Selwyns

[knutstransport]

RE: Selwyns

(01/08/2021 12:28)iMarkeh Wrote:  There aren't any very popular places in South Manchester which people travel long distance to. The Airport makes perfect sense for connectivity and due to the potential usage. Anyone putting a bus into Altrincham rather than the Airport would be down right stupid. You'd lose out so many passengers to gain... one or two per week maybe. tops. Serving Alt alongside the Airport is more likely however still, anyone doing that would be daft because the time penalty would discourage a significant amount of longer distance passengers.

Are we actually talking about the same thing?

A coach from Manchester to London or Manchester to Bristol is not picking up holiday makers at Manchester Airport to take home. No-one with any sense flies in to Manchester Airport if their final destination is in the south of England, it's why the only train service from the airport going south is a local stopper to Crewe. Central Trains tried running a service between Manchester Airport and Derby via Stoke but hardly anyone used it, it didn't even justify using a single carriage class 153. The coach is even less attractive than the trains which ran every hour and have more flexible ticketing options. Even the most flexible National Express option makes you select a specific service, which you can change if necessary. How do you change a coach ticket while your flight is made to circle the airport due to poor weather conditions not allowing planes to land?

On the other hand a coach from Manchester to London or Bristol is carrying will attract students studying at universities in the midlands and south. These students don't all live in central Manchester and certainly don't live at Manchester Airport. The more affluent an area the more students - so Altrincham being close to Hale, Lymm, Knutsford, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge is an excellent place to stop for that market, especially if two other operators are already fighting to get the 2 or 3 people that might actually travel on a coach from Manchester Airport after arriving there on a plane.

Then there's other markets too - such as people visiting relatives. If your Gran in her 90s is coming up by coach, it's much easier to pick her up from a bus interchange, than an international airport interchange.

It's amazing you think not many people will board or alight a coach at Nantwich but you're of the opinion there's this huge Manchester airport market for coach companies, when the coaches generally go in the wrong direction for the airport's key market and airport patronage has dropped to levels not since since the 1960s.

Quote:Companies don't care about the local taxi prices or connectivity to a stop. I mean, Megabus literally made money for years serving obscure out of town places.

Again, what you're not getting is if the main market is people travelling from the north to London, then the most sensible pick up points are close to where people wanting to travel live, that may not be in the city centre. For instance, how many people live within 3 miles of Meadowhall compared to 3 miles of Sheffield station? There's over 100,000 living in Rotherham to start with and they are the people not served by National Express or Intercity rail, who can reach Meadowhall more easily than Sheffield.