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Cheshire East council to cut transport budget by further 18%

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pemma

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April 24 2012

An eight-week public consultation is being launched to gain the views and ideas of people who use public transport.

Starting this Friday, the public will be consulted on proposals to review the bus services, which Cheshire East Council subsidises.

The consultation will look at those routes that are under-used, and see if flexible and community transport can better meet their needs.


http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/coun...s_for_april_2012/the_future_of_transport.aspx

As a reminder page 92 of this document:
http://tiny.cc/ja8pdw
shows the bus services that were kept under review even though they weren't withdrawn last time.

(The second link goes to a 4 page document, which was appendix 2 of the full report.)
 
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Xenophon PCDGS

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I feel sense of deja vu when viewing this new thread, as I remember this matter being the subject of a thread in 2011.

Be that as it may, the majority of these services are school bus services, whilst all except two of the remainder are services that only run on one day of the week.

The two services on the list that do provide a Monday to Friday service are:-
315 Alsager to Scholar Green
Knutsford Village Rider
Both of these are showing less than 5,000 annual passenger journeys (equates to 100 per week over a total of 5 days = 20 per day).
 

pemma

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I feel sense of deja vu when viewing this new thread, as I remember this matter being the subject of a thread in 2011.

Be that as it may, the majority of these services are school bus services, whilst all except two of the remainder are services that only run on one day of the week.

The two services on the list that do provide a Monday to Friday service are:-
315 Alsager to Scholar Green
Knutsford Village Rider
Both of these are showing less than 5,000 annual passenger journeys (equates to 100 per week over a total of 5 days = 20 per day).

The first page shows the services at risk last time, with most of them now withdrawn or replaced by new revised services. RR3 and 315 seem to be the only two that remain.

The Knutsford Village Rider did have it's support withdrawn and was continued commercially by a minibus operated by Whitegate Travel and has since been replaced by a trial of the Macclesfield area flexi-rider: http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/tran...e_transport/macclesfield_flexi_transport.aspx which will probably end up replacing RR3 as well.

It's the second page that will be of most concern now, as these were kept under review.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The proposed subsidy cut for transport to faith schools that was originally proposed last year has now gone ahead: http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/cre...ies-to-faith-school-transport-96135-30880167/

However, two important points of note:

1. It will not affect children already at school. So if a bus gets 32 passengers instead of 50 passengers it could cost the council more per pupil in the short term, as mentioned by Cllr Sam Corcoran in the article.

2. Not mentioned in this article. The subsidy for faith school transport is part of an Act whereby the church funds the maintenance of school buildings (normally funded by the council) in exchange for the free transport for pupils. So the churches may well demand the council funds the maintenance of school buildings if they aren't funding free school transport instead. In the short term that will probably save money as church schools are usually better maintained than county schools but longer term it may cost more.
 
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Xenophon PCDGS

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The proposed subsidy cut for transport to faith schools that was originally proposed last year has now gone ahead: http://www.crewechronicle.co.uk/cre...ies-to-faith-school-transport-96135-30880167/
The subsidy for faith school transport is part of an Act whereby the church funds the maintenance of school buildings (normally funded by the council) in exchange for the free transport for pupils. So the churches may well demand the council funds the maintenance of school buildings if they aren't funding free school transport instead. In the short term that will probably save money as church schools are usually better maintained than county schools but longer term it may cost more.

I had previously been contacted by a contact with regard to the school service to St Benedict at Handforth and of the attempts by the parents group that was set up to make remonstrations to Cheshire East Council.
 

323235

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Question they say they are looking to save 500,000 this year, does this include the proposed plan to end subsidies for faith schools which was said to save 250,000?

Also a number of the subsided services in the medium and high priority list carry more passengers than the subsidy paid to run them, does this suggest anything at all about potential commercial viability?
 

pemma

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Also a number of the subsided services in the medium and high priority list carry more passengers than the subsidy paid to run them, does this suggest anything at all about potential commercial viability?

The point I just made in the High Peak thread is relevant here also.

jcollins said:
Some routes, such as the 300 Knutsford Circular have seen a significant drop in day time users as fares have increased. The route once had a Mercedes-Benz 709D every 15 minutes, which changed to a Dart every 30 minutes. The Dart got quite busy at school start/end times and on the first bus the pensioners could use their free passes. Since Bowers took over the route they've used a Solo on 99.9% of services and it's rarely overcrowded as more and more people are walking instead of catching the bus. The daytime services used to be commercial with evening services subsided, now both are subsided with the evening services getting a higher subsidy.

I wonder if cheaper fares could in fact mean more money is taken per service, making the service more profitable.
 

pemma

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D&G service number 7 Crewe to Coppenhall to be withdrawn from 29th July 2012. 8 services in each direction on route 44 to be extended to Cliffe Road, Coppenhall via Underwood Lane, Pioneers from the following Monday.
 
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