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Cheshire Bus News (was East Cheshire Bus News)

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Rail Ranger

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This has appeared on the skyscrapercity Buses forum (posted by "SF07"):
Registration has appeared today for the 130 by D&G Bus, but only within Cheshire, running between Macclesfield and Handforth (probably terminating around Spaith Lane or at the roundabout at the A555), which will mean Wilmslow losing its remaining bus connection to the Stockport area (Cheadle Hulme/Cheadle).

Looking at the 130 route in Greater Manchester, East Didsbury-Cheadle Hulme is covered by the 42B, while the 368 covers Cheadle Hulme-Heald Green with a stretch of Wilmslow Road left unserved. The 312 could be re-routed, but can imagine that TfGM will probably not look to replace the 130 within Greater Manchester.

PC1090231/152 Registered (Short notice)
D & G BUS LIMITED
Route: Macclesfield Bus Station to Wilmslow Road, Handforth via Alderley Edge, Wilmslow
Service number: 130 ()
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 27 Jan 2020

https://www.vehicle-operator-licensi...s%5Bsubmit%5D=
 
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_toommm_

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But how far will it actually go along Wilmslow Road? Of course Wilmslow Road stretches into Cheadle Hulme, alongside the hospital and the John Lewis.
 
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Statto

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spargazer said:
rail into manch', then bus picc' to the doorstep of the christie (and there are lots f,f&f) easy peasy The Christie is not at all car friendly though one does get a good view of the tower cranes in skyscraper city from the top of the car park.
Click to expand...

Even the train[or 391/392 bus] to Stockport then 42 will get to Christie, without the need to go through central Manchester
 
Deerfold

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spargazer said:
rail into manch', then bus picc' to the doorstep of the christie (and there are lots f,f&f) easy peasy The Christie is not at all car friendly though one does get a good view of the tower cranes in skyscraper city from the top of the car park.
Click to expand...

And her bus to Macclesfield station.
 
Deerfold

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Statto said:
Even the train[or 391/392 bus] to Stockport then 42 will get to Christie, without the need to go through central Manchester
Click to expand...

That's what she says in the article she'll have to do, but with a bus to the station first.
 
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Statto said:
Even the train[or 391/392 bus] to Stockport then 42 will get to Christie, without the need to go through central Manchester
Click to expand...
but you have to walk back to the station after, that is a fair trek, uphill, and not a nice one, in fact it is as bad as Macc railway station to Macc bus station

.
 
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daodao said:
It has been confirmed on the Arriva website:
https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-west/updates/changes-to-services-in-the-manchesterhalton-area/

This is a historic route dating back to the early 1920s; its frequency was still every 30 minutes (hourly Sundays and evenings) until about 12 years ago. Its withdrawal removes all direct public transport connections between Macclesfield and Alderley Edge/Wilmslow and deprives the Colshaw Farm Estate of all public transport.
Click to expand...

Do you have any idea of the exact year
 
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_toommm_ said:
But how far will it actually go along Wilmslow Road? Of course Wilmslow Road stretches into Cheadle Hulme, alongside the hospital and the John Lewis.
Click to expand...
Terminates at Wilmslow Road / Spath Lane so just beyond the shops in Handforth when heading northbound I presume.
 
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Looking at the old and new timetables, it seems to me that Arriva needs 3 buses to operate its current Macclesfield-Parrs Wood 130 service whereas D&G needs 2 buses to operate its proposed replacement Macclesfield-Handforth 130 service. D&G could not extend the service any further north from Handforth without needing more than 2 buses if also operating an hourly service in each direction.

Presumably the way in which services are operated are on the basis of minimising cost in the first place.

The only time in 2019 I used the 130 was to get to Cheadle, because it's not served by train, so in future my likelihood of using the 130 for any purpose will be even less than it currently is. However I live in the centre of Wilmslow and have good access to train services, which I know many of the current 130 users don't.
 
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It'll be interesting to see what happens with the possible planned flotation of arriva in may.

It's been mentioned by a few arriva drivers I know based in macclesfield that stagecoach could be interested in having macc should it get sold off.
 
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Cheshire East Council will be subsidising operation of the D&G 130 service to ensure that it operates on Saturdays. Initial reports had been that it would only run Monday-Friday.

EDIT: Annual cost of subsidy to support the Saturday service is £22,360, information from Cheshire East Council to me in response to an FOI request.
 
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martinsh

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Had to go to Leighton Hospital today, from my home on the other side of Crewe. Of the five Arriva buses I waited for NONE of them turned up ! Can anyone tell me how to complain to the Traffic Commissioners ?

