Forum | Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

Club class travel have been going many years as a minibus firm but have recently jumped into the bus scene, though not due on the road til next month would still be fun to talk about them. And like me im guessing you plan on traveling on the service first day.

Website http://www.imalittlegem.com


Can anybody identify the bus through their pictures on the website, it seems their 61 service will oddly be ran as a circular according to timetable, 53minute round trip with a 7 minute layover is quite good to be honest, im working for a company at the moment which has many 2minute turn arounds.... Nice to have the time to catch up if theyre late, running 7:49-17:49 mon-sat means a minimum of 3 drivers, my suspision is they will have 3 drivers plus the owners jumping on especially the first few days. This will be a fun venture for the team who will be competing with the 17/18/163 from blakely to manchester. I sure do hope their fares are a lot cheaper though, as jpt, mct, etc... Are proving if stagecoach and first didnt have so many shareholders their fares would be cheaper.


Discuss

also can anybody identify the bus from their pictures? To me it looks like an old say S reg volvo b6 with a wrightbus body - which lets fsce it is a good low floor bus and for a new company you cant expect new buses...

Looks like an ex-Red Diamond Dennis Dart/Wright Crusader

I wouldn't have called it fun.
As you rightly say Club Class have been around for many years and this is a huge gamble for them which could go wrong in a matter of months and taint their good name.
I've been told they don't have any spare vehicles so if a brake down occurs there in trouble.
Plus from the website it looks like their using vehicles in their previous operators livery with their names over the top - would have looked a lot better painted orange with little gem names that resemble the original little gem name.

Although costly I would have run the service for free for the first week. Speedwell did this when they launched the S50 and it immediately picked up regular punters who stayed with the company till the end.
If passengers at stops already have first or JPT daily or weeklys their hardly going to venture onto a strange red bus.

This is true, mainky us3d by system1 or oap passes im guessinv

The main picture on their facebook :https://www.facebook.com/imalittlegem shows they are doing a £1 flat single rate fare... now first wont match that... hopefully they will succeed.

(10/07/2013 17:56)jimbo Wrote: [ -> ]The main picture on their facebook :https://www.facebook.com/imalittlegem shows they are doing a £1 flat single rate fare... now first wont match that... hopefully they will succeed.

It does look like that it is a flat single fare as it says 'minimax', which would suggest that the minimum and maximum fare is the same.



Also mentioned on their Facebook page is an offer of 'Free travel for life on Little Gem 61' with details available on the bus from next week (how long that would be for depends on how long they run for, I guess).

I do like the sound of this venture, I will have to jump on next week.

It does sound good and I wish them all the best, but Speedwell tried something very similar a few years back with their S48/S50 services offering a flat fare of £1.
It was impossible for the services to operate long term with fares at this rate given the price of fuel, that was 3/4 years ago, its risen slightly again since then!

I hate to be negative but I can't see it lasting long, even with these flat fares its going to be hard to tempt the First/JPT weekly ticket holders away for this cheaper option!

I looked at the timetable on their website and I do not understand the route it will take, it looks incredibly confusing.

I wish them the best, but they will have a hard time competing against Firstbus and JPT.