Staffordshire Bus News

[Baxenden Bank]

Ticketer machines have been rolled out at First in The Potteries.

 

[nottinghamcity]

D&G seemed to have cancelled a large number of registrations today. Any ideas why?

 

[pemma]

D&G seemed to have cancelled a large number of registrations today. Any ideas why?

Both Staffordshire and Cheshire East councils are withdrawing support for a lot of services from 1st April. I'm not sure about Staffordshire but for Cheshire East routes it looks like existing registrations for contracted services have been cancelled but registrations for any contract awards for the reduced new services haven't yet been submitted/approved.

The 85 Sunday and Bank Holiday service is to be subsided by Keele University after Staffordshire council withdrew funding but I imagine the timetable will change.

 

[Mugby]

Can anyone tell me what happened to Scragg's services?

I believe they operated a couple of (commercial?) routes, I remember getting one of their buses from Hanley to Stoke Station a few years ago.

Did they surrender their services or did they cease operations completely?

 

[Thin man]

Scraggs are still operating. They run around half a dozen services around stoke. A lot of these fit around their school work

 

[DenmarkRail]

I feel that SCC’s money would be better spent if they cut subsidies for certain services, rather than routes. Example, the midday services could be cut back, leaving a good peak service running, while saving. Shame they are cutting entire services

 

[DJames]

Rotala have announced today that they have completed the purchase of Central Buses, who operate partially in Staffordshire. I've been told this also includes all of their vehicles, apart from their Routemaster.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

D & G variations accepted by the Traffic Commissioner on 31/1/18, effective 1/4/18:

12 Cancelled
13, 13A Cancelled
15, 15A, 15B Cancelled
30 Cancelled
77 Cancelled
80 Cancelled
93 Cancelled
116 Cancelled
S1 - S6 Cancelled
9 revised
14 revised
16 revised
33 revised
35 revised
841 revised
842 revised
A B C (Stone) new

 

[3piece-wheel]

Just read that that the Alton Towers staff buses/routes are being passed on to D & G ? . Might there be a glimmer of hope that the traveling public could have access to a bus between the potteries and Alton Towers via Cheadle and Oakamoor again, lets hope so...

 

[DenmarkRail]

D & G variations accepted by the Traffic Commissioner on 31/1/18, effective 1/4/18:

12 Cancelled
13, 13A Cancelled
15, 15A, 15B Cancelled
30 Cancelled
77 Cancelled
80 Cancelled
93 Cancelled
116 Cancelled
S1 - S6 Cancelled
9 revised
14 revised
16 revised
33 revised
35 revised
841 revised
842 revised
A B C (Stone) new

13A is cancelled? That cuts out Norton Bridge completely!

 

[pemma]

13A is cancelled? That cuts out Norton Bridge completely!

I wouldn't worry about the cancelled routes yet. There's likely to be some registrations to follow (both for Staffordshire and Cheshire East) to cover new contracts. Also note some D&G Staffordshire services get registered as North West routes if they are operated from the Crewe depot e.g. the 85.

 

[pemma]

D&G have had a new registration for a Granville Square, Stone, Staffordshire to Stafford Railway Station via Norton Bridge service accepted.

 

[pemma]

Arriva 21, 71 and 76 registrations all cancelled from 1st April.

D&G 1/1A registration revised from 1st April.

 

[Alex 2901]

Select Bus Services are taking on the 71 (dunno about the 71A though), although I hope it isn't another one per god only knows how many hours like their 876/877/878...

The 76A I'm really not surprised about, the weekday service was a dead duck, to the point Arriva axed it, and with the possibility that NXWM are coming off the 54, upon cessation of i54 funding, that leaves Stafford to Wolves with a bus every 2.5 hours, a far cry from the 2 buses per hour, in 2015...

 

[pemma]

D&G have had a new registration for a Granville Square, Stone, Staffordshire to Stafford Railway Station via Norton Bridge service accepted.

