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McGill's Buses - Renfrewshire & Inverclyde

smtglasgow

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15 Feb 2011
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472
Location
Glasgow & London
McGills fares are outrageous – but how many adults are paying them? Most use day/weeklys which are better value – although the difference between £15.50 with First on the m-ticket and McGills £18.50 seems quite steep to me. But if passenger numbers are dropping and they can’t think of a way to get them back, the only way to boost revenue is a fare increase. Still, profits might be way down, but they’ve paid a £3.35m dividend to shareholders (the Easdales, presumably), so trebles all round in Inchinnan.
 
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sannox

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1 Mar 2016
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384
When Arriva run the 17 (or was the 7 in those days?) via University Avenue it was an unmitigated disaster. Buses got stuck in the traffic on Byres Rd and Woodlands Rd. Anyway, the centre of gravity for the whole university is about to shift towards Dumbarton Rd as the new campus is built on the old Western Infirmary site.

Back to McGills, I think they’re going to have to be brutal with some of their local routes. Paisley, Johnstone, Greenock and Port Glasgow are all a bit dead these days – I’d guess that this is where the big losses are. Express buses are probably doing fine.

Have to say I think some of the Paisley buses look a bit quieter, but lack of competition has got to help. Virtually every good Paisley route used to have competition from a small operator- Barrhead/Neilston/Glasgow/Gallowhill/Foxbar/Ferguslie Park/Linwood all had competition.

The 17 is a bit peak and trough but I don't get the logic of running it so close to the 38 between Cardonald and Paisley late at night when both are 30 mins. Could work it to have a 15 minute frequency. Equally I think it would make more sense to join it back up with the 7 again?

The fares are high enough already withiut them increasing them further.

A single from Braehead to Glasgow on the 23 is £4.70, but yet an all day ticket is £4.50.
Do people pay that though? Don't most use M-Tickets where it's £2 a journey on a 10 journey ticket.
 

route101

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16 May 2010
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10,594
Didnt the 7 or 17 (changed a few times ?) run all the way to Largs at one point .
 

Arriva Fan

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Joined
14 May 2018
Messages
137
Didnt the 7 or 17 (changed a few times ?) run all the way to Largs at one point .
The 17 used to run from Largs to Glasgow via Johnstone, Paisley and Clyde Tunnel. Under Arriva it was cut to run from Spateston to Glasgow via Johnstone, Paisley and Clyde Tunnel, with peak time extensions to Kilbirnie. It was supplemented by a 17A when Arriva returned to Linwood, later renumbered 7, and a combined 10 Minute Frequency was provided from Paisley to Glasgow via Clyde Tunnel.

The Largs service was renumbered 18 and re-routed to Braehead via Renfrew after Paisley.

Arriva also cut the 64 and routed the 7/17 through Ferguslie Park. There's no chance of seeing Arriva Service Levels returned to, and no chance of the 17 being extended again. From 8 October Spateston is down to 3 Service 38 Journeys per hour. In November 2011 Arriva operated three Service 17, three Service 20 and three Service 38 Journeys per hour from Spateston to Johnstone, Paisley and Glasgow.
 

overthewater

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16 Apr 2012
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8,153
http://www.mcgillsbuses.co.uk/news/service-changes-monday-8-october.aspx

Service changes - Monday 8 October


Service 20
  • New route and timetable
  • No longer serves Spateston, except four AM journeys from Spateston to Paisley until 7.30am
  • All other journeys will begin and terminate at Johnstone Cochrane Castle
  • Spateston residents, please switch to service 38 for all journeys. Connecting services to RAH are 10/20/60 (which operate a combined frequency of every 10 minutes) in Paisley town centre.
View timetable
Service 22S
  • Monday to Sunday evenings will operate every 90 minutes from 19.50
  • Last journey towards Erskine from Paisley at 22.50 will terminate at Inchinnan depot. Switch to McGill's 23 service at 23.13 at Inchinnan Village or board service 757 from Paisley to Erskine direct
  • Service 22 will remain unchanged
View timetable

