Cheshire Bus News (was East Cheshire Bus News)

[Navigation Roa]

If you’re seriously disabled you can’t access handforth station.

 

[gnolife]

Some people have been moaning to the media and their MP about the 130 no longer going to Manchester or connecting with another bus which goes to Manchester, even though both Wilmslow and Handforth have trains to Manchester.

Have they scrapped all buses from Wythenshawe to Manchester then? Last I checked, there was 14 of them in an hour, so that would be a remarkable cut.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I recall that when Argos closed in Wilmslow there was a sign in the window "nearest store now in Wythenshawe" which made me laugh because neither I nor anyone I could think of who might go to the Wilmslow store would ever consider shopping in Wythenshawe instead. I've nothing against Wythenshawe, but Wythenshawe and Wilmslow are orthogonal worlds.
There may be hospital traffic on the revised 130 service, though, although that'd be more likely if it went to the hospital rather than just to Wythenshawe shops - perhaps because that'd require an additional bus because of the tight turnaround timings.
Personally I think that a more regular hourly service, albeit only as far as Handforth, was better than a 90-minute frequency, but presumably D&G will invest two buses into the service and found that the investment for the hourly Handforth service didn't pay.

Most people I knew in Wilmslow would go to Stockport despite it being a bit further.

 

[peters]

Have they scrapped all buses from Wythenshawe to Manchester then? Last I checked, there was 14 of them in an hour, so that would be a remarkable cut.

The Wythenshawe extension is a response to the complaints although maybe not the one the people complaining wanted.

 

[peters]

If you’re seriously disabled you can’t access handforth station.

I'm sure I heard reports about Handforth station getting accessibility funding and being one of the few stations in Cheshire to get such funding. Have those works being undertaken yet?

 

[peters]

Also, Warrington's Own Buses have purchased seven former Metroline Enviro400s. The first, SN09 CDY, is in fleet livery.
Apologies if not in East Cheshire.

It's ok

Warrington's in neither Cheshire East or Cheshire West but they do run more regular services in the latter. Their only Cheshire East service is a single bus Warrington/Lymm to High Legh/Knutsford route which is an off-peak service using the vehicle off a Lymm High School contract. I did see a double decker on it one day but it's usually a large single decker and not one of the modern ones like the Cheshire CAT service to Northwich gets.

 

[peters]

Service 312 will no longer run after the 25th July. Instead Handforth Dean will be served by the 378, 379 & 42C... all new buses that will be extended slightly

Service 42C was created as a part replacement for the 130 as TfGM have realised that depriving the Manchester boundary without the service has been a massive issue. This will be an every 60 minute service Monday - Saturday (like the 130 was when journeys went to Manchester before the East Didsbury cut) It’s still a waste of time for the people of wilmslow and handforth

All routes These will go via Handforth Dean shopping centre (41C will start there and go to Manchester)

Service 378 is the same but extended along Stanley road to serve Handforth Dean & the estate in Heald Green left when the 312 goes. Service 379 is the same but in the oposite direction. These routes will also serve the Dairyground housing estate in Bramhall due to services 307/308 being withdrawn. (The LocalLink replacement also expires 25th July)

According to Stagecoach TfGM made numerous errors in their publication - they are only contracted to provide one service to Handforth Dean - the 42C. The 378 and 379 do not serve Handforth Dean and they also clarified the 42C does not go to Handforth after another TfGM error.

Regarding Handforth Dean D&G have extended the first and last journey on their Wilmslow Free Bus to extend to Mobberley and Knutsford via Chapel Lane in Wilmslow, like the 88 route but directly in to Knutsford along Mobberley Road not via Longridge or Manor Park.

 

[LOL The Irony]

it's usually a large single decker and not one of the modern ones like the Cheshire CAT service to Northwich gets.

The CAT Enviro 200's are the only ones I saw operating it before lockdown. The last time I saw an old one was at the start of the year.

 

[peters]

The CAT Enviro 200's are the only ones I saw operating it before lockdown. The last time I saw an old one was at the start of the year.

