Arriva Buses Wales - Chester Depot

[iMarkeh]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Chester Depot
Valandil, if they want to serve Cheshire Oaks, they need more time. If they are running like an X2, yeah. Certainly, 25 minutes but they aren't. Cheshire Oaks is a massive delay hotspot. I admit I am going partially off existing timetables but unless you want major delays, you will put 3 buses on the route. The only way they could POSSIBLY run with 25 minutes is going via the M53 but that again, is a big risk as that can get easily delayed.

If Arriva want to jeopardise the existing X4 route, yeah, 2 buses will do. If they have any braincells, they will use 3 as the delay risk is VERY high and the timings would be far too tight. They will have to be giving a few minutes in Chester as well as buses are already quite often delayed coming into Chester. So, to sum up. Time is needed in Mold (as current) due to the delays on the welsh part of the route. Time is needed in Chester as even on current times, buses can struggle to get in on time and time is needed in Ellesmere Port for obvious layover between trips and as Cheshire Oaks is so busy at times, they need a small bit of time to recover.

So much time is needed. Your proposed timings show that Mold had 5 minutes between trips. Which clearly isn't enough. That is how long the 3 had and that struggled to keep to time.

I do see what you mean, sometimes extending an existing route can work to reduce PVR but in this instance, the journey time is too long between Chester and Eport for it to work in this way. If they made the 12/13 extend to Eport, that would work with 2 buses as it has a lot longer layover in Chester. Infact, I don't know why they picked the X4. The 12/13 would be much better timing wise.