Service 287
  • To provide a more reliable service, we have amended the frequency to every 45 minutes
  • First and last journeys no longer serve Coatdyke Fountain, now go via Sykeside Street
View timetable

Service 3
  • Improved reliability, continued 30 minute frequency
  • Slightly adjusted times, particularly between Glasgow and Silverburn
View timetable
 

overthewater

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16 Apr 2012
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8,153
How does Key coaches still keep the freq up on its services? Also Chapel hall wont be happy with that cut. Maybe Miller coaches will return to running its bus service, If I was First I would extend its 242 beyound holytown to Airdrie,
 

gingerheid

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2 Apr 2006
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1,488
The pre-deregulation service was an hourly 17 from Glasgow to Largs bus station (as was...) and an hourly 17A from Glasgow to Kilbirnie. It suffered a lingering death by a million cuts and a million forms of competition (including of course the Stagecoach Express services in the Garnock Valley, and the improved local services between Kilbirnie and Beith that Stagecoach ran after they took over Clyde Coat Coaches). It came to some type of terribly reduced and useless form about the time Ashton's Coastline were coming on the scene. They first started an hourly 517 Largs Local to University bus (though it was an open secret that it was actually a bus from central Largs to Kelvin Hall, as that's the only part of the route that ever ran!) that is now the McGills 904 from Largs to Paisley, and from that time the 17 was pushed into retreat as an ever shorter route from Glasgow.
 
Joined
16 Oct 2011
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280
McNairn coaches have registered the 212 again on a commercial basis

Bus registration details
  • Registration number
    PM2002842/8
  • Licence Number
    PM2002842
  • Variation number
    0
  • Status
    Registered
  • Service number.
    212
  • Service type
    Normal Stopping
  • Start point
    Dumbreck Avenue, Caldercruix
  • Finish point
    Monklands Hospital
  • Via
    Plains, Airdrie
  • Date received
    10 Oct 2018
  • Effective date
    26 Nov 2018
  • End date
  • Supported by subsidies?
    No
  • Local authorities covered by route
    Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
  • TAOs covered by route
    Scotland
Registration history
Reg No. Var No. Status Application type Date received Date effective End date
PM2002842/8 0 Registered Manual 10 Oct 2018 26 Nov 2018
 

AlexanderPS

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
118
Strangely the 16 Salsburgh-Carnbroe ran by McNairn for the SPT by McNairn stops on the 24th of November.

PM2002842/6 Cancelled
MCNAIRN'S COACHES LTD.

Route: Salsburgh Carvale Avenue to Carnbrae Drumore Avenue via Gartness, Clarkston, Airdrie
Service number: 16
Service type: Normal Stopping
Effective date: 24 Nov 2018
 

smtglasgow

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Joined
15 Feb 2011
Messages
472
Location
Glasgow & London
According to the last SPT Partnership papers the current Monklands tenders were only temporary and end on November 24th, so the changes being registered might just be long-term tenders being awarded.

Monklands should be taught as a case study in how to destroy public transport use – it’s been a mess since the 90s.
 

alangla

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11 Apr 2018
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1,178
Location
Glasgow
Monklands should be taught as a case study in how to destroy public transport use – it’s been a mess since the 90s.
In the 1990s there was a pretty extensive KCB/First network run from Airdrie depot. The rot seemed to set in when First started trying to run it from Motherwell from what I remember.

On the 17 service, did Clydeside run that to Springburn at one point or am I imagining it?
 

Megafuss

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5 May 2018
Messages
639
After the outage last month, I've noticed they have ditched Corethree for the m-ticket provider and appear to use the same one as Transdev now
 

sannox

Member
Joined
1 Mar 2016
Messages
384
On the 17 service, did Clydeside run that to Springburn at one point or am I imagining it?

It ran into the bus station then out to Torrance if I remember on a tender? Was it not the 71 route that McGill's now run by tender off-peak?

