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Cheshire Bus News (was East Cheshire Bus News)

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D & G would be better providing a wythenshawe interchange circular taking in heald green Spath Lane, colshaw farm, lacy green, Wilmslow station, bank square. Connect these areas to the metrolink and onward bus services. It’ll be a lot easier once the new road is open naturally
 
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martinsh

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D & G would be better providing a wythenshawe interchange circular taking in heald green Spath Lane, colshaw farm, lacy green, Wilmslow station, bank square. Connect these areas to the metrolink and onward bus services. It’ll be a lot easier once the new road is open naturally
D & G starting a new commercial service offering journey opportunities that don't already exist ? I'll eat my hat if that happens !
 

gnolife

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D & G would be better providing a wythenshawe interchange circular taking in heald green Spath Lane, colshaw farm, lacy green, Wilmslow station, bank square. Connect these areas to the metrolink and onward bus services. It’ll be a lot easier once the new road is open naturally
Heald Green already connects to Metrolink at Peel Hall, Colshaw Farm at East Didsbury, and Wilmslow at any of Altrincham, Manchester Airport or East Didsbury. I can't quite see the benefit of your suggestion.
 

pemma

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Looking at how the D&G Bus Wincham depot workings work:

One 88A vehicle will need to take the Knutsford Academy pupils from the Longridge Estate to Knutsford in the morning and the other will come off the 88A to run the 188 contracted service in the afternoon.

One of the 88 vehicles will need to carry the St Ambrose pupils in the morning and the Knutsford Academy pupils using the normal 88.
Another will come off the 88 to run the 188 then in the afternoon will carry the St Ambrose pupils and the Radbrooke Hall workers.
Another will carry the Knutsford Academy pupils using the normal 88 service in the afternoon.
The fourth will carry the Radbrooke Hall workers in the morning

Presuming the 270 doesn't interwork with anything, the morning bus to the Didsbury schools will be a different bus from the afternoon bus from the Didsbury schools.

Not sure what the 288 loadings are like at peak times, it's been a quiet service whenever I've seen or used it.

Wincham seem to currently have 2 baby Solos (49 and 50), ex-Go Goodwins Solos, one or two Solo 970SRs and a few Streetlites. I don't think that allocation is going to work next week!
 

pemma

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D & G starting a new commercial service offering journey opportunities that don't already exist ? I'll eat my hat if that happens !

They have just started running a direct commercial service from Macclesfield to Manchester Airport, which I'm not sure has existed as a direct service before. Although, it's a modification of the previous Macclesfield to Colshaw Farm (replacing withdrawn Arriva journeys) being diverted and extended to the Airport to part replace the withdrawn 200 service.
 

pemma

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Also have you recived the stupidly over complicated new timetable for the 88 ect. yet?

There's now a TfGM 88/88A/89/288 timetable leaflet available from Knutsford library which shows all the 88 and 88A services in the same tables and also includes a map showing the routes.
 

LOL The Irony

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've suggested the Shaw Heath Post Office stops should be moved to the other side of the Longridge Junction (closer to the Business Park) so that both the 88 and 88A stops at the same stop but apparently Cheshire East aren't going to bother to review if bus stops are in the best place or not.
Impossible on the the Knutsford side of Mobberley Road because the Kids Allowed junction and crossing are in the way.
 

pemma

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Impossible on the the Knutsford side of Mobberley Road because the Kids Allowed junction and crossing are in the way.

Definitely not impossible as you can eliminate the hashed middle section of road between the Business Park and Longridge and it's only buses which use the sort of half slip road approaching Longridge.
 

pemma

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I still like it where it is though. 83 meters from my house is a perfect location :D

You'd get twice as many services (Mon-Fri) from one just a bit further down. ;)

I'll tell the drivers if they're driving the ex-Go Goodwins Solos (with air horns) to sound their horn as they go past your house! <D
 

LOL The Irony

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You'd get twice as many services (Mon-Fri) from one just a bit further down. ;)

I'll tell the drivers if they're driving the ex-Go Goodwins Solos (with air horns) to sound their horn as they go past your house! <D
:lol: If I don't creep them all off it with death stares. Have you got an ex-London Solo yet?
 

LOL The Irony

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You mean the baby ones with fleet numbers 49 and 50? No but then I'm not using the bus as much as I used to.
The seats are rock hard. How anyone can sit on one for almost 2 hours is beyond me. A Merseyrail Pacer sounds like a better option for Altrincham - Mobberley, Knutsford, Plumley, Lostock Gralam & Northwich.
 

pemma

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The seats are rock hard. How anyone can sit on one for almost 2 hours is beyond me. A Merseyrail Pacer sounds like a better option for Altrincham - Mobberley, Knutsford, Plumley, Lostock Gralam & Northwich.

The ex-Go Goodwins ones are very hard as well and the Streetlites are ****e generally. When they started running the 88 using the SRs with leather seats it looked like they were going to be using similar standard buses to 'GHA Gold' but it didn't last!
 

LOL The Irony

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The ex-Go Goodwins ones are very hard as well and the Streetlites are ****e generally. When they started running the 88 using the SRs with leather seats it looked like they were going to be using similar standard buses to 'GHA Gold' but it didn't last!
I'd rather have Arriva back. We could get a Sapphire service!
 

pemma

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Is anything going to happen for the Knutsford May Day fair? The last bus being at seven pm isn't going to be good.

