GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)

[knutstransport]

RE: GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)

(13/07/2016 20:34)33109 Wrote:  What the hell they're gonna do around the cheshire area is anyone's guess. There's:

19 - Prestbury
27 - Knutsford
87 - Macc to congleton
130 - manchester sun duty
82 - Chester
45 - Warrington
289 - Altrincham

Plus the 88 alty to knutsford & gawd knows what else. Who's going to cover these I'd love know. Arriva/first, D&G & stagecoach have already got massive workloads.

So what happens to all the cheshire routes??? Arriva COULD in theory step in to run the sunday 130 duty as a few macc drivers know the route.

GHA withdrew the 45 route previously and all services are back with Network Warrington now. Bidding was already underway for a new 289 contract so maybe Cheshire East could end bidding early/the new operator starts running the service earlier than expected.

Maybe D&G will get the Sunday Manchester to Macclesfield service after all. (They originally won the contract for it before GHA decided to continue to run the service commercially.)

With regards to the 88 I'm concerned a new operator might cut back the service. I'm not sure if the contract actually requires a half-hourly service and some of the early/late services are positional moves which wouldn't be needed if the service was to be taken over by an operator based closer to Altrincham than Wilmslow or Knutsford.

The 87 I could see disappearing. High Peak decided it wasn't making enough money and it doesn't really really provide an essential service not met by other services, so won't go out to tender.

There's also the P1 Hazel Grove to Poynton, which really doesn't fit in that well to any operator's network.