Apparently this was down to the West Midlands rail franchise no longer being required to provide funding for the service but Abellio deciding to.

 

[DenmarkRail]

Loosing the 15 is a bummer, but won't affect me to badly, apart from the odd day. If the 14 is revised or cut back, issues may start to arise, but assuming they keep a departure at about 07:30 and 12:30 it should be fine. As before mentioned, the 13 will live on in one form or another (although I thought Abellio wanted it to go Stoke to Stone, rather than Stafford), so assuming there is still a 15:30 departure from Stafford, all should be well.

I guess we'll learn more soon

 

[davehsug]

I had to use my mobile mticket with the ticket machine today. Still no news on the website regarding contactless payment.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I had to use my mobile mticket with the ticket machine today. Still no news on the website regarding contactless payment.

No news on the website regarding the new ticket machines at all, never mind the advanced features yet to come!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Loosing the 15 is a bummer, but won't affect me to badly, apart from the odd day. If the 14 is revised or cut back, issues may start to arise, but assuming they keep a departure at about 07:30 and 12:30 it should be fine. As before mentioned, the 13 will live on in one form or another (although I thought Abellio wanted it to go Stoke to Stone, rather than Stafford), so assuming there is still a 15:30 departure from Stafford, all should be well.

I guess we'll learn more soon

The new timetables are on the D & G website.

There may be changes to them once the users realise just what is happening to their essential bus.

 

[DenmarkRail]

The new timetables are on the D & G website.

There may be changes to them once the users realise just what is happening to their essential bus.

Guess who is screwed.... ME

 

[davehsug]

I'm told First will be accepting contactless payments from 18th February.

 

[Mugby]

The long standing former Stevensons service from Burton to Uttoxeter, now Midland Classic 401 loses all it's supported journeys from 1st. April.

Last evening journey from Uttoxeter will be 19.25 weekdays and no Sunday service at all.

 

[TheICTardis]

Arriva Midlands have released the up coming timetable changes for the cannock and stafford area

 

[RELL6L]

I did a trip to this part of the world on Saturday. Very cold - but sunny.
Started at Market Drayton, then took:
15 (D&G) to Stafford
101 (First) to Stone
101 (First) to Hanley
18 (First) to Leek
30 (D&G) to Cheadle
32 (First) to Hanley
3 (First) to Kidsgrove
4A (First) to Newcastle under Lyme
164 (Arriva) to Market Drayton

Of these the 15 and 30 are being withdrawn at the end of March.

The 15 only had a couple of other people on it before Eccleshall (after which it parallels the 14) and, sadly, cannot be justified on the basis of Saturday's loading. Not that scenic en route although Market Drayton and Eccleshall are pleasant. When the 15 is withdrawn, along with the Cheshire 75 from Nantwich on Wednesdays, Market Drayton will have nothing but the 64/164 from Shrewsbury to Hanley and a town service. Not long ago there were buses every two hours to Telford, now nothing.

The 30, on the other hand, was stunning scenery into the moorlands with a wonderful loop from Froghall through narrow lanes to the village of Foxt and there were several passengers returning from shopping in Leek on this. Staffordshire's bus review pages just say the 30 is coming off, but D&G's website refers to some replacement Mon-Fri by Aimee's. Credit to D&G for doing their best to keep passengers informed - all their April timetables uploaded by mid February, no credit to Staffordshire. Catch the 30 while you can!

As for the First buses - often criticised and not my favourite - couldn't fault them on the day. All the buses were pretty much on time even though I failed to anticipate the Port Vale football crush (not a lot!) at Burslem. Double deckers appeared to be on most/all of the 32s, 98s and 99s with one on the 101, I saw one on the 8 and a few on the 3s and 4s. None on the 25, which is where I thought they were supposed to be (and some were branded for). Maybe they are more structured during the week while on Saturdays they are more randomly distributed. Several other branded buses on the wrong route, eg 3/4 buses on the 25. But generally pretty good.