The five waits were ended by

1 x a bus of another operator eventually turning up
2 X an Arriva bus on a different route eventually turning up
1 x walking
1 x giving up on any hope of reaching destination

In other news

Arriva are reducing the frequency of the 84 between Crewe and Nantwich to every 20 minutes (from 15)

Gerards of Sandbach (previously a minibus operator) now have a BMC registered BV57MTO
 
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Arriva in Crewe are absolutely useless. when you complain they claim vehicles have broken down. On the present scale of breakdowns their maintenance must be of very poor quality. Had a similar issue to you a few days ago with 3 consecutive journeys on 84 missing at Crewe Bus Station, Eventually an 84 from Chester arrives immediately followed by one from Nantwich with the driver getting most upset at a complaining passenger saying she had been pulled of her break to do that journey, and was now finishing her break. Eventually Chester vehicle left, nearly full, heading back to Chester.

The change to a 20 minute frequency on this route only applies on Saturdays. For what it's worth the advertised 15 minutes service on Mondays to Fridays is unchanged.
 
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There’s a rumour on a couple of Facebook pages in wilmslow that d & g are cancelling the 130 in May.
 

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markymark2000

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Navigation Roa said:
There’s a rumour on a couple of Facebook pages in wilmslow that d & g are cancelling the 130 in May.
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It's a very difficult service to run. It's so far away from all of the depots.

The whole of Cheshire East is a no win area. Low population density, higher than normal car ownership, quite well off and a significant amount of older residents. It's all passes but at the same time, there isn't much being done to encourage fare payers onto public transport (One major operator has a large number of complaints about no shows and the other has no social media, wifi or live tracking).
It's a downward spiral and it won't be fixed until someone (council or operators) get their backside into gear and actually attempt to get people onto buses.
 
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markymark2000 said:
It's a downward spiral
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Agreed, and with your other points as well. As documented in this thread, after a long period of stability but steady decline in usage, the 130 has had four significant changes between operators and timetables in the last year or so. These changes alone will mean infrequent users will give up on it.

Its primary use seems to be to take people, most of whom will not be fare payers, to and from Macclesfield Hospital. From Wilmslow, public transport to any of the local hospitals is really poor (Wythenshawe is a 3 hour round trip for a 5 minute outpatient appointment), but at least the 130 is a direct bus service to a hospital. But for any other fare paying passengers to use it, surely it has to serve other places? Maybe Wilmslow is a "destination" in its own right of course, so the bus is a service to people wanting to get here, but - living in Wilmslow - I've no real use for it. And I sold my car more than a year ago so in principle I could be a user of the service, but (up thread I think) the only reason I used it in the last year was to go to Cheadle, which it no longer serves.
 
markymark2000

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jfollows said:
Agreed, and with your other points as well. As documented in this thread, after a long period of stability but steady decline in usage, the 130 has had four significant changes between operators and timetables in the last year or so. These changes alone will mean infrequent users will give up on it.

Its primary use seems to be to take people, most of whom will not be fare payers, to and from Macclesfield Hospital. From Wilmslow, public transport to any of the local hospitals is really poor (Wythenshawe is a 3 hour round trip for a 5 minute outpatient appointment), but at least the 130 is a direct bus service to a hospital. But for any other fare paying passengers to use it, surely it has to serve other places? Maybe Wilmslow is a "destination" in its own right of course, so the bus is a service to people wanting to get here, but - living in Wilmslow - I've no real use for it. And I sold my car more than a year ago so in principle I could be a user of the service, but (up thread I think) the only reason I used it in the last year was to go to Cheadle, which it no longer serves.
Click to expand...
The way I see it, people don't want the longer distance routes anymore and prefer to take the train as capacity has been increased and prices made more competitive. Personally I would be running the 130 Macclesfield - Wilmslow - Altrincham and the 88s from Macc/Northwich - Knutsford - Wilmslow - Handforth (possibly further). Macclesfield and Alderley Edge have no rail links to Altrincham and these areas are relatively affluent and would shop in places like Altrincham. On the 88, very few people travel 'through' Wilmslow. Partly because Knutsford has links to Altrincham and is almost an hour quicker by train than it is by bus (and only 20p more expensive). Macc/Northwich - Knutsford isn't very busy and has limited use for the longer distance anyway.
Maybe it's just my thoughts but I think that this would do a lot better than the current arrangement where routes don't exactly match where people would want to go.
 
LOL The Irony

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markymark2000 said:
the 88s from Macc/Northwich - Knutsford - Wilmslow - Handforth (possibly further).
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It can still get busy between Wilmslow and Altrincham.
markymark2000 said:
Macclesfield and Alderley Edge have no rail links to Altrincham and these areas are relatively affluent and would shop in places like Altrincham.
Click to expand...
Wilmslow is also affluent and has no rail links to Altrincham. Plus, wouldn't those people drive?
 
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martinsh said:
Gerards of Sandbach (previously a minibus operator) now have a BMC registered BV57MTO
Click to expand...

I think Gerrards have two BMCs, but not sure. They have been operating full-size vehicles (well, Darts) for several years.
 
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