Your correct, Thinking again 2550 and 2551 are here along with a couple of 54 Plate Cadets from Winsford
Yep, winsford have lost all their cadets except for 1. With regards commanders, does anyone know what the cracking noise is that comes from the floor of em?
I noticed a couple of weeks ago someone asked Arriva on Twitter about why the 88 route doesn't serve the Airport and I thought they aren't going to be interested in running it to the Airport as it would need a 5th bus. However, I've since heard Arriva have said running the 18 services to Altrincham is no longer viable to do commercially so will be getting a TfGM subsidy to run them. So could some joined up thinking be applied here with the 88 routed via the Airport and the 18 services no longer running the Altrincham to Airport portion? That would give longer layover times for the 88 service (making it easier to recover delays) and improve the frequency of services between Altrincham and the Airport, even if it's one less service per hour between Altrincham and Hale Barnes.
Last week I used the 88 service through to knutsford, the 16:45 off knutsford to altrincham was 10 late & didn't show up till 16:55.
Driver said that there's not nearly enough time to run the route. Only given 55 mins to get from alty - knutsford. Needs some extra time put into the timetable to allow some slack.
(07/08/2016 13:03)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]Last week I used the 88 service through to knutsford, the 16:45 off knutsford to altrincham was 10 late & didn't show up till 16:55.
Driver said that there's not nearly enough time to run the route. Only given 55 mins to get from alty - knutsford. Needs some extra time put into the timetable to allow some slack.
The timetable runs like clockwork on Saturdays, on weekdays it can be all over the place and is usually worse in school term time than in school holidays.
Adding in more time would require an extra bus unless there's a way of inter-working it with another service at Altrincham.
Had the 88 again today, ex winsford cadet 2503 was working & looks gorgeous inside now the seats have been re-trimmed. Also the other cadets were:
2517
2544
2549
Also a commander which seems a daft idea as they're really too long for some of the back lanes nr knutsford. Plus noted a president on the 263 again .
(08/08/2016 20:13)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]Had the 88 again today, ex winsford cadet 2503 was working & looks gorgeous inside now the seats have been re-trimmed. Also the other cadets were:
2517
2544
2549
Also a commander which seems a daft idea as they're really too long for some of the back lanes nr knutsford. Plus noted a president on the 263 again .
They do have to use buses with at least 35 seats to meet the terms of the contract and some of the peak time services via Waters have standing passengers if a 35 seater is used, even though a 44 seater looks oversized on quieter services.
Thought a cadet would take more than 35 people? Ah well suppose when the schools are back again it'll make sense with the kids.
Just a pretty tight squeeze on some of the lanes around knutsford.
(09/08/2016 08:54)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]Thought a cadet would take more than 35 people? Ah well suppose when the schools are back again it'll make sense with the kids.
Just a pretty tight squeeze on some of the lanes around knutsford.
If this fleet list:
http://www.ukbuses.co.uk/fleet/anw.pdf is correct the non-Sapphire single deckers at Wythenshawe have 39 to 44 seats so I wouldn't have thought one type of bus is significantly longer than another.
I believe the length difference between a 39-seat Cadet and a 44-seat Commander in the ANW fleet is about 4ft (1.2m).
What I hadn't previously realised is that shorter Cadets were also available - there are some 29-seaters in the Dartford and Hertfordshire areas that look about MPD-sized (perhaps slightly longer but not much).