2 it will mean the towns of Airdrie & Coatbridge will now have no bus to or from Glasgow since, I don't know, the 1920's?
overthewater
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Of course Monklands area has a train every 10mins to Glasgow city centre.
NorthClyde320
Member
True, and that is what has no doubt killed the bus service and not just in the Monklands but in West Lothian, Midlothian & the Borders the train has had an effect on bus usage to. It's just a pity the train can't take people to the places they rely on the bus to take them to.
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overthewater
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No2 and the old 262 took 90mins compared to some fast train. Bus service in the borers into Edinburgh wasn't to bad, but over the last 10 years you used to do it in around 65-70mins has now increased to 90mins, its not worth it.
Surprised the train is constantly preferred over the bus especially on that line as there's some sort of problem at least once a week. I'd never swap bus for train purely down to the cost difference. It's far easier to get money's worth out of the bus I feel
AlexanderPS
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I do believe the issue with Airdrie to Glasgow by bus was created by First themselves. When they first took over in the monklands they had a monopoly. Over time they cutback and have never really done anything to improve the service. In 2006 there was a leaflet drop saying the route was being upgraded with new B7RLE but it became dominated by the toilet boxes. Over time it was managed decline, possibly not helped by First running Scotrail.
They could have an X2, where it runs round the houses then at Bargeddie it went on the M8 to try and save the route.
They could have an X2, where it runs round the houses then at Bargeddie it went on the M8 to try and save the route.
d9009alycidon
Member
A service that came to mind on the "Unnecessarily long bus routes in the UK" thread was the Eastern Scottish service 16, this at one time ran through from Glasgow to Edinburgh via Coatbridge, Airdrie and Bathgate taking around 2 and a half hours to make the journey, up until the 1973, frequency was half hourly but at one time operated every 15 minutes it was reduced to hourly from 16 November 1981 then progressively cut back to Coatbridge to Edinburgh then Blackridge to Edinburgh
smtglasgow
Member
Tbh, much as I dislike what First have done, I don’t blame them too much for what’s happened in Monklands. There were too many small firms – cowboys, basically – who didn’t play by the rules. Over time they destroyed bus use in the area. I’ve got a 1994 Kelvin Central timetable for Monklands and it’s an astonishing thing – a comprehensive network and buses running late into the evening. But even then, you can see that they were running loads of minibus services that look as if they were designed to counter the cowboys. From today’s perspective, KCB’s 1994 network looks completely unsustainable.
I thought McGills might be able to do something interesting in Monklands, but too many people have just got out of the bus habit. You only need to look at the traffic around the Asda in Coatbridge to realise that anyone who can get their hands on a car has – buses are really just for pensioners now.
I thought McGills might be able to do something interesting in Monklands, but too many people have just got out of the bus habit. You only need to look at the traffic around the Asda in Coatbridge to realise that anyone who can get their hands on a car has – buses are really just for pensioners now.
I'd love to see statistics for the number of cars compared to the number of people in an area because I definitely think Coatbridge would be right up there.
Depends where you stay ,if i stayed nearer to the railway station id use the train or train was faster .
Yeah I'm in the middle of where I get the bus and 2 train stations. Even when I went to college in Paisley I preferred the bus over 2 trains that I would have needed. Back in the days of the 22C lol
Bus Lightyear
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Clarkston Depot may have been closed by Kelvin Central. Either that or it was in the very early days of First ownership. They tried running the local routes out of Motherwell depot but it didn't last long. Then the rather awful bus station in Airdrie closed.
Airdrie and Coatbridge town centres have been in decline for some time. You just have to see the quality of shops to find out why as nearby retail parks have grown which better suit the needs of motorists rather than bus passengers.
Small operators with low running costs are better placed to make a living in the area than First and as we're now seeing McGills but to be fair to First they did try some Coatbridge routes in 2010 and also extended the 262 to Caldercruix but it didn't last.
overthewater
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More changes are coming:
- PM0000015/250 Registered
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Gauze Street, Paisley to Oakbank Drive, Barrhead
Service number: 51 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 20 Sep 2019
- PM0000015/222 Registered
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD
Route: Linwood to Paisley via Phoenix, Asda
Service number: 7 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 20 Sep 2019
NorthClyde320
Member
Totally spot on, could not have put it better myself.
I believe the start of the decline in the Monklands began in 1997 following Stagecoach's assualt in Glasgow, a few months after that began the depot in Airdrie closed along with some service cuts, then about a year later more service cuts when the Lanarkshire services were renumbered into the 2XX series, then a couple of years later more service cuts, to about what is left now, along with the closure of the bus station. First had to concentrate it's resources in Glasgow.
The McGill's cut backs, and also the closure of the depot in Barrhead, all seem to have occured following the begining of the implementation of the LEZ in Glasgow. Coincidence?
I do believe that people in the Monklands couldn't depend on buses before McGill's came along, and as much as they improved the network slightly, the damage had already been done years before and wasn't going to reverse, and by the looks of things is only going to get worse.