D&G Bus

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(25/08/2020 10:32)dounowhoiam Wrote:  Spoke to D&G about the 2 hour frequency on the 288 and early last departures, informed that there is no plans currently to increase or add extra services.

The approx 07:10 Altrincham to Manchester Airport service was quite well used and adding it back in would also simplify the 88 workings as the bus which did a round trip to Manchester Airport at around 07:10 worked the 08:05 Altrincham-Knutsford 88 service, which departs before the bus off the 07:00 Knutsford-Altrincham gets to Altrincham.

I know the airport isn't fully open so not all staff will have returned but there are enough flights to justify early and late public transport to the airport.

[dounowhoiam]

RE: D&G Bus

(25/08/2020 11:50)knutstransport Wrote:  The approx 07:10 Altrincham to Manchester Airport service was quite well used and adding it back in would also simplify the 88 workings as the bus which did a round trip to Manchester Airport at around 07:10 worked the 08:05 Altrincham-Knutsford 88 service, which departs before the bus off the 07:00 Knutsford-Altrincham gets to Altrincham.

I know the airport isn't fully open so not all staff will have returned but there are enough flights to justify early and late public transport to the airport.

I used to use it a lot to change with buses and trains at the Airport (to get to Altrincham); and to get to East Didsbury from both Altrincham and Baguley.

[Rick Hunter]

RE: D&G Bus
Bear in mind though that even before the pandemic reduced the service Stagecoach sending their 103/X30 down to the cargo centre removed many of the 288s evening passengers

(25/08/2020 11:50)knutstransport Wrote:  I know the airport isn't fully open so not all staff will have returned but there are enough flights to justify early and late public transport to the airport.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(25/08/2020 20:36)Rick Hunter Wrote:  Bear in mind though that even before the pandemic reduced the service Stagecoach sending their 103/X30 down to the cargo centre removed many of the 288s evening passengers

Yep. Although, I've travelled on the late 288 services twice when it served the cargo centre, once was the last bus on a Saturday which only had myself and someone else on departure from the airport and the other person got off at the cargo centre. On the other occasion (an earlier bus) there were a few of us on the bus leaving the airport and someone got on the bus at the cargo centre, while no-one got off there.

The problem with a lot of airport public transport (not just the 288 bus) is the airport has a lot of departures scheduled for 6am to 8am, meaning the people travelling early and the workers who will deal with those passengers need to be travelling to the airport before 4am. The airport doesn't have any departures after 10pm but does have some arrivals through the night, with quite a number between 1am and 2am. So while it may not be popular with bus drivers a 3am departure from the airport and a return working to the airport would probably be profitable journeys, more so than a 11am bus to/from the airport.

[djb]

RE: D&G Bus

(26/08/2020 09:47)knutstransport Wrote:  Yep. Although, I've travelled on the late 288 services twice when it served the cargo centre, once was the last bus on a Saturday which only had myself and someone else on departure from the airport and the other person got off at the cargo centre. On the other occasion (an earlier bus) there were a few of us on the bus leaving the airport and someone got on the bus at the cargo centre, while no-one got off there.

The problem with a lot of airport public transport (not just the 288 bus) is the airport has a lot of departures scheduled for 6am to 8am, meaning the people travelling early and the workers who will deal with those passengers need to be travelling to the airport before 4am. The airport doesn't have any departures after 10pm but does have some arrivals through the night which quite a number between 1am and 2am. So while it may not be popular with bus drivers a 3am departure from the airport and a return working to the airport would probably be profitable journeys, more so than a 11am bus to/from the airport.

Agreed. The 19 used to run almost 24/7 with a small gap In the early hours and some journeys were surprisingly popular. (Admittedly the tram would take most of those passengers now)

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
Just thinking about the 188/88, so the school pupils with passes get to travel on the 188 and other school pupils get to board if there's room. Therefore, if there's no room the other pupils will have to go on to the 88 bus instead and the pupils without passes will be the ones who don't live as far out so can use the 88 instead. I'm presuming the new requirement is to aid social distancing meaning the 188 bus won't be carrying up to 39 school pupils even if it's a 39 seater bus.

