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+--- Thread: Fairbrother's of Warrington (/showthread.php?tid=316)
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Mayneway - 13/06/2015 11:31
(13/06/2015 09:57)stankevitch Wrote: Its only a pound on short sections, usually its £1.30 for a single and £1.80 for a return, highly competitive along sections where NW are charging around £2.10/2.30 for a single. A common section of that I used was between Wash Lane on the 1C and Warrington Town. Only issue I had was with Fairbrothers timings, as I'd have to get a NW back, or a taxi if I was at the pub late...
And given the load capacities of the services, they mainly use Solo's but still see a fair few deckers running the services, and the Solo's are M950s IIRC, ex Western Greyhound ones so do have a fair bit of size for them. And a 4 litre engine with a lighter vehicle gives a lot better fuel economy than a 7 litre double decker.
There are other plans afloat though too for the area.
I think you've hit the nail on the head regarding timings. Certainly last time I was in Warrington I was really surprised that there was no service at all at weekends and they seemed to finish on weekdays at 5/6ish. Yet on the companies Facebook page one thing his loyal passengers were crying out for was some kind of evening and weekend level of service yet as far as I'm aware nothing's really been done about it. Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking them for trying but it's like they are simply playing at running a few buses, and as Dontonian has rightly said with regards to revenue, the margains must be very tight.
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - stankevitch - 16/07/2015 06:28
Speaking of tight margins, they have put the prices up slightly now. Still running Solo's mainly but the odd Decker is still out and about. Still cheaper that WBT but now pretty even matched with GHA which will make tough competition between old Solos and GHAs New Metrocity's which have nicer seats and Wi-Fi (when they're used).
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - T42 PVM - 16/07/2015 07:43
There a number of loyal Passengers to Fairbrothers as people just had a laugh with him on Facebook, He also has that Monthly Lotto as well
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Valandil - 24/08/2015 16:11
From VOSA, Fairbrothers is registering a 25 school days only.
I thought they already had one as it has appeared at http://www.pound2town.com/25-service-gorse-covert-warrington/ for a while now.
Perhaps it just wasn't registered properly in the first place or else is really a variation?
PC0003782/11 - DAVID FAIRBROTHER T/A FAIRBROTHERS COACHES, 3 BRATHAY CLOSE, ORFORD, WARRINGTON, WA2 9UY
Registration Accepted
Starting Point: WARRINGTON BUS STATION
Finish Point: GORSE COVERT
Via: BIRCHWOOD, COCKINGSTUMPS, ORFORD
Service Number: 25
Service Type: Normal Stopping
Effective Date: 12-OCT-2015
Other Details: SCHOOL DAYS ONLY
Slightly unfortunate Freudian misspelling of Locking Stumps!
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - robertclark125 - 24/08/2015 17:56
Says Schooldays only, so could well just be a journey going via a school.
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - RSTurbo50 - 25/08/2015 08:15
One service in the morning before the driver does a school and then one journey in the afternoon..
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Valandil - 25/08/2015 18:22
But is this an additional journey to the one on their website or has the 25 timetable been put on their website prematurely (the 25 just registered doesn't start until 12th Oct).
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Valandil - 11/09/2015 15:59
Interesting article about Penketh High routes, suggesting that there are problems due to interworking with other services during the day, increasing the chance of being late due to traffic issues:
http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/13714275.Penketh_High_School_cuts_firm_s_bus_routes_in_favour_of_rival_over_punctuality_issues/
It sounds from the article that the head teacher is exaggerating the case a bit, though you can never really tell from articles.
One plus side could be a fuller service for the public without some of the peak time gaps if Fairbrothers chooses to amend their registrations pronto and give up with the Penketh High runs ... though it does sound like they intend to compete instead.
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Lynx - 11/09/2015 16:33
(11/09/2015 15:59)Valandil Wrote: Interesting article about Penketh High routes, suggesting that there are problems due to interworking with other services during the day, increasing the chance of being late due to traffic issues:
http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/13714275.Penketh_High_School_cuts_firm_s_bus_routes_in_favour_of_rival_over_punctuality_issues/
It sounds from the article that the head teacher is exaggerating the case a bit, though you can never really tell from articles.
One plus side could be a fuller service for the public without some of the peak time gaps if Fairbrothers chooses to amend their registrations pronto and give up with the Penketh High runs ... though it does sound like they intend to compete instead.
The article seems very exaggerated. A Ofsted report is linked which if read makes no mention of bus services being a issue, but this is the kind of misleading "click bait" journalism you can only expect from the Warrington Gaurdian. The head teacher simply uses the Ofsted report to back up his case and appears to be shifting the blame on to Fairbrothrers to cover his own backside. I don't think using Springfield will necessarily improve reliability, their just as likely to get stuck in a traffic jam or breakdown as Fairbrothers. I think to call safety into question as well is uncalled for, Fairbrothers might not have a nice new set of eco-friendly Optare Versas but to claim that safety is a issue is ridiculous.
RE: Fairbrother's of Warrington - Mayneway - 11/09/2015 17:31
(11/09/2015 16:33)Lynx Wrote: The article seems very exaggerated. A Ofsted report is linked which if read makes no mention of bus services being a issue, but this is the kind of misleading "click bait" journalism you can only expect from the Warrington Gaurdian. The head teacher simply uses the Ofsted report to back up his case and appears to be shifting the blame on to Fairbrothrers to cover his own backside. I don't think using Springfield will necessarily improve reliability, their just as likely to get stuck in a traffic jam or breakdown as Fairbrothers. I think to call safety into question as well is uncalled for, Fairbrothers might not have a nice new set of eco-friendly Optare Versas but to claim that safety is a issue is ridiculous.
The whole things smells very childish.
Mr Fairbrother should accept that the school wants a different operator to run the school services and move on. If the issue of school buses being late has been an issue for a while then surly as owner he should have been aware of it and done something about it, possibly running buses dead from depot to start of school service and vice versa at home time rather than interworking them with regular services, unless a shortage of buses/O discs is an issue?
The head teacher sounds just as daft though blaiming de-regulation for the issue arising lol.
Incidentally a similar thing happened in Manchester a few years back. First operated 2 or 3 commercial school services on a schools behalf and after the autumn term had them taken given to a local independant instead as the morning journeys were always unreliable due to interworking.