I've seen new buses but with and without the Cheshire CAT branding on the 47 during the lockdown period but the two occasions I've seen it since they've gone back to full services on the CAT routes it's been a much older bus - 57 reg I think.

 

[LOL The Irony]

The problem with the 47 though, is that it runs at stupid times. If it ran on Saturdays and had more services going to Knutsford per day, that'd make it quite popular. It currently only gives you a couple hours to go around Warrington.

 

[M60lad]

Many years ago the 47 used to be a regular service and used to operate from Warrington-Northwich via Knutsford, not to sure whether such a service would be useful these days as an alternate to D&Gs 89 service.

 

[LOL The Irony]

Many years ago the 47 used to be a regular service and used to operate from Warrington-Northwich via Knutsford, not to sure whether such a service would be useful these days as an alternate to D&Gs 89 service.

It could be, if it ran alternate hours and took a faster, more direct route and/or was cheaper.

 

[peters]

It 47 was operated by a 45 seater 09 reg Wright bus on both Thursday and Friday last week. Plenty of room for the passengers to social distance given there was just 1 on the 09:40 bus leaving Knutsford on Thursday and 4 on Friday. I think the 47 used to be the first post-09:30 departure from Lymm to Warrington but now the CAT5 runs just ahead of it so it's probably lost the bus pass holders from Lymm, who might not realise the slightly later 47 gets to Warrington first because it doesn't divert via Stockton Heath.

 

[spargazer]

Warrington's in neither Cheshire East or Cheshire West but they do run more regular services in the latter. Their only Cheshire East service is a single bus Warrington/Lymm to High Legh/Knutsford route which is an off-peak service using the vehicle off a Lymm High School contract. I did see a double decker on it one day but it's usually a large single decker and not one of the modern ones like the Cheshire CAT service to Northwich gets.

Warrington is a unitary authority.

 

[PaulWC]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I noticed on the Cheshire East website about the 'Better deal for buses' funding. There were various plans for supporting services such as a Sunday 130, to improvements to many Leighton Hospital services. The council now has the money, but due to Covid 19 is considering reallocating the money:-

Better deal for buses funding

Better deal for buses funding and bus improvements.

www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

 

[323235]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I noticed on the Cheshire East website about the 'Better deal for buses' funding. There were various plans for supporting services such as a Sunday 130, to improvements to many Leighton Hospital services. The council now has the money, but due to Covid 19 is considering reallocating the money:-

Better deal for buses funding

Better deal for buses funding and bus improvements.

www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

Yes I did hear about that and was very optimistic at the time, they launched the Sunday service to Leighton Hospital in February.

Although since COVID they've seemingly permanently downgraded our 391/392 saturday service to every 90 minutes, TSS ignored my email enquiry about whether it was temporary or permanent.

Are they going to hold onto the rest of the funding until things recover significantly - otherwise we are likely to see the benefits eroded.

 

[peters]

Although since COVID they've seemingly permanently downgraded our 391/392 saturday service to every 90 minutes, TSS ignored my email enquiry about whether it was temporary or permanent.

A planner from a bus company told me the press release Cheshire East put out about difficulties in awarding a replacement contract due to COVID-19 was a load of rubbish. He told me the actual story is the service was put out to tender and awarded to D&G Bus but then D&G Bus' parent company decided it would fit better with High Peak, so High Peak were set to start running the service on behalf of D&G Bus. With the lockdown Cheshire East decided to not commence the new contract but to instead use Flexilink to transport any key workers. Then, to add another twist, a manager at Diamond Bus thought it was strange there was no replacement for the 391/392, unlike all the other Manchester Community Transport routes and told Cheshire East that they planned to register a limited service on a commercial basis and sent their driver training vehicle along the route during lockdown. Cheshire East's plan was then to void the contract awarded and to agree a subsidy with Diamond for enhancing the commercial service. To add a further twist when Diamond Bus lost some of their Stockport work they decided running the 391/392 would involve too much dead mileage which is when Go Goodwins got involved - the planner thinks this may be due to Diamond asking Go Goodwins to operate it on their behalf.

