D&G Bus

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
Timetable's up: http://dgbus.co.uk/assets/82_2018-10-29.pdf

Services between 09:30 and 15:00 extend to Sainsburys (interesting considering they removed that bit from the 89 to improve punctuality.) Kingsmead seems to actually mean Sir John Deans College, which was there a long time before Kingsmead was developed!

The last Northwich to Chester service is 16:25 with a 17:00 and 18:00 service only going as far as Sandiway.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus

(18/09/2018 12:38)knutstransport Wrote:  Timetable's up: http://dgbus.co.uk/assets/82_2018-10-29.pdf

Services between 09:30 and 15:00 extend to Sainsburys (interesting considering they removed that bit from the 89 to improve punctuality.) Kingsmead seems to actually mean Sir John Deans College, which was there a long time before Kingsmead was developed!

The last Northwich to Chester service is 16:25 with a 17:00 and 18:00 service only going as far as Sandiway.

Sainsburys bus stop doesn't have many buses so could it be that they want the bus to sit there for layover/breaks?

I think the timetable is very good. Only time will tell though if the 17:00 and 18:00 short trips will actually increase or decrease numbers?

3 buses is very interesting. I know Arriva has the higher overheads which I explained in the Arriva Chester thread but surely the 3rd bus will outweigh the lower overheads at D&G.

Very clever the timings though with buses around pass times. The pass bus into Chester is now 15 minutes later and the pass but into Northwich is a few mins earlier so people in parts of Sandiway will not be able to use their pass unless the bus is late.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(18/09/2018 14:00)iMarkeh Wrote:  3 buses is very interesting. I know Arriva has the higher overheads which I explained in the Arriva Chester thread but surely the 3rd bus will outweigh the lower overheads at D&G.

D&G seem to like timetables with lots of padding in so even if an inbound service is very late, the return working will be on time by the time it reaches its' destination.

I wonder if the idea is the same 3 drivers all day so the long breaks are there to comply with driver working hours and statutory breaks.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(18/09/2018 09:23)33109 Wrote:  They could really do with another, the 82 is a bloody busy route. It needs a cadet or possibly 1 of their commanders to cope with the passenger numbers.

It would be quite amusing if D&G resurrected the ex-Routemaster buses to run the 82. After all Routemaster were threatening to take on GHA on the 82 route after they registered duplicate 84 services.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus
D&G are going to have fun. I saw the college run being done by the sapphire decker the other day. It was full with people standing by the time it got to the A41. I have just been looking back at old timetables and GHA used to have 2 buses to the college. 1 from Chester which ran as normal but then pretty much fast from Tarvin to Mid Cheshire Coll and another which started in Tarvin for the Sir John Deanes College. GHA had 2 deckers, Arriva dropped it to 1 decker and now D&G will likely end up putting a solo on it. This will be funny to see.

(18/09/2018 18:04)knutstransport Wrote:  It would be quite amusing if D&G resurrected the ex-Routemaster buses to run the 82. After all Routemaster were threatening to take on GHA on the 82 route after they registered duplicate 84 services.

That 84 bus war was amazing. 3 companies, 1 route. Neither GHA or Routemaster took anyone really which was the best thing in my opinion. The 84 would be a great route for D&G but it wouldn't cope with the schools as Tarporley High gets a full decker from Tarvin. I can't see D&G competing much though as Julian owns shares in Arriva so he won't want them to compete. If Arriva were looking at dropping the 84, I can see D&G jumping on it without hesitation but they would have to be very careful with the vehicle size. They seem to get a big mixed up with what sized buses need to go where. (Referring to Knutsfordtrasnport's earlier post regarding the 88 allocations)

How big is Wincham depot? I can see them outgrowing it soon if it is just an outstation.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(19/09/2018 16:36)iMarkeh Wrote:  D&G are going to have fun. I saw the college run being done by the sapphire decker the other day. It was full with people standing by the time it got to the A41. I have just been looking back at old timetables and GHA used to have 2 buses to the college. 1 from Chester which ran as normal but then pretty much fast from Tarvin to Mid Cheshire Coll and another which started in Tarvin for the Sir John Deanes College. GHA had 2 deckers, Arriva dropped it to 1 decker and now D&G will likely end up putting a solo on it. This will be funny to see.

