Noticed from the Fleet List on their website baby Solos YJ08 PJU and YJ08 PJV have been painted in D&G Bus red with one being allocated to Adderley Green and one being allocated to Crewe. Also it looks like 3 further Enviro 200s transferred to Adderley Green from Crewe as a result of the brand new Leighton Link Solo SRs arriving.
Streetlite failed on the 300 today with a few services being cancelled before a Solo SR was later put on the route. It was seen being driven out of Knutsford on the A50 at around 14:15 with the destination display switched off.
Earlier in the week D&G had been using a Streetlite and 4 x SRs on the 88 route.
Streetlite ran the 10:15 300 service today. A late running 10:45 service was operated by MCV Evolution which has a faulty rear destination display. Unusual for a bus swap to happen on the 300 route mid-morning.
I forgot to say in addition to the above post there was a second vehicle swap on the 300 that day with one of the SRs which had been used on the 88 route took over from the Evolution once the 88 ended for the day.
(07/12/2016 23:40)ant17612 Wrote: [ -> ]Looked to be back to normal this morning and also featured a welcome return back to the area of ex Go Goodwins YJ60KFG. Looking a lot better presented than 4x 13 plate SR's noted on Tuesday.
I caught that bus (or it could have been it's sister) on a 88 service today. The elderly couple sat behind me were unimpressed with it. They commented on the lack of padding on the seats (very true) and how much the bus vibrated when it was on the National Speed Limit sections (also true but possibly not quite as bad as the Streetlites on those sections.)
Someone's posted on another forum that D&G are to open a new depot in Wincham, Northwich and are currently recruiting new drivers for it. I wonder if that means they've won some Cheshire West contracts. I'd be surprised if the 88 and 300 don't get operated from the new depot as Wincham is much closer to Knutsford, Wilmslow and Altrincham than Crewe.
This was reported about six months ago, but nothing ever seemed to come of it.
They must have won a decent number of Cheshire west contracts for it to make financial sense to be opening another depot. There is no "ready made" bus depot in Wincham meaning they will have to spend a considerable sum on fitting it out or converting current premises, that is of course presuming that they intend to run it as a full depot as apposed to an outstation.
As stated this rumour has cropped up a few times now, a friend who works for another operator in the area, not saying who, suggested D&G are taking on drivers in Northwich. I told him that D&G don't operate out of Northwich but he was adamant that D&G where taking on here. Makes much more sense now!
(27/02/2017 20:23)mikestone Wrote: [ -> ]This was reported about six months ago, but nothing ever seemed to come of it.
They advertised for drivers after the collapse of GHA with the advert mentioning depots in Stoke, Crewe and a possible new one in Cheshire West but saying Wincham, Northwich is very specific if it's just a possibility.
(27/02/2017 21:11)Lynx Wrote: [ -> ]They must have won a decent number of Cheshire west contracts for it to make financial sense to be opening another depot. There is no "ready made" bus depot in Wincham meaning they will have to spend a considerable sum on fitting it out or converting current premises, that is of course presuming that they intend to run it as a full depot as apposed to an outstation.
Only proper depot I can think of in the Northwich area is the one used by Holmeswood Coaches in Anderton. Both Dobsons and Nova Scotia used to have depots in Lostock Gralam and there would also be some sites which used to be used by minibus operators.
Possibly the D&G Little Bus vehicles would also be based at Northwich. D&G don't run the flexible transport services in the Crewe & Nantwich area but do run ones in the north of the borough.
Advantage for D&G if they do open a Northwich depot would be that it would be ideally placed to bid for tendered work in Altrincham (TfGM) and Wilmslow (Cheshire East) that is of course if they so wished to bid for tenders in these areas