D&G Bus

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(30/10/2018 09:02)Rick Hunter Wrote:  The afternoon 188 is operated by a bus off the 288. The early man runs off to do the 188 then takes bus back to depot and finishes his duty. As Knutsford are off this week he runs back to depot and finishes earlier. The bus working the Tesco route goes on the 288 afterwards.

So looking at the 88/188/288/737 timetables again it looks like the bus which does the 06:55 Knutsford to Altrincham and goes on to the 288, is the same one which goes on to the afternoon 188, rather than doing what I previously suggested.

[Rick Hunter]

RE: D&G Bus

(30/10/2018 09:49)knutstransport Wrote:  So looking at the 88/188/288/737 timetables again it looks like the bus which does the 06:55 Knutsford to Altrincham and goes on to the 288, is the same one which goes on to the afternoon 188, rather than doing what I previously suggested.

The bus that does the afternoon 188 only does 288s all day. It leaves depot and runs light to Altrincham to make the 06.00 288 to Man Airport then 06.20 Man Airport to East Didsbury. Carries on with 288s until running off from Man Airport at 14.46 where it would normally run light to Knutsford Academy but as they're off it goes back to depot.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
Handforth Dean free buses changing on 15th November. Wilmslow one to run Mon, Wed, Fri only and Hazel Grove one to run Tues and Thurs only with no Saturday service.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus
Well... As expected. These college runs are going to be fun. Just left Chester 10 late due to the amount of ticket selling. Left the bus station with 5 normal seats and 2 tip up seats left. I will update the thread later with the overall loadings and experience

--Update 1 07:31--
All seats are now taken by Broughton Waitrose.
I have picked up a timetable leaflet as well and the times for this first trips. The times shown are upto 5 minutes later than advertised everywhere else. --Edit-- driver has confirmed the trip is meant to leave at 07:20, it is just a mistake on the duty boards, website, Timetables and bus station screens.....

--Update 2 07:45--
We aren't even at Stamford Bridge yet and we have 10 standing spaces left.

--Update 3 08:39--
College kids dropped off on time. Seems to be a lot of time in the timetable. Picked up no one after Cuddington. Saw a streetlite just leaving the college which I assume was a dupe. Which would explain the lack of passengers around Cuddington. We left around 10 people in Kelsall as well.

I hope D&G dupe this bus regularly or get a decker.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus

(05/11/2018 07:26)iMarkeh Wrote:  Well... As expected. These college runs are going to be fun. Just left Chester 10 late due to the amount of ticket selling. Left the bus station with 5 normal seats and 2 tip up seats left. I will update the thread later with the overall loadings and experience

--Update 1 07:31--
All seats are now taken by Broughton Waitrose.
I have picked up a timetable leaflet as well and the times for this first trips. The times shown are upto 5 minutes later than advertised everywhere else. --Edit-- driver has confirmed the trip is meant to leave at 07:20, it is just a mistake on the duty boards, website, Timetables and bus station screens.....

--Update 2 07:45--
We aren't even at Stamford Bridge yet and we have 10 standing spaces left.

--Update 3 08:39--
College kids dropped off on time. Seems to be a lot of time in the timetable. Picked up no one after Cuddington. Saw a streetlite just leaving the college which I assume was a dupe. Which would explain the lack of passengers around Cuddington. We left around 10 people in Kelsall as well.

I hope D&G dupe this bus regularly or get a decker.

D&G seem to like adding time in to timetables so they always arrive on time but aren't so keen on removing padding when buses always arrive early and spend a considerable amount of time stopped at an intermediate stop.

Meanwhile on the 88 everything except the 06:55 Knutsford to Altrincham is a small Solo today (the vehicle off that service now goes on to the 288 on arrival at Altrincham), if the morning 188 is still operated by the same bus which does the c.09:00 Knutsford to Northwich 89 then even that's been given a smaller bus than usual. The All Hallows pupils might have some fun all trying to squeeze on this afternoon.

[knutstransport]

RE: D&G Bus
Just looking at the 82 timetable if there's no duplicates M-F the third bus isn't required until the 09:40 from Northwich to Chester so perhaps the idea was the third bus runs a Sandiway-John Deanes duplicate service (like the SO service but extending to John Deanes)? They've got two different afternoon departures scheduled from John Deanes but whether that'll work using the 10.8m Enviro 200s without duplicates is another question.

Still if the report above is accurate either the duplicate will have to start further back or they'll still need a larger bus for the full working.

[M60lad]

RE: D&G Bus
From what I was told from a D&G Driver yesterday the new (to them anyway) 82 service has 3 vehicles to it and virtually every bus gets in theory a 50min layover in Northwich this is to help on timekeeping on the route so all 82s actually leave Northwich on time.

Another interesting one is that as well as Chester Wincham Depot also serve Tarvin now as there's an afternoon contract that they do Mon-Wednesday from Winsford-Tarvin, bus used is the one that does the afternoon 188 School and bus runs Private from Knutsford-Winsford then Private from Tarvin to Wincham.

[iMarkeh]

RE: D&G Bus

(05/11/2018 11:29)knutstransport Wrote:  Just looking at the 82 timetable if there's no duplicates M-F the third bus isn't required until the 09:40 from Northwich to Chester so perhaps the idea was the third bus runs a Sandiway-John Deanes duplicate service (like the SO service but extending to John Deanes)? They've got two different afternoon departures scheduled from John Deanes but whether that'll work using the 10.8m Enviro 200s without duplicates is another question.

Still if the report above is accurate either the duplicate will have to start further back or they'll still need a larger bus for the full working.

I was chatting to the driver and he was saying that they only found out on Friday that a bigger bus would be needed. Apparently an Arriva driver told them at Chester interchange telling them about how busy it gets.

The duplicate bus needs to start in Kelsall. It was full and standing in Tarvin and then people started getting left in Kelsall.

While chatting to the driver, he was saying that D&G are now looking to get a decker for this service.

I am unsure on the afternoon. It will take a few weeks for the students to know about it as Arriva never ran to the college at 15:30.


@M60lad
I am unsure on the Winsford to Tarvin bus as there is nothing on their website. The 82s do have lots of time sat round. They would be best trying to get another route in Northwich to cover dead time. A bus sat round costs money. I think that is only thing that will affect the 82s viability. The fact they are paying drivers to sit round for 50 minutes.

[mikestone]

RE: D&G Bus
Surely the idea is that the driver can take his statutory break while lying over?

[33109]

RE: D&G Bus
If they get a decker, do any of their drivers even have experience with them?