Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

(11/08/2017 15:30)Dentonian Wrote:  Hmm. Hardly £205,000 worth of improvements, whoever is administering the money. Bearing in mind this is 40% of the total money saved when Hammond ripped up signed and sealed "KickStart" contracts for GM as his very first act as a Cabinet Minister in May 2010.

Don't forget Stagecoach wanted an annual £90,000 subsidy to retain the hourly Wilmslow extension of the 378, while D&G said it would need a £70,000 annual subsidy to keep their trial Wilmslow-Handforth Dean service going. £205,000 won't even pay for a 5 year contract for either of those!

Was KickStart GM's version of SureStart?

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts
No operators can't demand funding but LAs can agree a short term measure prior to putting the service out to tender (like TfGM did with the 18 prior to the 288 contract being awarded) and getting an idea of how much funding the current operator thinks is required gives an indication of how much a subsided service will cost.

D&G's 378 was based on one driver on the route all day so the extended gap was to allow for his lunch break. As for whether the use of the 378 number was confusing the same could be said about 288 services running to Manchester Airport from Altrincham when that number was used for Knutsford via Wilmslow services for over 20 years.

[Nicholas]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

(11/08/2017 18:19)Dentonian Wrote:  SureStart is/was something to do with Employment, wasn't it?

Without wanting to take this off topic too much, no - it was set up to provide services for under-fives and their parents in deprived areas (for example drop-in centres, play mornings etc)

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

(12/08/2017 17:05)Nicholas Wrote:  Without wanting to take this off topic too much, no - it was set up to provide services for under-fives and their parents in deprived areas (for example drop-in centres, play mornings etc)

Yes and the funding removal by the Conservatives has been well publicised. I've never heard the KickStart Dentonian referred to so presumed it was a similar scheme.

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

(12/08/2017 19:25)Dentonian Wrote:  Except D&G's 378 could be confused in terms of both Wilmslow passengers thinking the Cheadle Hulme/Stockport service was contiuning seamlessly, and at the Handforth Dean end by Stockport MBC passengers thinking it was running to Handforth Dean rather than Grove Lane.

The D&G destination displays and timetable displays at bus stops would have shown either 378 Wilmslow Station or 378 Handforth Dean so no-one should have got on one expecting it to go to Bramhall or Stockport. The destination displays also display a scrolling list of the main intermediate calling points. The reason given for that bus using the 378 number is the people living in the housing estates in Handforth and Wilmslow were used to the 378 bus taking them to Wilmslow town centre and the D&G 378 route between Handforth and Wilmslow Bank Square was the same as the withdrawn Stagecoach route.

Quote:288 was probabl;y not the best number for the Airport-Alty service, but at least there was a timelapse between the two uses. I also suspect it was part of a general renumbering of Alty services which will eventually form a nice neat grouping. Bearing in mind hat comparatively little of Altrincham's network is commercial compared to other parts of GM.

The 28* numbers used to relate to commercial registrations made after bus deregulation between Altrincham and the Cheshire County Council area
287 was Altrincham to Macclesfield via Wilmslow (2 hourly)
288 was Altrincham to Knutsford via Wilmslow (initially 2 hourly, interworked with 287)
289 was Altrincham to Northwich (still exists under that number but re-routed and less frequent.)

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts
The same could be said of other routes which have been truncated or re-routed e.g. should the 18 route have been renumbered when it stopped serving Altrincham or should Stagecoach have renumbered the 378s only running to Grove Rd at times when they used to go to Wilmslow? Passengers have to look at both the destination and route number not just the number.

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts
As the Mobberley to Knutsford school bus (currently part of the same contract as the 289) was included in the consultation, this is relevant: http://www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk/news/...transport/

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts
3,900 responses were received to the bus consultation. The 38 and 78 services got the most responses: http://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/doc...al%202.pdf

[mikestone]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts
Since the evening 78s have already gone that just proves how pointless these consultations are.

[knutstransport]

RE: Cheshire East proposed funding cuts

(12/09/2017 16:15)mikestone Wrote:  Since the evening 78s have already gone that just proves how pointless these consultations are.

We don't know what the responses were though. It might be some were complaining about the lack of daytime services to Scholar Green or that the bus times didn't correspond with hospital visiting hours at Leighton. Some people responded about the 39 route, despite it not being a route which a change was proposed for.

However, I agree the 78s shouldn't have been changed at such short notice ahead of the consultation responses being considered.

I also note Cheshire East haven't changed their proposed change date to correspond with the rail revisions in May 2018. If they go ahead with the 200 withdrawal Styal will lose its bus service 6 weeks before it gains the extra trains stopping there.