Stagecoach MCSL - Chester & Wirral Depots

[iMarkeh]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(26/05/2018 22:07)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  Kirkby, Knowsley Village, Page Moss and Huyton are some of the last places I would operate a high-spec bus.

High spec??? The highest spec thing there is the USB ports. WiFi you can hardly vandalise unless you find the router. The rest is just a colour. It is hardly something you could vandalise. unless you started scribbling with marker pen. USB ports can be abused but that is why you remove them from some seats. Namely those where vandalism occurs the most. No one is going to start vandalising the USB posts which are at the front in the drivers view are they? It would be caught easily on CCTV as well. That is all you have to do, be careful where you put things.

(26/05/2018 22:17)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  The 204 isn't really 'something new' though, it's more of a mis-match of several different loss making bus services that have been cut into one.

Namely:
30/107/207/130 (Liverpool One to Dingle)
173 (Dingle to Princess Park Gates)
202/204 (Princess Park Gates to Alder Hey/Broadgreen)
165/883 (Bowring Park to Bellevale)

Now I can't speak for current passenger numbers as I've moved from the area but I can't imagine them being any higher than when Avon operated the service. Not to mention most passengers are more than likely to have Arriva multi-journey tickets as they are the dominant operator within the area, with stagecoach only really breifly providing a service on East Prescot Rd, Smithdown Rd, and Between Dingle and L1BS

The 204 is doing well actually. It takes money put it that way. Avon never made a loss on the routes afaik, they just had to reduce their ops because of something to do with Mtravel or traffic commissioner. I personally have been on the 204 and it does alright. Also although it isn't a 'new' route, it is new to the company and there are extensions as well. Just because most people will have Arriva tickets, it doesn't mean they won't switch to Stagecoach. It is only 15 minutes longer and sometimes you can wait that long for a 79 so technically the persons end-end journey time is no different. For people at Alder Hey, Broadgreen etc depending where they want to go in Liverpool, it is the same time for them to get the 204 than the Arriva buses so again, you can grab a few passengers that way but with the state of the buses, why would you go for a rattly dart when there is really high spec bus a few minutes away?
A lot of people in the dingle area etc will just walk an extra few minutes to the 82 bus stop which is great but then it is gamble which bus comes first. If you can get them on the 204 for the first part of their journey, they have a ticket then. Regardless of if they get the 82 or 204 back, you have that ticket sale. If you can make the 204 as attractive as possible, you could sell 300 day tickets (no returns on 204) into L1 and they can all get the Arriva bus back but that doesn't matter as Arriva don't earn anything off that. If you walk to the 82 bus stop, it is an even mix of which bus you will catch and with the way Arriva are running, you are more than likely to get an Arriva bus than Stagecoach. That is how you have to look at it. If you put USB and WiFi on the Enviro200s as well (It was along time since I last jumped on one so these could be done already) as that would then make the 204 and 82 the same spec buses again helping to secure those people who can catch either bus.