Liverpool Night Buses Christmas 2015

[YN05 WKE]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
L1 bus station or great Charlotte street would have been better for all service

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Liverpool One would be best as then all Services can follow the route they would normally take in the daytime giving the service the best possible chance of working out

[MPTE1955]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Don't think Liverpool 1 would be best, who wans to trudge all the way down to Liverpool 1 bus station for their bus at that time of night, partiiculary of you are not out in that area.

[Barney]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015

(28/09/2015 09:08)MPTE1955 Wrote:  Don't think Liverpool 1 would be best, who wans to trudge all the way down to Liverpool 1 bus station for their bus at that time of night, partiiculary of you are not out in that area.

The problem is that it is anticipated that passengers will be a problem. Consequently, loaders are employed to supervise the services at a single boarding point and that is where crowds will congregate. If passengers were allowed to board at all stops along the route the crowding issue would not occur. I know that some of you make think that this a stupid suggestion but this is exactly what happens in other towns and cities in the UK where night buses operate. Also, would it be any more or less problematic for the driver on the last normal service bus on a Friday or Saturday night? At least there would be a very high police presence close by. Drunks are drunks at any time of the day or night.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
From L1 Buses that normally serve Elliott Street can still serve there and same with services that serve Queen Square and Sir Thomas Street, Loaders are a waste of money anyway as when the Night services used to run the loaders would always be stood out the way chatting and smoking

[E400]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Its an unnecessary expense justified by incredibly backwards prejudices that 'all drunks are violent' - there will be police everywhere anyway, making use of more city centre stops spreads "the problem" out, as somebody said and yes it is no different to normal last service.

By the way, does anybody know how Stagecoach will run the night buses? Will they all be out of Gillmoss or Rock Ferry or both? I suppose its easier to run out of each respective depot..?

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Article in the Liverpool Echo about the 1 Liverpool - Chester Night Service saying that the Flat fare will be £2, The Times of Liverpool are 12:05, 1:35 and 3:05, Also it appears to be a trial for a possible full time Night Service, Looking forward to see how this goes

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/live...s-10201932

[mr t]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Given most of the bars and clubs shut at 3/4am and there are more open til 6, then I cant see many people using any of these en masse if the last ones are at 3am! The only time people would think about it is if they are literally only staying out for "an hour or 2" in town which is very rare these days.
I had a discussion a few years back with an Arriva representative and they said the only night buses that were busy in recent years were the ones between 4 and 5am, and that is why they all got culled - they had to pay a bus/driver all night, and the early nightime ones would run around empty, then only after 4am would the vehicle be full, but by then they had to pay for 4 hours worth of journeys which had not been profitable, which then makes the whole service unprofitable and hence why Arriva then withdrew them - so yes it might look like they are making a killing when you went home but the other journeys had all been empty prior to you using it. This is why towards the ends on all night buses they first tried reducing frequencies and taking buses out to save costs, but it still failed. Drivers get paid circa £30 an hour, plus diesel, plus paying for security at QS, so hence the £4 fare, but still a hell of a lot lower than taxis, but yes not as low as a group of people getting a taxi home between them - so it is not Arrivas fault for pricing themselves out of the market. Times and markets change.
Ace only had a little bus running back and forth to Birkenhead, with no security, so obviously costs were a hell of a lot lower, so they only needed around 8-10 passengers an hour to pay their costs, then when Merseytravel tried a replacement supported service it wasnt deemed payable as we all know - so imagine if these 8 people actually used the 1, or these other ones at Xmas, or indeed any of the previous night services, they would never ever end up being profitable.

[E400]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
...and that's why Arriva's failed. Of course people are going to leave town between 0400 and 0500 - but people are still heading out at 0100 - something Arriva never capitalised on with their outbound-only services. Had they ran normal return journeys then they will have had passengers heading to Liverpool between midnight and 0200 and passengers returning home between 0300 and 0500, with only 1 hour or so of 'dead' time where it's neither here nor there.

Arriva also neglected to connect Heswall, which has a small night-scene, to Liverpool - by 1230 to 0100 people who had gone out in Heswall could have jumped on the hypothetical N72 to continue their night in Liverpool, then got a 0400/0500 N72 back.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - night buses should be run the same as normal buses - just because they have an N prefix does not mean they need all sorts of quirky treatment like omni-directional operation, security or mad routes/start/end points.

Keep it simple; that's what passengers want.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Liverpool Night Buses Crimbo 2015
Greater Manchester have also made Night Services work out so if they can do it why cant Merseyside make theirs work out