Howards/Springfield

[The H man]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(08/08/2016 15:50)knutstransport Wrote:  It seems Howards are taking over the 27 weekday service from High Peak on Friday: http://www.howards-travel.co.uk/27.pdf

Yes we are covering it until middle of October.

Then whoever wins the contract will take it over.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Howards/Springfield
Hopefully Howard's Win the contract, At least we know it will be ran properly by them

[The H man]

RE: Howards/Springfield
Thanks!! Back to enthusiast news , the 63 reg enviro is being replaced with a 65 reg as it has a few faults.

The 62 reg one is a good bus and they will both be staying till october.

We will have some news soon on the permanent newer vehicle for the 289. The two enviros are just on hire.

[33109]

RE: Howards/Springfield
The 289 has mainly been run by V23 HOW just lately.

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(08/08/2016 18:48)T42 PVM Wrote:  Hopefully Howard's Win the contract, At least we know it will be ran properly by them

Personally I'm not keen on the idea of High Peak operating any service in Knutsford. In the past they've had too many operational difficulties in getting buses to Knutsford in winter meaning early services people rely on to get to work don't operate because it's been snowing in Buxton. They also seem to think passengers are happy to pay more for a poorer service, which isn't the case and has been proven by passenger numbers falling when they reduce the frequency of services at the same time as putting up fares.

Hopefully High Peak drivers on the 27 route this week are informing passengers of the change of operator before they sell any weekly tickets! I see the Howards 27A services won't serve AstraZeneca which will actually benefit most people given how much AstraZeneca have scaled back their operations and that they no longer provide a subsidy for the 27 service unlike they did when Bakerbus ran a hourly service using brand new Wright Cadets. I'm not sure what High Peak did but a number of GHA drivers missed out AstraZeneca on the 16:45 Knutsford to Macclesfield anyway presumably they simply didn't have room for more than one or two extra passengers to board the bus* and the people from Macclesfield who worked at AstraZeneca would likely have held Arriva weekly tickets and travelled on the 130 route.

As for who I want to win the contract, it'd partly depend what various operators include in their bid. I wouldn't be keen on Howards losing the contract to a bigger firm who aren't going to do anything above and beyond the minimum required. However, if the bigger firm offers to run more services and will provide a reliable reasonably priced service then it's a different matter.

* Except when GHA decided to use a double decker which was then not really that suitable for the services via Over Peover.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Howards/Springfield
I think with Howards running the Service it will soon become reliable and better priced once more and passenger count will go back up

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(09/08/2016 09:32)knutstransport Wrote:  I see the Howards 27A services won't serve AstraZeneca which will actually benefit most people given how much AstraZeneca have scaled back their operations and that they no longer provide a subsidy for the 27 service unlike they did when Bakerbus ran a hourly service using brand new Wright Cadets. I'm not sure what High Peak did but a number of GHA drivers missed out AstraZeneca on the 16:45 Knutsford to Macclesfield anyway presumably they simply didn't have room for more than one or two extra passengers to board the bus* and the people from Macclesfield who worked at AstraZeneca would likely have held Arriva weekly tickets and travelled on the 130 route.

I've noticed Howards have revised the timetable so the 27A services not only go via AstraZeneca but go via Over Peover as well, so what were 35-40 minute journey times between Knutsford and Macclesfield in the original timetable they published are now 45-55 minute journey times in the revised one with some services being timetabled to run 5-10 minutes later/earlier due to the extended journey times.

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield
Just seen a couple of new Howards Travel pictures have appeared on Flickr it looks like they have demo vehicle SK65 PVW for a week: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nick1208/2...TuN-KprKBt

And while there's many pictures of V24 HOW on Flickr, it's not often you see passengers smiling as they about to purchase tickets: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76257710@N...6kt-Knc6nx (The photo was apparently taken on Monday so maybe the passengers were very happy to see a Howards Travel bus turn up instead of a High Peak one.)

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(08/08/2016 18:48)T42 PVM Wrote:  Hopefully Howard's Win the contract, At least we know it will be ran properly by them

From what I heard this afternoon Howard's have been experiencing what are hopefully teething problems with the weekday 27 service this week. While the buses are getting between Macclesfield bus station and Knutsford bus station they are sometimes going via the wrong back roads and missing out bus stops as a consequence. Other operators have had the same problems in the past when new drivers have been put on the route.

Personally I think Over Peover should be served by a separate bus service then a bus could run Macclesfield to Knutsford direct with a 90 minute frequency being possible with a single bus. High Peak tried a 90 minute frequency using one bus but it didn't work as they routed buses via the longer Over Peover route so there was no recovery time in the timetable meaning reliability was very poor.

[M60lad]

RE: Howards/Springfield
Not sure which coach is being used but Howards/Springfield have got a coach out today bringing festival goers from Leeds to Creamfields event at Daresbury.

Also unless things change look out for a big single decker on 289s today as I believe V24HOW is supposedly on the route today.

Despite it only supposedly being in use for a week the grey Streetlite is still at Howards parked up in their yard