Halton Transport

[motormayhem1]

RE: Halton Transport
Thats what makes the difference between blackpool transport/network warrington and halton as the first 2 seem to be investing decent amounts into there fleet and halton aren't as i know it makes buissness sense to buy second hand but under arms length of the council you would think the council would want a good image set.

[Mayneway]

RE: Halton Transport

(31/12/2016 17:14)motormayhem1 Wrote:  Thats what makes the difference between blackpool transport/network warrington and halton as the first 2 seem to be investing decent amounts into there fleet and halton aren't as i know it makes buissness sense to buy second hand but under arms length of the council you would think the council would want a good image set.

To be fair though investment at Blackpool has only really made an impact over the last couple of years. You go back 6-7 years and visiting blackpool was like going back in time.
As for Warrington, some would argue that theres been some waisted investment. The Solos were bought brand new and sold less than 5 years later because there was no use for them.

Halton remind me very much of Rossendale. They do bring in new vehicles but in small numbers, it's second hand vehiches that make the fleet and to be honest if there maintained and looked after I don't see it being a big problem - I've never seen a poorly turned out Halton vehicle.

[Barney]

RE: Halton Transport

(31/12/2016 17:14)motormayhem1 Wrote:  Thats what makes the difference between blackpool transport/network warrington and halton as the first 2 seem to be investing decent amounts into there fleet and halton aren't as i know it makes buissness sense to buy second hand but under arms length of the council you would think the council would want a good image set.

As Halton is now part of the Liverpool City Region ITA, it would not surprise me if the powers-that-be were allowing a managed decline in preparation for a sale to either Arriva or Stagecoach or possibly another major player.

[childwallblues]

RE: Halton Transport
I wouldn't call the purchase of five 12 reg buses a managed decline.

[Lynx]

RE: Halton Transport
Granted the Marshalls aren't exactly state of the art but Halton can't be blamed for getting their moneys worth out of buses they have had from new, its not particularly remarkable that they are still doing the rounds considering that operators with much bigger networks still have buses of a similar age or older still knocking about. Warrington could be viewed as the exception but even here 20 year old Olympians are still being used daily on schools. My point is it's not remarkable that the Marshalls are still here, besides most are still in good condition and have plenty of life left in them, not to mention the fact they are increasingly being confined to schools.

It would be very unfair to say that Halton haven't invested decent amounts, as already mentioned the purchase of 5x 4 year old Enviro200s wasn't cheap and the purchase of 14x 5 year old Omnicities (5yo at the time) also certainly wasn't cheap. On top of this there has been significant investment in improving fleet image overall with the introduction of the new livery and WiFi across the entire fleet, the latter being something that no other similar sized independent/municipal in this area has yet to achieve.

[RSTurbo50]

RE: Halton Transport
I struggle to see how Halton survive looking at the amount of people on the buses. Very rare I see more than a few at a time...I know the Merseytravel contracts pay well and maybe this is keeping them in profit..

[Mayneway]

RE: Halton Transport

(01/01/2017 09:27)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  I struggle to see how Halton survive looking at the amount of people on the buses. Very rare I see more than a few at a time...I know the Merseytravel contracts pay well and maybe this is keeping them in profit..

Every municipal has to be evaluated I think it's every twelve months. It's basically a valuation of the business and to make sure the council owning it is good business sense, ie it's not a drain on tax payers pockets. If there came a point when the business wasn't making good money then the council would be obliged to sell off.
Let's not forget that the transport act stipulates that every commercial service must pay for it's self so just because you see low numbers of passengers on probably a very small percentage of buses dosen't mean Halton are struggling.
Don't forget any kind of financial help the council gave to Halton would have to be publicised and I've heard nothing of any kind of bail out, there's not been any suggestion the council have funded the recently purchased Enviro200's or the omnicities, unlike Network Warrington who had a big bail out a couple of years back!

Like I've already said big thumbs up to them for getting thier monies worth.

[RSTurbo50]

RE: Halton Transport
The reason I'm saying this is that as you know, I drive for Network Warrington and we have decent loadings in and out the bus station whereas Halton only seem to have a few on at any time..

[Valandil]

RE: Halton Transport
I agree that most Halton services seem quiet, but in a bizarre way I think that's why they can continue to exist.
Any busy services would be challenged by Arriva, so in a way Halton has to be quiet careful.
The way that Halton seems to deal with this Arriva competition is to put extra resource in (the 14(A/B/C) from Widnes to Hough Green competing with the 79/79C and the 62 from Widnes to Halebank competing with 82A), but this again reduces passenger numbers on each trip by spreading them more thinly.
How long Halton can keep running around with near-empty vehicles on the 14C in particular I don't know.
Some of the other quiet services like the 200 and Merseytravel contracts are alright though, due to their funding.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Halton Transport
Services like the 14,17 and 61 all do very well so there in profit on them services at least, the other routes must also be making money otherwise Halton would of gone bust as no one can run a loss making company