 

[Contains Nuts]

A planner from a bus company told me the press release Cheshire East put out about difficulties in awarding a replacement contract due to COVID-19 was a load of rubbish. He told me the actual story is the service was put out to tender and awarded to D&G Bus but then D&G Bus' parent company decided it would fit better with High Peak, so High Peak were set to start running the service on behalf of D&G Bus. With the lockdown Cheshire East decided to not commence the new contract but to instead use Flexilink to transport any key workers. Then, to add another twist, a manager at Diamond Bus thought it was strange there was no replacement for the 391/392, unlike all the other Manchester Community Transport routes and told Cheshire East that they planned to register a limited service on a commercial basis and sent their driver training vehicle along the route during lockdown. Cheshire East's plan was then to void the contract awarded and to agree a subsidy with Diamond for enhancing the commercial service. To add a further twist when Diamond Bus lost some of their Stockport work they decided running the 391/392 would involve too much dead mileage which is when Go Goodwins got involved - the planner thinks this may be due to Diamond asking Go Goodwins to operate it on their behalf.

I can tell you none of that is true...

 

[peters]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but I noticed on the Cheshire East website about the 'Better deal for buses' funding. There were various plans for supporting services such as a Sunday 130, to improvements to many Leighton Hospital services. The council now has the money, but due to Covid 19 is considering reallocating the money:-

Better deal for buses funding

Better deal for buses funding and bus improvements.

www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

There was a survey undertaken on bus demand by Knutsford Town Council and they found as many people want to use a bus to Macclesfield, as want to use a bus to Wilmslow and that local journeys within Knutsford were also very popular, so strange that there's no mention of additional Macclesfield-Knutsford services or the reintroduction of a local bus.

I'm not sure I follow their proposal for 3 journeys from Knutsford-High Legh-Little Bollington-Altrincham, do they mean they intend to reinstate the old 289 route with more journeys on the Northwich section than the Altrincham one, or do they mean the 88 services which don't continue to Northwich will instead continue to Altrincham via High Legh? I fear Knutsford-High Legh-Little Bollington-Altrincham would be as well as the 47 but with two different operators and the times not coordinated.

 

[peters]

I can tell you none of that is true...

Perhaps you can tell us the real story then? At least one bit of it must be true as otherwise you're saying the Cheshire East press release was truthful but they didn't provide a service for key workers using the Flexilink buses prior to the new contract starting.

 

[Contains Nuts]

Perhaps you can tell us the real story then? At least one bit of it must be true as otherwise you're saying the Cheshire East press release was truthful but they didn't provide a service for key workers using the Flexilink buses prior to the new contract starting.

Quite simple really. It went to tender, didn’t get awarded, got run by Flexilink buses instead for a while, then got awarded based on the original tender outcome.

 

[peters]

then got awarded based on the original tender outcome.

So are you implying the plan was to reduce the Saturday frequency even without the COVID-19 situation, otherwise wouldn't the bidders have been asked to revise their bids to allow for the lower Saturday running cost?

 

[markymark2000]

There was a survey undertaken on bus demand by Knutsford Town Council and they found as many people want to use a bus to Macclesfield, as want to use a bus to Wilmslow and that local journeys within Knutsford were also very popular, so strange that there's no mention of additional Macclesfield-Knutsford services or the reintroduction of a local bus.

I'm not sure I follow their proposal for 3 journeys from Knutsford-High Legh-Little Bollington-Altrincham, do they mean they intend to reinstate the old 289 route with more journeys on the Northwich section than the Altrincham one, or do they mean the 88 services which don't continue to Northwich will instead continue to Altrincham via High Legh? I fear Knutsford-High Legh-Little Bollington-Altrincham would be as well as the 47 but with two different operators and the times not coordinated.

The plans for the 88 looks like a right mess. I would be surprised if CEC even know what they are doing.