That 84 bus war was amazing. 3 companies, 1 route. Neither GHA or Routemaster took anyone really which was the best thing in my opinion. The 84 would be a great route for D&G but it wouldn't cope with the schools as Tarporley High gets a full decker from Tarvin. I can't see D&G competing much though as Julian owns shares in Arriva so he won't want them to compete. If Arriva were looking at dropping the 84, I can see D&G jumping on it without hesitation but they would have to be very careful with the vehicle size. They seem to get a big mixed up with what sized buses need to go where. (Referring to Knutsfordtrasnport's earlier post regarding the 88 allocations)

How big is Wincham depot? I can see them outgrowing it soon if it is just an outstation.

Arriva and Routemaster weren't really at war on the 84. Arriva reduced the frequency to hourly and Routemaster added some replacement journeys half an hour after the Arriva ones. GHA created a war by running their 84 just ahead of the Routemaster one and changing the 82 times so they didn't run 5 minutes later than the 84 (as they had done for years.)

Soon after Wincham opened they had all the 13 reg Solos there plus a couple of Streetlites and needed 5 vehicles for the 88, 1 for the 300 and for the period they operated it 1 for the 378. Currently they need 4 vehicles for the 88/89 plus an additional one for the 188 afternoon service on Schooldays only and 3 for the 288 so there's not been any real permanent increase in the the number of vehicles required. I'm pretty sure the idea for Wincham was to have up to 15 vehicles as they were hoping to win some Cheshire West contracts, which didn't happen.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus

(19/09/2018 17:17)knutstransport Wrote:  Soon after Wincham opened they had all the 13 reg Solos there plus a couple of Streetlites and needed 5 vehicles for the 88, 1 for the 300 and for the period they operated it 1 for the 378. Currently they need 4 vehicles for the 88/89 plus an additional one for the 188 afternoon service on Schooldays only and 3 for the 288 so there's not been any real permanent increase in the the number of vehicles required. I'm pretty sure the idea for Wincham was to have up to 15 vehicles as they were hoping to win some Cheshire West contracts, which didn't happen.

I can't find out the exact whereabouts of their depot. I have followed the address and it could be any one of the spaces in that area so I didn't know how much space there was. AFAIK, No Cheshire west tenders have gone out recently. The 48 will likely end up going out again soon. Other than that, the tenders are only for the X29 and the evening/sunday 1, 2 and 4 in Northwich. Most CWACC tenders revolve around Chester.

They would be better off somewhere around Sutton Weaver/Preston Brook. At least then you are close to the motorway, Wilmslow, Airport, Altrincham, Northwich and not far off Chester/Eport for the tenders in those areas. I will admit, it is a lot further for the Macc start/end trips on the 88 but the wider benefits to other areas surely outweighs the 1 disadvantage.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(19/09/2018 22:24)iMarkeh Wrote:  I can't find out the exact whereabouts of their depot. I have followed the address and it could be any one of the spaces in that area so I didn't know how much space there was. AFAIK, No Cheshire west tenders have gone out recently. The 48 will likely end up going out again soon. Other than that, the tenders are only for the X29 and the evening/sunday 1, 2 and 4 in Northwich. Most CWACC tenders revolve around Chester.

They would be better off somewhere around Sutton Weaver/Preston Brook. At least then you are close to the motorway, Wilmslow, Airport, Altrincham, Northwich and not far off Chester/Eport for the tenders in those areas. I will admit, it is a lot further for the Macc start/end trips on the 88 but the wider benefits to other areas surely outweighs the 1 disadvantage.

At the time they started operating from Wincham they didn't operate any Greater Manchester routes apart from the Trafford section of the 88 route, they did operate Macclesfield services 7 days a week. I've thought for a while they would have been better off having a depot in the Chelford area which then gives easy access to Knutsford, Macclesfield and Wilmslow, while access to Congleton would have been easier than from Crewe or Adderley Green so maybe they could have looked at running the 42 from Chelford as well and for the period they operated the 130 and 378 they would have worked well from Chelford, maybe even lowering the costs enough to keep them going for longer.

The 48 was expected to go out to tender but Cheshire West originally thought they'd cancel the route, then extended the existing contract on a rolling basis. I'd guess the Northwich tenders are less competitive even though there aren't as many of them - it might have been D&G would have liked some Sunday contracts given the 88 was and still is Mon-Sat only.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
It seems some on Cheshire West council wanted alternate 82 services to run to Winsford: https://www.winsfordguardian.co.uk/news/...-operator/

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: D&G Bus
If it went to Winsford only every other hour hardly anyone would use it plus i bet the travel time on the train would be almost the same as the Bus would be despite needing to change, Sounds like Cheshire West being totally stupid