Bear in mind since then the council did their big review of services to save money. Merged the 27 into the 88 and reduced the 289 to become the 89 Knutsford - Northwich. If they want to spend minimum money then they will get minimum standards. The 13 plate SRs are now at Longton
(22/07/2021 10:26)knutstransport Wrote: [ -> ]It's not that long ago when D&G were running the 88 route with the 13 reg Solo SRs, which had well presented interiors and generally seemed to be reliable vehicles. While Howards usually used a brand new Metrocity on the 289 and an almost new Enviro 200 on the 27. I seem to recall Ian Howard posting on here that he worked out it would be cheaper to get a Metrocity and use it over 5 years than to use an older less efficient vehicle which he already had.
(22/07/2021 10:48)Rick Hunter Wrote: [ -> ]Bear in mind since then the council did their big review of services to save money. Merged the 27 into the 88 and reduced the 289 to become the 89 Knutsford - Northwich. If they want to spend minimum money then they will get minimum standards. The 13 plate SRs are now at Longton
The old 27 was let on a 'as cheap as possible' basis due to GHA having operated it an commercial basis and CEC not having funds set aside for a tendered replacement. Despite that Howards decided a fairly new bus which met the capacity spec as the normal vehicle was the way to go. Strangely that Enviro had seat belts.
I'm sure initially when they started running the new 88/89/188 contract D&G did keep a couple of the SRs at Wincham, which were used alongside the Solo 880s on the 88/188, with Solo 880s being the usual vehicles on the 88A before it was withdrawn.
D&G have cancelled the 317, 318 and 42 from September. It will be interesting to see who the new operator is or if these services are being replaces by new routes.
(29/07/2021 06:02)iMarkeh Wrote: [ -> ]D&G have cancelled the 317, 318 and 42 from September. It will be interesting to see who the new operator is or if these services are being replaces by new routes.
They've cancelled the registrations under their West Midlands licence and submitted new registrations under their North West licence. Given they appear to be operated from Crewe already it possibly means no changes which the passengers will notice.
I noticed the D&G website no longer mentions that Network Returns are valid on certain other operator's services e.g. High Peak in Macclesfield area and certain other Midland operators. There is still the £7 The Knot ticket for multi-operator journeys in Staffordshire & Stoke but nothing for multi-operator journeys in the Macclesfield area.
The new ones on the North West licence didn't show up on the daily list yet so I presume that means that they aren't approved.
As for ticket acceptance, it's a bit useless now compared to how it was. The 841 connected with Midland Classic at Uttoxeter but now that is Chaserider. Select bus only connects now at Stone very irregularly. Before they connected in Stafford to various routes. Looking at it like that, what is the point in ticket acceptance when the links are either not there or extremely limited by such infrequent routes.
High peak I presume, it just wasn't used because not many people knew about it. The presence in Macc has grown though so could be better used if boundaries were advertised as well as the overall acceptance.
(29/07/2021 17:30)iMarkeh Wrote: [ -> ]High peak I presume, it just wasn't used because not many people knew about it. The presence in Macc has grown though so could be better used if boundaries were advertised as well as the overall acceptance.
I think they were only sold on D&G buses so it your journey was Prestbury to Macclesfield Hospital and back you couldn't buy one but if it was Chelford to Prestbury and back you could.
Some unusual allocations today. A big Streetlite, a small Streetlite and a small Enviro all appeared on the 82 today, while a Versa appeared on the 38 and a small Enviro on the 93.
Is there any hint about what the route changes are to the 82 and 15A are in September?
Many thanks
New 82 timetable is on the D&G site. Also mentioned that Derbyshire CC contracted 108 will be truncated and 109 withdrawn due to Hulleys X1 service starting