You can't look at one town in isolation. You could argue that improved provision is needed between the town centre and the hospital. However, if the 88 was made hourly and both the 88 and 130 were consistent then for Mon-Sat daytime, there would be a reasonable level of provision between the town centre and the hospital.
No-one wants to try competition anymore after how badly it went with the 130, 45 (Northwich-Warrington) and 84.
130 wasn't really competition, it was D&G trying to fill gaps, in the same way that they have done on the 38. It didn't work out because of the padding and the constant changes to the service. 84 competition didn't last long, mainly because it was 3 firms. In a good few areas, there is friendly competition that works well, both with high and medium frequencies. It's down to someone finding a gap in the market and exploiting it. Whether that be filling a gap in the service or in some cases, it's just actually turning up (as some operators have a poor record of turning up)
The cost of parking a car at Macclesfield Hospital puts people off driving. Especially those who are making repeated visits to see a sick friend or family member who has been admitted to hospital.
If you look at the reasons why people go to hospitals, it may explain why buses to hospitals tend to not do very well. I will admit, this does go off the topic of Cheshire East but does well to explain the point on hospital buses.
1. Someone they are with or someone they know has just been taken in - Well, people tend to rush to get to the hospital and so public transport isn't very 'rush', cars (including taxis) are quicker.
2. General visiting - Ok, people could use the bus for this but visiting hours are normally limited to an afternoon and evening. Afternoon ones are normally quieter in my experience and for the hospital near me (a 600 bed hospital), I'd say you're looking around 75 or so visitors per day. Not huge numbers. Even at best case scenario and you could get 10% onto buses, the difference is negligible. Evening visits are normally people going straight after work and as such divert as part of their normal journey or they need to get there quickly to spend the time with the person they are visiting before visiting ends.
3. Normal appointments - Now, this is one area where some difference could and should be made. Normal appointments have potential for some usage but hospitals are so big that a bus to the entrance would still mean walking a fair distance and as such, a car or taxi can get them much closer to the appointment. Another hospital near me is Wrexham Maelor which is 800 capacity and is the 'go to' hospital for North East Wales and buses rarely stop at the hospital at all and most of the buses in Wrexham which head out to the west stop at the hospital but most just plod past. Very few people use the bus to get there (in the grand scheme of things)
With these 3 points, even if you can get these people onto buses, it is a trickle of passengers. Buses need more than 1 or 2 passengers to be worthwhile and the numbers simply aren't there, at any time of day, to accommodate this type of visitor.
4. Staff. Staff is a big one but this is generally shift times. From experience, this seems minimal. Hospital workers seem to travel from quite far, like opposite sides of the town/city and so to get buses to the hospital would take a while and cost them dearly with the change of bus. Also with a number of hospital workers working a long shift, the last thing they want is a long bus journey, it's not a 9-5 job. Again, like appointments, buses will have a standard drop off point and hospitals are big places so staff could walk a long way to get to work versus a car or taxi which would drop them much closer to their place of work.
Buses can certainly do better here but it relies upon hospitals working with the operators too. The funny thing is, if people get ill due to poor air quality, they end up in hospital and hospitals are supposedly overwhelmed (not disputing, just not been so I don't know for sure), yet, the NHS is one of the worst public sector areas when it comes to pushing public transport. I've been to countless hospitals and I'd say the vast majority have dismal public transport information at the entrance or even on the bus stops themselves.
Here is a recent one from Shrewsbury Hospital -
https://twitter.com/SmithysTP/status/1500878389460320263. Most hospital websites have poor information too on 'getting there' except for if you're in a car, at which point, the information is excellent.
Point being, Hospitals don't work with bus operators to share shift times or make it easier for buses to access sites nor do they encourage anyone to use public transport. That is why the staff don't use buses, why would they when it's easier, sometimes cheaper and there is literally no incentive to use the bus.
In summary, why would staff change to a bus when it's more inconvenient and provides no benefit to them and visitors generally can't travel by bus because it doesn't work out for the plans and there aren't enough people going to pre planned normal appointments for any service to be in place. It'd be a waste of time and money.
www.arrivabus.co.uk