 

[James101]

RE D&G - at a quick look through I think the net PVR reduction at the end of the month is minus 7? Open to corrections here. I've not included closed contracts and the Alton Towers services which I presume are staying the same. Any ideas if anything is due to be leaving the fleet?

 

[davehsug]

D & G increasing fares from 2nd April.

 

[DenmarkRail]

D & G increasing fares from 2nd April.

By how much?

 

[pemma]

Message put on the Homepage of D&G site today

To all our Customers and passengers.



Services may be retained but 8 week gap. Councillors please think again.



D & G Bus Ltd feel it is important to inform our passengers with regard to the recent (last eight months or so) Bus Review which has been completed within Staffordshire by Staffordshire County Council. As you may know the Council, like many others within the UK is ‘strapped for cash’; and the Council needed to make significant budget cuts from 1st April 2018. As part of the process the Council carried out a review of Bus Services across the County and from the 1st April 2018 some routes will face cuts or disappear altogether. D&G has been very supportive of the Councils actions which, to date, have been well thought through.



As a business we understand that the Council needs to operate within its financial constraints and that savings needed to be made. However, on Friday 16th March 2018 Staffordshire County Council have issued a relatively small tender - which is good news for D & G Bus Ltd as we may have more work. But there is always a but! Because the savings being made by Staffordshire are slightly better than they anticipated (presumably because of cuts to services on Saturdays and better prices from Bus Operators than they anticipated) they now have some money left to re-instate some of the bus services which were being cut. Great news we hear you say. Yes it is, well nearly! Because of the bizarre procurement rules operated by the Council, whilst ‘some’ of these services may be retained there will be an eight week gap between when the services cease on the 1st April 2018 and may re-start on the 4th June 2018.



Perhaps Councillors do not realise that people rely on buses, and to have an 8 week gap will cause considerable inconvenience and distress. Why not extend the existing contracts to cover the gap and ensure that the maximum number of passengers are retained for the new services, which will help their longer term survival.



D & G Bus contacted Staffordshire County Council to ask if they could review the timing to ensure that there would be no gap in service we were told that: “The overall contract value mandates the council to procure in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These state a mandatory minimum time frame at which we have to advertise for. As this is a single stage invitation to tender (which has to advertise in Europe as well as the UK) we have no foresight as to who will bid and therefore the process does not unfortunately allow us to determine and agree alternative submission dates.”



We do not agree with the above. Bus Operators can provide tender prices quickly; the County can review and compare the prices; and then they can decide whether or not they can afford to retain the services or some of the services. We accept that not all the routes on the list will benefit from a reprieve, but some might, and there is no reason why any gap in provision is required. Staffordshire Councillors have turned what is a good news story into something else.



The routes under consideration which affect D&G Bus and our passengers are:

• 12 Longton – Barlaston

• 93 Biddulph Moor – Pennine Way



Common sense should prevail, not adherence to outdated rules. Please contact your local councillor and local media to make your views known.



David Reeves and Julian Peddle, Directors of D&G Bus Ltd

 

[pemma]

RE D&G - at a quick look through I think the net PVR reduction at the end of the month is minus 7? Open to corrections here. I've not included closed contracts and the Alton Towers services which I presume are staying the same. Any ideas if anything is due to be leaving the fleet?

It's worth remembering D&G's Cheshire routes will change significantly next month. The allocation at Wincham outstation will need to increase due to D&G winning 2 Greater Manchester contracts. I also imagine some routes (both Staffordshire and Cheshire) may need larger vehicles due to frequencies being cut and more passengers need to board the remaining services.

D&G do have a few old Dennis Darts which seem to be reducing in number, so logically they would go first if D&G reduced the number of vehicles they had. While not the oldest in the fleet, I wonder if the Wright Streetlites have a long term future - they're rattly and unreliable but saying that apparently they're cheaper to run than other similar sized vehicles so maybe D&G won't mind the disadvantages they have.

 

[davehsug]

By how much?

£2 fares up to £2.20 was all I noticed, the poster was a way from me & the old minces aren't great!