D&G Bus

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
It looks like D&G are going to try quite a few services on a commercial basis but not the 130 on Sundays or a bus serving the Longridge estate in Knutsford on Saturdays. I wonder whether any other operators would be interested in those two?

[mikestone]

RE: D&G Bus
Why should anyone want to run the Sunday 130 commercially when the tendered service only has a minibus?
;
Interesting note on the 13 timetable regarding the *introduction* of funding from West Midlands Trains - I understood they always have subsidised it.

[Nwales Bus]

RE: D&G Bus
I believe London Midland found a way to remove the funding for the service. It seems that the old rules were written into the new West Midlands Railway franchise

[dca529x]

RE: D&G Bus

(06/02/2018 21:10)mikestone Wrote:  Why should anyone want to run the Sunday 130 commercially when the tendered service only has a minibus?
;
Interesting note on the 13 timetable regarding the *introduction* of funding from West Midlands Trains - I understood they always have subsidised it.

The Sunday 130 does carry reasonable loadings, although they might not be reasonable enough to make it commercially viable. The allocation of vans isn't 100%, maybe two out of three at most. What of course that does do, is give fuel cost savings.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(06/02/2018 21:10)mikestone Wrote:  Why should anyone want to run the Sunday 130 commercially when the tendered service only has a minibus?

There's no reason why a commercial service would have to run to the same frequency or run the complete route without any route changes. D&G's commercial replacement for the 38 Sunday service won't be the same route as the current contracted service.

[djb]

RE: D&G Bus

(06/02/2018 21:10)mikestone Wrote:  Why should anyone want to run the Sunday 130 commercially when the tendered service only has a minibus?
;
Interesting note on the 13 timetable regarding the *introduction* of funding from West Midlands Trains - I understood they always have subsidised it.

I think parts of the 130 on Sunday’s are marginally viable. The main issue is that I suspect to make it work it would need to be a non-incumbent operator so there’s no use of weekly passes from fare-payers to tip the balance under.

Sadly I see d&g as the only one that would take a punt, but because they are on the route mon-sat there will be paid pass holders.

Towards the end of ghas era on the 130, Sunday loadings were pretty good at times. Loading north of handforth are now pretty dire.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(06/02/2018 21:49)Nwales Bus Wrote:  I believe London Midland found a way to remove the funding for the service. It seems that the old rules were written into the new West Midlands Railway franchise

This is relevant in the Norton Bridge station closure notice

Quote:The Department for Transport (“the Department”) has carried out a public consultation on the proposal to close Norton Bridge station. The consultation ran between 19 October 2016 and 3 February 2017 and the proposed date for closure of the station was on or after 15 October 2017. The responses to the consultation have been considered by the Department. Following this consideration, the Department has decided that the closure of the station should proceed but in light of the representations and issues raised by individuals and Staffordshire County Council on bus funding, the Department proposes to maintain the part funding for the rail replacement bus services until the end of March 2019. This is to allow for the bus service levels to be reviewed by Staffordshire County Council in line with other local services.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy...tation.pdf

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
With the significant changes to the Cheshire East and Staffordshire routes will it change the number of vehicles D&G require in their fleet?

For North East Cheshire the PVR will remain the same as while the 88/89 contract has a PVR of 4 not 5, 88A will have a PVR of 2 while the 300 has a PVR of 1 and 130 will remain as a PVR of 2.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
There was a poorly sounding Streetlite on the 300 route this morning. I thought it wouldn't last until the end of the day - it hasn't it's been replaced by a Solo SR.

[Nwales Bus]

RE: D&G Bus

(17/02/2018 14:53)knutstransport Wrote:  There was a poorly sounding Streetlite on the 300 route this morning. I thought it wouldn't last until the end of the day - it hasn't it's been replaced by a Solo SR.

If it was one of the former Padarn Bus examples it wouldn’t suprise me. They were bad for reliability when new