It's so funny how CEC are planning all this with 1 extra bus yet, with 1 extra bus, things could go back to how they were (Currently the 88 has 4 buses and there is the 1 extra bus planned)
289 - 1 bus
88/300 - 3 buses (I know these didn't interwork but with the D&G 88 padding, it would be needed)
27 - 1 bus

All of this combined means more stable buses for people and putting them back to how they did work successfully rather than the mess of a timetable on the 88 and having such a long route which needs a lot of padding or risks the punctuality as the route is so long.

So are you implying the plan was to reduce the Saturday frequency even without the COVID-19 situation, otherwise wouldn't the bidders have been asked to revise their bids to allow for the lower Saturday running cost?

The bidders may have put in an alternative bid which they believe provides better value for money for the council and when they looked at the bids, they chose to go with the alternative because of cost. Of course for Goodwins, the benefit is having 1 less bus out so a lot less dead millage which i've heard is the biggest thing they have against the route.

 

[Contains Nuts]

So are you implying the plan was to reduce the Saturday frequency even without the COVID-19 situation, otherwise wouldn't the bidders have been asked to revise their bids to allow for the lower Saturday running cost?

I’m definitely not implying anything and I don’t know the answer to that as I was not involved in that process.

I’m not sure why you are getting so agitated about it on an enthusiast forum. The more sensible approach would be to submit an FOI request to Cheshire East rather than the usual ‘I spoke to a driver’s second cousin’s next door neighbour’ speculation!

 

[peters]

I’m definitely not implying anything and I don’t know the answer to that as I was not involved in that process.

I’m not sure why you are getting so agitated about it on an enthusiast forum. The more sensible approach would be to submit an FOI request to Cheshire East rather than the usual ‘I spoke to a driver’s second cousin’s next door neighbour’ speculation!

The question asked by @323235 was about whether the Saturday reduction was permanent or temporary. The speculation was a possible answer, as you're 100% confident the speculation is nothing more than that, I thought you might have some useful information to share about what was originally tendered.

 

[Simon75]

Arriva Macclesfield (except 2 and 21) operating from Monday 23rd August back to pre covid levels.
However the outstation will still be closed (loads of dead miles from Winsford)

 

[323235]

I can tell you none of that is true...

Yeh D&G have never had any issues running dead mileage between Winsford and Greater Manchester, so I can't see any truth in that as a casual observer

 

[peters]

Yeh D&G have never had any issues running dead mileage between Winsford and Greater Manchester, so I can't see any truth in that as a casual observer

I think you mean Wincham which is 12m from Altrincham, most of which is along the 60mph A556. There's been reports that Diamond bus got in to a mess trying to run Stockport services depots in Eccles and Bolton.

It's so funny how CEC are planning all this with 1 extra bus yet, with 1 extra bus, things could go back to how they were (Currently the 88 has 4 buses and there is the 1 extra bus planned)
289 - 1 bus
88/300 - 3 buses (I know these didn't interwork but with the D&G 88 padding, it would be needed)
27 - 1 bus

The through 88 does have the advantage of people from Longridge going to Macclesfield and Macclesfield hospital not needing to make a long walk to the bus station or change buses. An alternative could be the Macclesfield bus running via Longridge to Mobberley, re-routing the 88 back along Mobberley Rd instead of via Longridge so that some stops go back to half-hourly services to Knutsford bus station, as well as retaining a cross-Knutsford to Macclesfield bus.

The main problem with the 1 bus 289, which was actually also the bus which operated the 188 when Howards ran it, was the inconsistent timetable. The 89 may not be consistent but it's closer than the 289 ever was.

 

[323235]

I think you mean Wincham which is 12m from Altrincham, most of which is along the 60mph A556. There's been reports that Diamond bus got in to a mess trying to run Stockport services depots in Eccles and Bolton.

I was more thinking East Didsbury on the East Didsbury - Manchester Airport or there was Piccadilly Gardens on the 130, although it might not have been Winsford for the 130? This is a bit off topic for Cheshire though.

 

[James101]

D&G's website indicates they are taking over the 108/109 Macc - Leek / Leek - Ashbourne from 1st September.

Makes some interesting journeys technically possible - given their 'Day Return' is valid on Midland Classic it makes Manchester Airport to East Midlands Airport by bus possible on a £5.50 day ticket!