North West Bus Service Changes due to Coronavirus outbreak

[knutstransport]

RE: North West Bus Service Changes due to Coronavirus outbreak

(03/06/2020 13:39)iMarkeh Wrote:  The 89 is pretty dead so while it is part of the same contract, Macc takes priority as it is more useful to CEC residents. I think that if the timings worked out, they would just scrap the 89 but right now, you would have buses sat in Knutsford for 1h 30 so it's a case of, 'we might as well run the 89 because it saves a bus being sat around doing nothing'.

It would be more financially beneficial to run an hourly service between Knutsford and Macclesfield. When Bakers, Bowers and GHA ran an hourly Knutsford-Macclesfield it had a higher average loading than the 289. Knutsford-Macclesfield journeys will probably be much higher once lockdown restrictions are lifted further and people start attending postponed appointments at Macclesfield Hospital, while the people (from both Wilmslow and Knutsford) who've submitted benefit claims due to loss of work and have not yet had to attend Job Centre appointments will find they start being asked to attend appointments at Macclesfield Job Centre, due to Wilmslow Job Centre having permanently closed.

The question with Tabley and Pickmere for CEC is whether subsiding the 89 is better value than money than their FlexiLink service serving those villages. I don't know if it's still the case but there were 2 or 3 commuters using the 89 to work in Knutsford, which is why the 06:45 Northwich to Knutsford was included as part of the tender requirement. When Howards ran the 289 they wanted that journey removed due to low numbers and being an operational inconvenience but it got deemed as essential due to transporting workers and not just being a left over positional move from when GHA operated the 289 from Tarvin depot.

The 89 is also used by some elderly residents from the Lilac Avenue area of Knutsford to get in and out of town, now that the 300 no longer exists.