The 17 was a strange service- like others said it went from Largs, to being cut back to various points like Kilbirnie, Beith, Lochwinnoch, Howwood and Spateston. Once the free OAP passes came in it was back to Largs, half hourly from Glasgow in summer and I think hourly in winter. Used to alternate between Lochwinnoch and Beith too and a decker ran a peak hour duplicate as far as Johnstone. Reliability was a bit of a nightmare- west end traffic, Paisley, A737, seaside traffic in summer. It was a long route too.
 
Joined
16 Oct 2011
Messages
280
PM0000015/282 Cancelled
MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

Route: Monklands Hospital to Caldercruix, Dunbbreck Avenue via Airdrie, Clarkston, Plains

Service number: 312

Service type: Normal Stopping

Effective date: 25 Nov 2018

  • PM0000015/286 Registered
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Coatbridge, South Circular Road to Kirkshaws, Ellismuir Drive via Faraday Retail Park, Whifflet, Shawhead

    Service number: 106 (106A)

    Service type: Hail & Ride, Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 25 Nov 2018

  • PM0000015/285 Registered
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Glasgow, West Nile Street to Stobhill Hospital via Roystonhill, Springburn

    Service number: 329

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 25 Nov 2018

  • PM0000015/201 Registered
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Monklands Hospital to Kilsyth via Airdrie, Cumbernauld

    Service number: 147

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 25 Nov 2018

  • PM0000015/295 Registered
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Carnbroe to Salsburgh via Coatbridge, Chapelhall

    Service number: 16

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 25 Nov 2018

  • PM0000015/294 Registered
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Carnbroe to Townhead via Coatbridge

    Service number: 117

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 25 Nov 2018
 

Volvodart

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Joined
12 Jun 2010
Messages
2,379
After the outage last month, I've noticed they have ditched Corethree for the m-ticket provider and appear to use the same one as Transdev now

McGill’s Buses, Scotland’s largest independent bus operator, has launched its new mobile app solution with Passenger.

https://www.discoverpassenger.com/2018/10/22/mcgills-buses-launches-passenger/

MCGILL’S BUSES LAUNCH WITH PASSENGER
McGill’s Buses, Scotland’s largest independent bus operator, has launched its new mobile app solution with Passenger. We’re extremely proud to be working with McGill's, and excited about the speed with which the Passenger team was able to get the company onboarded and ready to go.

22nd October 2018



We’re very pleased to announce that Scotland’s largest independent bus company, McGill’s, has launched the Passenger mobile app to serve its customers across North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and Glasgow City.

McGill’s and Passenger worked very closely over recent weeks to ensure a seamless migration of customer data from McGill’s previous solution to the Passenger ecosystem. The new Passenger apps are available now and serving McGill’s many customers, who take close to three-quarters of a million journeys with the operator every week.

Colin Napier, Head of Service Delivery at McGill’s, comments: “We’re extremely excited to launch our new McGill’s mobile app with Passenger. The Passenger team has been second-to-none in working with us not only to create a fantastic new McGill’s app, which includes features such as live timetables and m-tickets, but to migrate our customer accounts, ensuring a very successful launch. We look forward to a dependable, improved app service for our many customers and hope they enjoy the new features and real time info that we’re now able to provide them!”

Tom Quay, CEO at Passenger, comments: “We’re thrilled to be working with one of Scotland’s most prestigious independent operators. McGill’s heritage stretches back to 1949 and to this day they remain an incredibly forward-thinking and innovative company. We’d like to extend a huge thanks to the McGill’s team for making our work with them such a rewarding experience. We very much look forward to a bright future ensuring that Passenger continues to be the right solution for McGill’s.”

McGill’s currently operates five depots and 400 buses across 110 routes in Scotland. The Passenger apps provide journey planning information, m-ticketing solutions, live buses and disruption information and more across all of McGill’s services.

