Forum | Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

(29/08/2014 06:12)Shaun821 Wrote: [ -> ]29880 and 29882 have returned to Chester in their new Stagecoach livery.

Are there any photo's of these in Stagecoach livery ?

I don't see the point in them starting a route and then saying it won't make a profit, there really would be no reason for them to do. SC are clearly not run by fools, so this statement is a dubious one.

(30/08/2014 18:44)Shaun821 Wrote: [ -> ]Rock Ferry is part of 'Merseyside and South Lancashire' whereas Chester is in Cheshire. Stagecoach, for some unknown reason, dont want to touch North Wales, hence them shutting Wrexham last month. Chester is actually Stagecoach in Cheshire, now whether they are going to expand into Cheshire and eventually break Chester away from Merseyside and South Lancashire and open new depots around Cheshire, I dont know, but I can see it happening after the next 2 years. They have introduced this new X8 route and openly said they know its not going to make profit so I really couldnt tell you what they are palnning in Gillmoss, at the moment nothing seems to be making sense.

I thought the reason why Wrexham was closed was the 12 year school contract which first agreed with the council came to an end, and for that reason only, as regards to Stagecoach openly knowing the X8 will not make profit, why even waste money on service that's not going to be profitable, granted that its not going to pull a profit in straight away, but then with a quicker service to Liverpool, I would of thought it would be more appealing to the passenger that doesn't want to go by train and go via a,b,c,d etc as they would on the 1 and 2.

I think this statement that SC have supposed to have said needs to be proved, otherwise surely anybody from SC that looks at the forum wouldn't be happy and this could give the forum a bad name if it is untrue.

Stagecoach will have done it's homework when re-diagraming services 1 & 2 to operate from RF and also with the imminent introduction of the new X8. They are in the business to make money, not lose it & as has been said by others (on this forum and elsewhere), they have a pretty good track record of turning around loss making operations into profitable ones.

RF won't make huge amounts of money because it's located in Merseyside & therefore Stagecoach don't have full commercial control of all available tickets (for example, Saveaways, Trio & Solo passes). True, they will get a cut of the revenue from these, but it's nowhere near as lucrative as selling more megariders as they can do outside of Merseyside.

I see the X8 as Stagecoach identifying a gap in the Chester - Liverpool market. The notices being placed on the buses highlight the opportunities for faster travel for longer distance customers, a link between Chester railway station & the Town Hall (something that was withdrawn in Chester City days) and a future link from rail operators (hence the calls at Chester & Ellesmere Port railway stations). It may take a while to gather momentum, but I think they've got the nucleus of a potential money-spinner here.

The X8 is also needed to relieve services 1 & 2 between Port Sunlight & Bromborough as services 41 & 42 are being diverted via Croft Retail park. This will make services 1 & 2 busier from Birkenhead & at peak times, they can be full & standing now.

As for future expansion, I suspect Stagecoach will look toward Cheshire rather than North Wales simply because a tussle with GHA would be much easier (and with less likelihood of any serious fightback) than one with Arriva. Arriva have invested heavily in the North Wales coast routes in the last few years & I can't really see Stagecoach wanting to compete on that front.

How about a real limited stop "Coastlner" straight along the coast road to Rhyl, as a follow up to the X8?

Personally I cannot see any real expansion into North Wales or Cheshire, there just isn't the population density to make it worthwhile. The big groups focus on longer routes outside of urban areas, just look at Arriva in North Wales, almost all investment going into that type of route (Sapphire, Coastliner etc), with local routes acting as the 'bread and butter' for the depots and with Arriva having invested in all those routes already there is very little Stagecoach could offer to compete with.

(30/08/2014 19:59)SNL 824 Wrote: [ -> ]How about a real limited stop "Coastlner" straight along the coast road to Rhyl, as a follow up to the X8?

I'd love to see an express bus service up the North Wales coast (personally, I would run such a service to Llandudno). You can bet that Arriva won't do one as it would abstract lots of money from it's parallel rail operation & again. I can't see Stagecoach becoming embroiled in a battle on that front.

Personally, I see Stagecoach consolidating what it already has for a while now. In the space of just over 18 months, they've done the following;

• Rejuvenated the Chester local services (a work in progress)
• Bagged the Chester - Neston - Heswall - West Kirby corridor
• Introduced a semi-fast Chester-Liverpool service opening up potential new markets
• Grown the market on services 1 & 2 (judging by the loadings)
  

As for the next move, I think some of GHA's routes may be on the menu (such as the 36 and 82 routes), though as has been said elsewhere, I can't see Stagecoach paying lots of money to buy GHA in it's entirety.

what are loadings like on the 6 in ellesmere port, i think stagecoach may in time increase their operations in ellesmere port, first only pulled out of local routes in this area when the lease was up on meadow lane yard, i knew a port based driver at the time & he said the port outstation was making a lot of money & ellesmere port routes were withdrawn as their was no room for them at chester depot, gha are making money in ellesmere port as all their routes are commercial except the db2 so it would not surprise me if they tried to take over more routes in this area.

Stagecoach would need to pick and choose in Ellesmere port , because probably Rock Ferry would need to operate any more services there as chester must really be fit to burst these days.