Atlantic, Bolton

[iMarkeh]

RE: Atlantic, Bolton

(12/09/2022 18:42)knutstransport Wrote:  Limiting calls to Stockport, Altrincham, Hale, Knutsford, Lostock, Northwich, Greenbank and Chester means the replacement vehicle would spend almost all the time on A roads, plus picking up the majority of passengers. Then you could send a little bus to pick up at stops like Ashley and Mobberley.

How big is your 'little bus'? When buses are on the Mid Cheshire, generally most people don't travel because of the vastly increased journey times. Doing an express bus would make sense in some ways but that also negatively effects people travelling the longer distances.

Using the night buses tonight as the example. Manchester Picc - Chester and Knutsford to Chester. The Knutsford - Chester bus works out to be 30 minutes ahead of the Manchester one and so is closer to the original train times while also offering a slightly faster journey for anyone who is travelling longer distance. Much better for passengers. It also means no matter where you get on, you will have a fair journey time. The buses in their current form also reflect the current journey flows.

In your example, someone boarding at Hale heading to Chester would have a 2h journey (as it would be on the little bus route) whereas someone from Stockport would be in Chester in 1h 30 (based off google maps and given it is night time with low traffic. People closer are having much larger journey times and so you're just robbing peter to pay paul. People who use other stations are put off just so you can have a fast bus. I don't think people heading Stockport to Plumley would agree that your system is the best. Or what about people wanting to go Knutsford to Plumley, Sorry, you have to wait 30 minutes for the minibus to turn up, in which point, the bus bus would have dropped you off and long gone. You're just salty because being in the centreish of the line, you have to go all stops and don't get a fast bus.


Reality is, it follows the journey flows. Generally, journeys are made between stations Chester - Knutsford or Northwich - Manchester (so people from Mouldsworth generally won't go further than Knutsford and Hale won't go much further south than Northwich sort of thing). Passengers from Stockport to Chester have alternative trains via Crewe, those passengers are covered. In the unlikely event that people are travelling much further (such as Chester - Plumley or Hale etc), they can get there quicker than if it was fast bus, slow bus but also not delay passengers as much. The best win for all would be 3 buses. 2 smaller buses doing as current and a coach doing slightly faster but that costs a lot of money, especially on emergency 'name your price' rate. It's also a complete waste given the low amount of people who use these buses anyway.