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about migration to the Passenger app and the other services that we offer.
 

overthewater

Established Member
Joined
16 Apr 2012
Messages
8,153
The new 212 TT is up and it will only operate Monday to Friday from 8am to 16.30pm, I dare say 7am and 17pm journeys will still operate as 312 with Mcgills.
 

Volvodart

Established Member
Joined
12 Jun 2010
Messages
2,379
McGills have posted on social media that they are going to be the first UK operator to get the Citaro hybrid demonstrator and will be using it on the 38 (dates unspecified).
 

Strathclyder

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12 Jun 2013
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3,178
Location
Clydebank
The hybrid is now there, for 2 weeks
It was out today:
44968294025_511735354e_c.jpg
 
Last edited:

Traveller54

Member
Joined
21 Feb 2015
Messages
112
Location
Renfrewshire
McGill’s Buses, Scotland’s largest independent bus operator, has launched its new mobile app solution with Passenger.

https://www.discoverpassenger.com/2018/10/22/mcgills-buses-launches-passenger/

Not impressed with the real time on the App so far. Earlier this week I intended travelling from Paisley Road west to Kilbarchan on the 38 in the early evening. A Kilbarchan bus was not showing due for 24 minutes so I took a Spateston bound one and alighted at Thorn Brae, Johnstone to walk to the Station for a taxi. As I walked this short distance, a Kilbarchan bus flew past.

Tonight, I went to the Thorn Brae stop for a Kilbarchan bus, the App said the first was due at 1858, about an hour after I arrived. But I decided to wait and one turned up at 1811, exactly on time according to the board at the stop.

Maybe just teething troubles but I won’t trust the app for some time.
 

route101

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16 May 2010
Messages
10,594
Not impressed with the real time on the App so far. Earlier this week I intended travelling from Paisley Road west to Kilbarchan on the 38 in the early evening. A Kilbarchan bus was not showing due for 24 minutes so I took a Spateston bound one and alighted at Thorn Brae, Johnstone to walk to the Station for a taxi. As I walked this short distance, a Kilbarchan bus flew past.

Tonight, I went to the Thorn Brae stop for a Kilbarchan bus, the App said the first was due at 1858, about an hour after I arrived. But I decided to wait and one turned up at 1811, exactly on time according to the board at the stop.

Maybe just teething troubles but I won’t trust the app for some time.

Not used the McGills one but use the first one . Most of the time it works but had a few dingers . When a bus is in black it gets me worried to weather it will come . Had a bus that was green at 16 mins , then disappeared ended up being late . Good if they had a map and can see exactly where the bus is
 

Gingerbus1991

Member
Joined
30 Jul 2018
Messages
992
Do you think bus companies put the single fares higher than day tickets because of the drop in reimbursement from concession tickets ?with the thinking being customers paying to go to braehead from city will be Likley to return anyway .?
Possibly, if it weren't for consession cards companys would be in even more trouble with regards to low passenger numbers.
 
Joined
16 Oct 2011
Messages
280
seems like mcgills have lost more spt services this time the croy railway station like services

  • PM0000015/212 Cancelled
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Croy Station to Carrickstone via Balloch, Craigmarloch

    Service number: 348

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 12 Jan 2019

  • PM0000015/192 Cancelled
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Croy Station to Kilsyth via Haughton Avenue

    Service number: 349

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 12 Jan 2019

  • PM0000015/191 Cancelled
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Croy Station to Cumbernauld Centre or Greenfaulds via Balloch, Carrickstone

    Service number: 403

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 12 Jan 2019

  • PM0000015/190 Cancelled
    MCGILL'S BUS SERVICE LTD

    Route: Croy Station to Kilsyth via Twechar

    Service number: 344

    Service type: Normal Stopping

    Effective date: 12 Jan 2019

 

KGGXXXY

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2017
Messages
141
Location
Glasgow
Might have to rename this thread at this rate, most recent service news seems to be cuts. Hardly doubling in size as they promised.
 

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