However, unless the 07:03 Altrincham to Knutsford and 14:45 Macclesfield to Altrincham get larger buses (opposed to the 28 seater ones) will there be room for the school pupils to use the 88 instead? Then if they use bigger buses on those services will they still have one for the 07:00 Knutsford to Altrincham which the school pupils heading in the other direction use (and which usually gets a big Enviro in school term time), as well as having big buses for the 288 and 82 journeys which carry school/college pupils? Or is some poor driver going to end up with one of the small Enviros on the 88 and either having to tell schoolkids to wait an hour or walk, or having to ignore social distancing (which will likely get complaints from other passengers.)

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus

(01/09/2020 15:21)knutstransport Wrote:  Just thinking about the 188/88, so the school pupils with passes get to travel on the 188 and other school pupils get to board if there's room. Therefore, if there's no room the other pupils will have to go on to the 88 bus instead and the pupils without passes will be the ones who don't live as far out so can use the 88 instead. I'm presuming the new requirement is to aid social distancing meaning the 188 bus won't be carrying up to 39 school pupils even if it's a 39 seater bus.

However, unless the 07:03 Altrincham to Knutsford and 14:45 Macclesfield to Altrincham get larger buses (opposed to the 28 seater ones) will there be room for the school pupils to use the 88 instead? Then if they use bigger buses on those services will they still have one for the 07:00 Knutsford to Altrincham which the school pupils heading in the other direction use (and which usually gets a big Enviro in school term time), as well as having big buses for the 288 and 82 journeys which carry school/college pupils? Or is some poor driver going to end up with one of the small Enviros on the 88 and either having to tell schoolkids to wait an hour or walk, or having to ignore social distancing (which will likely get complaints from other passengers.)

Social distancing is not required on dedicated school buses so the 188 will be allowed to run at full capacity.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(01/09/2020 15:31)iMarkeh Wrote:  Social distancing is not required on dedicated school buses so the 188 will be allowed to run at full capacity.

They have to remain in their year group bubbles if travelling on dedicated school buses though (based on information I've seen from another school.) That means if there's 7 pupils in year 7 on the bus and also 7 in year 8 then they will take up 16 seats between them meaning 2 seats have to remain vacant. I'm not sure how that'll be enforced on any bus going to school, even though I can see teachers enforcing it before buses leave school in the afternoon.

I also think D&G have taped off all the fold down seats at the front of their buses, so they are out-of-use on any service, unless D&G decide to remove the tape.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus

(01/09/2020 16:21)knutstransport Wrote:  They have to remain in their year group bubbles if travelling on dedicated school buses though (based on information I've seen from another school.) That means if there's 7 pupils in year 7 on the bus and also 7 in year 8 then they will take up 16 seats between them meaning 2 seats have to remain vacant. I'm not sure how that'll be enforced on any bus going to school, even though I can see teachers enforcing it before buses leave school in the afternoon.

I also think D&G have taped off all the fold down seats at the front of their buses, so they are out-of-use on any service, unless D&G decide to remove the tape.

I have not seen that mentioned for any area. If it was happening, Merseytravel or TFGM would have mentioned it on their websites. I think that may be a school specific rule put in place. Was it a closed contract service they were referring to?

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(01/09/2020 16:45)iMarkeh Wrote:  I have not seen that mentioned for any area. If it was happening, Merseytravel or TFGM would have mentioned it on their websites. I think that may be a school specific rule put in place. Was it a closed contract service they were referring to?

It was a Cheshire school referring to all dedicated school buses, including ones where children pay the driver. They even produced diagrams showing how it is to work for standard single deckers, standard double deckers and variants with high capacity 3+2 seating.

Based on the Knutsford Academy site it sounds like they've agreed special arrangements with Elite but for other services it says to contact the operator for further details and that includes a mention of D&G's phone number.