Diamond Bus North West

[Winston]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(14/07/2019 20:30)gilesbus1 Wrote:  I aren't overly convinced by it, the tenders and the low return commercial work based at Leigh and Wigan will simply be lost or given up, that has been what has happened in the past hence why Diamond North West exists at all, its just simply not profitable operated from Bolton, like the Shakerley wasn't before. Cross subsidy of routes isn't allowed under the Transport Act 1985.

Large super depots generally don't work unless you are where the super depot is, e.g. Bolton, they also effect staffing in that clinks form, engineering in that it becomes poor and unable to deal with oddities in the fleet, and expensive to operate and sometimes under utilised, they are a complete utter useless failure. Also they affect people's health, with high levels of pollution from operating buses, buses that are damaged being towed in from miles away. I've no intention of ever using the 132 again as its not reliable when operated by Atherton so it certainly won't be operated by Eccles, which is 25 miles away from Wigan. New buses fixes nothing.

That's fair enough if you're not convinced, there's no point me wasting any more time trying to convince you otherwise, as you've already made your mind up before the takeover has even taken has occurred. I'm not referring to Cross Subsidy, I'm referring to overall depot profit margins, the majority of profits will be generated by the busier commercial routes, these will help keep the more marginal routes running. Just like service with journeys early morning/evening that are less well used, these are kept running by the money they generate during their busiest times, services are reviewed on the overall based on overall income vs operating costs.

Again your argument re: 132, it might be 25 miles from Eccles to Wigan, but Eccles is only 2 miles from Trafford Centre, the depot can only be located at one end of the route, not both! Atherton to Trafford Centre isn't that much different distance wise. Anyone with common sense would anticipate that Bolton depot would be called upon to send out a replacement bus / engineering support van to meet said vehicle should a 132 get stranded at Wigan for any reason, simply to keep response times to a minimum and keep the service running with minimal disruption to passengers.

There are enough super depots in existence around the country that prove your theories otherwise. Haven't got the foggiest what you're referring to with your point re: people's health and high levels of pollution, Bolton depot will still have less buses when under Diamond NW even after part of Atherton's fleet moves compared with what currently operates from there.

New buses on scale fixes quite a lot actually, they are less polluting (Euro 6), more fuel efficient Micro Hybrids, more reliable, better passenger environment & features etc, etc. The current Bolton single deck fleet is predominantly Euro 3 - 2005/6 Volvo B7RLE/Wright and 13/14 years old, the saving grace is the Volvo/Wright are pretty well built.