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RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - dca529x - 20/04/2017 07:45
(19/04/2017 20:29)Dentonian Wrote: Perhaps the ordinary passengers should find VOSA's e-mail (or indeed, Postal) address. Such late running outside peaks is ridiculous at the best of times, but didn't someone say that the Manchester journeys are run seperately to the Wimslow shorts, so therefore most have 35 minutes stand in Macc?
As regards the Sunday (tendered) journeys, hasn't anyone complained to ECCC?
During the MF 30 min frequency period off peak, buses only stand at Macc for 5 mins. They do alternative Wilmslow/Manchester journeys. That's part of the problem, lack of recovery time, so it just compounds, as the day progresses. A extra bus in the circuit to increase running/stand time would be the answer, but extra resource costs money and the head office bean counters aren't going to tolerate that. The Arriva App is a very useful tool, but it also reveals how easily the service collapses. The Centro yesterday was a case in point, I observed it about 12 late at Monks Heath heading into Macc. It lost a further 8 mins at Macc and a further 3 coming back, arriving at Alderley Edge 21 late, It was further observed in Wilmslow 25 down. If the TC was that interested it wouldn't take that much effort to see what goes on. But is there the will to do that ?
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - motormayhem1 - 20/04/2017 08:13
To put an extra bus in would only be done in extreme circumstances as the extra bus would cost roughly £100,000 to £120,000 a year to operate so a route has to be highly profitable for that to happen.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - Redmikey - 20/04/2017 08:25
It's a vicious circle then because if buses are turning up late all the time people will stop using the bus and profits will fall further.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - Valandil - 20/04/2017 08:29
(20/04/2017 08:13)motormayhem1 Wrote: To put an extra bus in would only be done in extreme circumstances as the extra bus would cost roughly £100,000 to £120,000 a year to operate so a route has to be highly profitable for that to happen.
Thing is though, the route isn't going to be profitable unless adequate resource is put in.
This is the madness of the austerity way of thinking: if you cut costs, you could end up cutting your custom by even more.
I once heard that the 130 was a "Sapphire" service ... lol ...
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - dca529x - 20/04/2017 08:42
(20/04/2017 08:29)Valandil Wrote: Thing is though, the route isn't going to be profitable unless adequate resource is put in.
This is the madness of the austerity way of thinking: if you cut costs, you could end up cutting your custom by even more.
I once heard that the 130 was a "Sapphire" service ... lol ...
There is a perfectly good vehicle management system that shows exactly where individual buses are, and if a late running bus is identified coming in and its a driver relief, then its reasonable to send out a fresh bus (on time) with the relieving driver.
But, as has been pointed out, the 'spare bus' luxury is long gone. Unless extra resource/running time is put in with a fundamental recast of the timetable, nothing will change.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - Redmikey - 20/04/2017 09:14
(20/04/2017 08:29)Valandil Wrote: This is the madness of the austerity way of thinking: if you cut costs, you could end up cutting your custom by even more.
Exactly. It reminds of me of something I saw about the Settle to Carlisle line where BR closed most of the stations, reduced services and then seemed surprised that the line had fewer passengers.
There are gaps of 90 minutes between departures from Manchester in the evening peak. Anyone working in wilmslow has only got one bus towards macc after 5pm and a bus north at 1718 and then 1905. Not much use if you finish work at 5.30 or 6 is it?
It's the same from Macc if I finish work at 5 I have got to be at the bus station by 1710 because the next bus is at 1825.
So the timetable is virtually useless to all commuters in the three biggest towns on the route.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - motormayhem1 - 20/04/2017 09:32
(20/04/2017 08:29)Valandil Wrote: Thing is though, the route isn't going to be profitable unless adequate resource is put in.
This is the madness of the austerity way of thinking: if you cut costs, you could end up cutting your custom by even more.
I once heard that the 130 was a "Sapphire" service ... lol ...
I totally agree with you valandil , but unfortunately different people look at things in different ways.
Nig companies have to keep share holders happy and if they lost money by putting the extra bus in and gained nothing back then share holders would start to question why they have lost money.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - knutstransport - 20/04/2017 09:50
(19/04/2017 20:29)Dentonian Wrote: As regards the Sunday (tendered) journeys, hasn't anyone complained to ECCC?
What's punctuality like on Sundays?
As I mentioned before the contract just requires them to use a 25 seater bus so using Solos or non-Sapphire vehicles wouldn't be an issue for the council.
Also worth noting at the time Arriva were the only operator who submitted a bid for the 130 Sunday and Bank Holiday service. It might be other operators would be more interested in running the service now than when there were a whole load of former GHA services all out to tender but I doubt Cheshire East would want to either strip Arriva of the contract or do something that might make Arriva want to cancel the contract early.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - knutstransport - 20/04/2017 10:02
(20/04/2017 09:14)Redmikey Wrote: There are gaps of 90 minutes between departures from Manchester in the evening peak. Anyone working in wilmslow has only got one bus towards macc after 5pm and a bus north at 1718 and then 1905. Not much use if you finish work at 5.30 or 6 is it?
It's the same from Macc if I finish work at 5 I have got to be at the bus station by 1710 because the next bus is at 1825.
So the timetable is virtually useless to all commuters in the three biggest towns on the route.
We have the same issue with the 27 route. If you work in Knutsford the bus is useless unless you can work something like 8-4.30 or 9.30-6. If you work in Macclesfield and start at 8 or finish at 6 the bus is useless.
With Macclesfield having a lot of digital agencies they generally want to employ people who can stay late one night to finish a project with a short deadline and then finish early on another day. I've pointed this out to Cheshire East before but there response has been they feel the bus times (of Macclesfield services in general) meets the need of most people! Obviously the significant drop in patronage on the 27 service since the route went 2 hourly is nothing to do with it not running at the times people need to travel.
RE: Arriva North West - Winsford Depot - knutstransport - 20/04/2017 19:57
We do have up to 5 or 6 operators bidding for some contracts in Cheshire East but no one wanted the hassle of the 130 Sunday service when there were around 20 more attractive contracts to bid for at the same time.
Surely one late contracted service doesn't result in a fine, otherwise the operators would refuse to run Sunday services when there's sometimes special events resulting in road closures.