GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)

[djb]

RE: GHA Group (Bryn Melyn, Vale Travel + Others)

(13/10/2016 08:24)knutstransport Wrote:  I don't think it's surprising some routes have gone back to their old operators. I found it more amusing that the 300 Saturday service and the 37 evening service were awarded to GHA but they never started running those services due to a lack of resources!

The 82 is a Cheshire West service and I think their emergency contracts lasted for longer than the Cheshire East ones.

While there's been comparisons to how the new timetables compare to the old GHA timetables, how do the new timetables compare to the pre-GHA timetables? For instance, the 82 was hourly under Arriva pre-GHA and is currently hourly under Arriva so while there has been a cutback over how it was recently it appears to be the same level of service as it was historically. The D&G 88 service will be an overall improvement on the pre-GHA timetable but the 27 and 289 are both reduced services compared to both what GHA operated and what the level of service was pre-GHA. I've not heard many complaints about the recent 289 cutbacks and the ones I heard related as much to a lack of notice about the timetable being changed as the cutback. However, I have heard a lot of complaints about the recent 27 cutbacks and that some people travel indirectly via Stockport by train because the bus doesn't run at the times they need to travel, which costs them a fortune in relation to how far Macclesfield and Knutsford are apart.

Regards the 27, as we've discussed previously a return to an hourly service in the short term is unlikely.

What's your take on curtailing the interpeak service at monks Heath? Would enable an hourly service between there and knutsford at the hours that gha offered it, and could be timed to get a connection with the short 130 that starts soon. The peak time service could stay as it is now, as it's been like that for a while, and the 130 isn't clockfaced in the peaks.

Upside - an hourly bus based connection.
Downside - changing buses, lack of interoperator ticketing.