Greater Manchester Service Changes

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Service Changes

(16/03/2021 10:36)Mrboo Wrote:  Not much use having a depot with no routes or staff

While it wasn't a big depot what happened with Starline Travel's Knutsford depot is perhaps an indication of what could happen. Starline (buses) were sold to North Western (let's ignore the coach hire that was a joint venture with Bullocks as it complicates things.) Starline was a company owned by Simon Fawcett. Simon Fawcett's company owned the whole of Stanley Road Trading Estate, not just the bus depot. What happened is while Starline were sold and got rebranded as North Western and then Arriva, the depot remained owned by Fawcett's company (Mistral) and was leased to Arriva. Long term Arriva closed the depot and transferred the work to Wythenshawe and Winsford. There's no longer a bus depot there but Mistral were using part of the old depot for maintaining vehicles at one point, with the rest of the former depot being used for other purposes like car maintenance and warehouse storage.