GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)

[knutstransport]

RE: GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)
Now that it's been a few months since GHA ceased operations how are the former GHA routes fairing?

From what I've seen:

The 82 is fairing well despite the frequency reduction to hourly. I'm inclined to think the 82 would probably survive as an hourly commercial service, if it's not already being operated commercially and if it's contracted then there probably should be provision to add in extra services particularly at school/college/work starting and ending times.

The 88, has the same standard frequency even if some of the early and late buses have been withdrawn. Fairly recently the operator changed again, the timetable was recast to improve reliability, better buses* were introduced and a weekly ticket is available for just £15 which is certainly lower than the average weekly ticket price in the area. Passenger numbers did initially drop following the collapse of GHA and the first couple of weeks of post-GHA service being a not well advertised reduced service. However, from my observations passenger numbers are now higher than they were under GHA. The reduction in the 27 and 289 services may have helped increase usage if people (particularly pensioners) just want to go somewhere other than Knutsford town centre for shopping.

The 27 is another service which has seen two operators post-GHA. The first one increased the fares at the same time as the frequency was cut - which doesn't help in making the service attractive and since then all services have been routed via the slower Over Peover route, which may attract a couple of extra passengers but makes the service less attractive for people travelling between Knutsford and Macclesfield. The impression I get is the number of people using the service has gone down quite a bit since the frequency was reduced. Although the loadings on the 13:15 Knutsford to Macc and 16:00 Macc to Knutsford could increase again as it gets colder as those services are often used by people visiting patients in Macclesfield hospital.

The 289 has seen a reduction and more of a reduction in services to Altrincham than services to Northwich, which isn't a surprise as very few people seemed to use the bus to and from Altrincham. However, from my observations there used to be some decent loadings on arrivals and departures from Northwich, which don't seem to be the case as much now. I'm not sure if the recasts of the 45 and 289 services have meant that some passengers who used to use the 289 now use the 45 instead.

The 200 seems to have a lot of services with low usage but that was the case under GHA as well, so no change there.

* I'm sure some people will argue Solo SRs are not good buses but the ones being used are modern, high specification ones which seem to be going down well with the majority of passengers.