Drop an email to D&G Bus and maybe also Andrew Malloy on the town council (the non-Conservative councillor who actually cares about bus and rail links.) Maybe also point out that last year a Streetlite running the 300 after the May Day parade had all seats occupied and a few passengers standing and at that time there was roughly a service every 15 minutes between the town centre and Shaw Heath (2 x 300 services and 2 x 88 services), now there's just one service per hour on Saturdays.

D&G will also have to publicise what they are going to do about Northwich services on the day while the roads are closed. Macclesfield to Altrincham via Knutsford services can just miss out the town centre section and wait on Thorneyholme Drive for a while so that they don't run early. Northwich to Altrincham via Knutsford won't be as straight forward.
 

pemma

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:lol: If I don't creep them all off it with death stares. Have you got an ex-London Solo yet?

The seats are rock hard. How anyone can sit on one for almost 2 hours is beyond me.

It seems they are the same length as the ex-Go Goodwins ones also being used but have 8 seats fewer due to having a luggage rack. Yet these ones with fewer seats don't seem to be allocated to any specific duties, it would be fair enough if they used one on the 288 (where a luggage rack might be useful) and the second on the 88A.
 

pemma

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According to the sign on the bus this morning, the 130 "wasn't financially viable", which doesn't come at a significant surprise.

Some posted a photo on Flickr of a 10.8m Enviro 200 leaving Manchester Airport on a 130 service showing two drivers on board (one presumably training another) and no visible passengers.
 

sjb-2812

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D&G are no longer going to run the Macclesfield to Manchester Airport service from 18th June.

They've barely had a chance to bed it in. I was looking at potentially using it in August. Thought it may be viable from Macclesfield though maybe not further towards the airport compared to the train (one change, either at Stockport, usually crossplatform or Piccadilly (random)). Perhaps the confusion with the bus number hasn't helped?
 

pemma

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They've barely had a chance to bed it in. I was looking at potentially using it in August. Thought it may be viable from Macclesfield though maybe not further towards the airport compared to the train (one change, either at Stockport, usually crossplatform or Piccadilly (random)). Perhaps the confusion with the bus number hasn't helped?

They've been running an hourly Macclesfield to Wilmslow (alongside an hourly Arriva service) since January but until 1st April it ran to Handforth Dean and the change was made to run it to Manchester Airport after the 200 contract was cancelled by Cheshire East.

Given how low the loadings were on the 200 service and that Styal is soon set to get an hourly train, while Wilmslow and Alderley Edge already have hourly Airport trains I was surprised D&G even tried running a Macclesfield to Manchester Airport service. They must have hoped a lot of people in Macclesfield would travel to the Airport if a direct bus existed.
 
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D&G are trying but as I said in a previous post. A service running from civic centre bus station taking in the heald green handforth and Wilmslow estates or a regular Wilmslow handforth heald green circular would be far more useful and profitable than these massive long random routes
 

pemma

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D&G are trying but as I said in a previous post. A service running from civic centre bus station taking in the heald green handforth and Wilmslow estates or a regular Wilmslow handforth heald green circular would be far more useful and profitable than these massive long random routes

D&G tried running a Wilmslow-Lacey Green-Handforth-Handforth Dean Mon-Fri service last year, after Stagecoach withdrew the Wilmslow, Lacey Green and Handforth section of their 378 service due to poor patronage. Reportedly D&G found they were making a loss of over £1000 a week on that service, which is why they gave their 8 weeks notice of wanting to cancel the service after only 2 weeks of running it. That also caused some of the Cheshire East councillors to become even more anti-bus as hundreds of people complained about losing the 378 Stagecoach service but hardly any of them used the new D&G service.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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D & G would be better providing a wythenshawe interchange circular taking in heald green Spath Lane, colshaw farm, lacy green, Wilmslow station, bank square. Connect these areas to the metrolink and onward bus services. It’ll be a lot easier once the new road is open naturally

Why are Spath Lane and Wilmslow deemed worthy of capital letters in this posting but not the following:-
wythshenshawe (sic)
heald green (sic)
colshaw farm (sic)
lacy green (sic)....which I suppose is intended to be Lacey Green
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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D&G are trying but as I said in a previous post. A service running from civic centre bus station taking in the heald green handforth and Wilmslow estates or a regular Wilmslow handforth heald green circular would be far more useful and profitable than these massive long random routes

Wilmslow and Handforth are both parts of Cheshire East. Heald Green is most certainly not, as those residents there who pay their local dues to Stockport will duly so attest.
 
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D&G tried running a Wilmslow-Lacey Green-Handforth-Handforth Dean Mon-Fri service last year, after Stagecoach withdrew the Wilmslow, Lacey Green and Handforth section of their 378 service due to poor patronage. Reportedly D&G found they were making a loss of over £1000 a week on that service, which is why they gave their 8 weeks notice of wanting to cancel the service after only 2 weeks of running it. That also caused some of the Cheshire East councillors to become even more anti-bus as hundreds of people complained about losing the 378 Stagecoach service but hardly any of them used the new D&G service.

True but no one will get in to the habit of using any of these services when they keep chopping, changing and cancelling every month. Once people have faith in a regular punctual service they may use it.
 
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