Greater Manchester Tenders

[Mrboo]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(14/01/2022 08:25)djb Wrote:  Operators may not want the hassle / risk of ensuring that the vehicle available for the evening service is low enough height. Easier to ensure the daytime allocation has the right vehicle.

Also, would you want the Hassle of Partington in evening for years they had issues with kids damaging buses. Nexus could run the route over running the local link.

[Manc93]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders
I always thought the reason the Warrington 5 was diverted away from Dunham Massey was due to parked cars around the village however I am not familiar with the area. They did upgrade vehicles to new Enviro200MMCs a while back so that is probably when the route was changed.

Why dont tfgm just contract the whole day and evening service instead of splitting it up? Maybe due to costs but it just makes a lot of sense, and espically to passengers too for consistancy. Obviously on commercial daytime services this can't happen but if the whole service is tendered.

Altrincham always seems like a harder area to get tenders for. Maybe as there are not many depots nearby. I know Arriva seem to be the nearest but I dont think they have any solos anymore, and although can source nationally, it looks like the only tenders they have been awarded use longer vehicles they use on all other services anyway.
Stagecoach Sharston dont have any Solos and running Altrincham locals from Stockport although done previously seems uneconomical. Again theres only a few there now for the Cheadle 328 service with 2 solos in the yard being used for parts to keep the others going anyway. Even Little Gem are based in Eccles which is a lot of dead mileage each day, and crew changeovers also.

The X5 used to be a well used service under Stagecoach, alas once the tender passed I think to MCT it declined, and then passed to Diamond and it went to a peaks only service around that point.

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(14/01/2022 20:52)djb Wrote:  Of your more modern vehicles : Stratas, solos.
Primos and The ex click sprinters would too ….

So Little Gem have quite a few suitable vehicles but they don't necessarily have drivers, given they need to reduce other work for the 391/392 to return to the contracted level.

D&G normally use Solos on the 130 and on weekdays have one finishing in Handforth and another in Wythenshawe, so they could easily be used on an Altrincham evening contract if they have a driver available. Given they normally uncut Arriva, it doesn't like they tried to get the 288 back and given the 82 is being run from the Crewe depot it doesn't sound like Wincham would have a spare driver to do an evening service.

[Citibus]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders
Havent Little Gem been running Altrincham some services from a sub depot around Sharston?

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(15/01/2022 07:08)Manc93 Wrote:  I always thought the reason the Warrington 5 was diverted away from Dunham Massey was due to parked cars around the village however I am not familiar with the area. They did upgrade vehicles to new Enviro200MMCs a while back so that is probably when the route was changed.

When they launched the Cheshire Cat brand they printed a booklet about the CAT routes which included a little piece about how historically the 37 route needed special buses to pass under the canal bridge but due to a modification it means the CAT5 runs under it without the need for special buses.

Quote:Why dont tfgm just contract the whole day and evening service instead of splitting it up? Maybe due to costs but it just makes a lot of sense, and espically to passengers too for consistancy. Obviously on commercial daytime services this can't happen but if the whole service is tendered.

Altrincham always seems like a harder area to get tenders for. Maybe as there are not many depots nearby.

Sometimes a separate evening/Sunday service relates to a Mon-Sat daytime service previously being commercial and then being withdrawn when the evening/Sunday contract isn't up for renewal, resulting in two contracts for the same route.

Other times it can be done purposely. There are operators with minibuses who have school/college work. For a daytime contract their vehicles are too small and they wouldn't be able to run the service work as well as the school/college work. But for an evening service they are a low cost alternative to some of the big operators who would bid on the basis of using a 30 seater solo on a route that would never carry more than 10 passengers.

I don't think Altrincham's ever really been short of operators interested in work, even though it's generally been seen as an area where a new operator can win work. There aren't many smallish towns where you have Stagecoach, Arriva and a number of independent operators all running services.

[EDB325]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(15/01/2022 09:26)Citibus Wrote:  Havent Little Gem been running Altrincham some services from a sub depot around Sharston?

The small Sharston allocation, based at Airport Parking & Hotels, is apparently used to service the Tameside contracts.

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(15/01/2022 07:08)Manc93 Wrote:  I always thought the reason the Warrington 5 was diverted away from Dunham Massey was due to parked cars around the village however I am not familiar with the area. They did upgrade vehicles to new Enviro200MMCs a while back so that is probably when the route was changed.

Why dont tfgm just contract the whole day and evening service instead of splitting it up? Maybe due to costs but it just makes a lot of sense, and espically to passengers too for consistancy. Obviously on commercial daytime services this can't happen but if the whole service is tendered.

Altrincham always seems like a harder area to get tenders for. Maybe as there are not many depots nearby. I know Arriva seem to be the nearest but I dont think they have any solos anymore, and although can source nationally, it looks like the only tenders they have been awarded use longer vehicles they use on all other services anyway.
Stagecoach Sharston dont have any Solos and running Altrincham locals from Stockport although done previously seems uneconomical. Again theres only a few there now for the Cheadle 328 service with 2 solos in the yard being used for parts to keep the others going anyway. Even Little Gem are based in Eccles which is a lot of dead mileage each day, and crew changeovers also.

The X5 used to be a well used service under Stagecoach, alas once the tender passed I think to MCT it declined, and then passed to Diamond and it went to a peaks only service around that point.

The X5 was one of MCT’s busiest routes and was well used, problem was soon after winning the tender, ongoing road works on the motorway and around Sharston made it completely unreliable and it put commuters off using it and it never really recovered after that.

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(15/01/2022 09:26)Citibus Wrote:  Havent Little Gem been running Altrincham some services from a sub depot around Sharston?

Yes although I’m told the Sharston yard is for Stockport and the 391/392.

[dounowhoiam]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(15/01/2022 07:08)Manc93 Wrote:  The X5 used to be a well used service under Stagecoach, alas once the tender passed I think to MCT it declined, and then passed to Diamond and it went to a peaks only service around that point.

The X5 used to work really well under Stagecoach's helm as it ran from Stockport all day to the Trafford Centre instead of just Sale.

They also had other routes in the area including the X41 and 370 that meant that it was cost effective for passengers in the Sale to Northenden area to get a Daysaver instead of a different or multi-model operator.

Alas, Stagecoach withdrew with the only the short replacement of the 143 Sale route and changed the 370/371 routes to an 11A when MCT took over the X5 route which was mired with problems including delays, lack of tracking and finances (no card, different operator to get a more expensive ticket).

[Mayneway]

RE: Greater Manchester Tenders

(16/01/2022 19:34)dounowhoiam Wrote:  The X5 used to work really well under Stagecoach's helm as it ran from Stockport all day to the Trafford Centre instead of just Sale.

They also had other routes in the area including the X41 and 370 that meant that it was cost effective for passengers in the Sale to Northenden area to get a Daysaver instead of a different or multi-model operator.

Alas, Stagecoach withdrew with the only the short replacement of the 143 Sale route and changed the 370/371 routes to an 11A when MCT took over the X5 route which was mired with problems including delays, lack of tracking and finances (no card, different operator to get a more expensive ticket).

TFGM made the changes including merging the X5 with the 18. Sadly it’s gone from bad to worse since MCT’s demise.