Traffic Commissioner North West England Notices & Proceedings 2021

[knutstransport]

RE: Traffic Commissioner North West England Notices & Proceedings 2021

(06/05/2021 10:31)iMarkeh Wrote:  They might as well do. In 2018, of the 14 contracts which the council put out, 12 were awarded to WOB (those which weren't were the Lymm shopper minibus and an early trip on the X30) Everything else went to WOB.

I'd be interested to know how the 47 contract currently works.

I recall the current one started as a Lymm-Thelwall-Warrington service following Cheshire East withdrawing funding for the Holmes Chapel-Knutsford-Warrington 47, which had been operated by Network Warrington but they lost it to Tomlinson Travel when it was renewed.

Then when Warrington Coachways collapsed the new service got extended to High Legh to partly compensate for the lack of regular Altrincham to Warrington buses and the 289 also got re-routed to serve High Legh.

Then the current service came about following the withdrawal of the Knutsford to Altrincham section of the 289.

However, what we now have is:
- Lymm to Knutsford
- Knutsford to Warrington
- Warrington to High Legh
- High Legh to Warrington
- Warrington to Knutsford
- Knutsford to Lymm

When under Tomlinson Travel we had:
- Holmes Chapel to Warrington
- Warrington to Holmes Chapel
- Holmes Chapel to Warrington
- Warrington to Holmes Chapel

The latter made a return journey from Warrington to Knutsford possible and also allowed one to be made from Lymm/Broomedge/High Legh/Mere, which didn't involve spending a whole 5 hours in Knutsford.

It seems the current service is more focused on getting people in to Warrington and less on other potential markets.

The other thing of interest is the starting and ending in Lymm, is the 47 the same contract as a Lymm High service? If not the timetable seems to have been created in a way to make it attractive to WOB and not to other operators who might be interested in a contract which can be operated around school services.