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Hulley's of Baslow (Defunct)
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Goldfish62
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Understatement of the year re current running times! Not sure now anyone thought they were realistic.
I'd say more like 10 minutes for the Yorkshire Bridge section, considering the time needed to turn around plus the fact the Breezer doesn't appear to serve Bamford station, but sticks to the main road instead.
That said, I don't disagree with the analysis that it wasn't realistically timed for busier periods and indeed I wonder if even 45 minutes is viable once we get in to the height of school holiday summer weekends, plus throw in the fact Derbyshire County Council will pepper the area with roadworks because they have the really odd idea that it's less inconvenient to commuters to close countryside roads in the summer.
I feel the main issue is that having such a service run less than hourly would make it much less appealing, so maybe there was a bit of crossed fingers going on.
Myself, I think they'd be better either working with Stagecoach to do an hourly Chatsworth > Castleton > Mam Tor, or running hourly themselves but with every other run an open top. Even better would be linking with their Sunday 257 to Glossop for Manchester traffic, but that would need even more buses. Longer distance, cross-Peak-District, services are really needed during the summer, and that could be quite an epic one, but based on running times you'd need at least three buses for hourly, more if you extended in to Bakewell.
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northwichcat
Veteran Member
So is this the Breezer timetable that should be operating this coming Saturday?
The times of the Hulley services appear to be a bit of a mess. A 173 and a 272 leaving Castleton at the same time, followed by a Breezer 10 minutes later, then nothing for 1 hour 50 minutes!
The times of the Hulley services appear to be a bit of a mess. A 173 and a 272 leaving Castleton at the same time, followed by a Breezer 10 minutes later, then nothing for 1 hour 50 minutes!
You can't really co-ordinate the Breezer with other buses fully on a 90 minute frequency to be fair. The 271/272 is run jointly with First and offers hourly departures. The 173 departs every 120 minutes.
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I gave both the Hulleys Breezer and Stagecoach Peak Sightseer a go on Saturday. Both seemed to be running reasonably punctually, maybe 5 minutes late at most. Both may suffer on days when traffic is congested however, mainly on special event days around Chatsworth, Bakewell and Hope.
Killingworth
Established Member
Sadly the weekday Breezer has not made it through the school holidays. Timetables still show it on bus stops but Hulley's website timetable seems to have 'lost' it; https://irp.cdn-website.com/8ad37f44/files/uploaded/Revised Breezer TT.pdf
Open top 80
Member
I am surprised this bus company is still going
Killingworth
Established Member
I gather lack of users plus shortage of drivers has been the issue. A number of other regular services have had to be cancelled this week
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northwichcat
Veteran Member
It ran last weekend. There was a closed top Enviro 400 running it, that wasn't tracking.
Baxenden Bank
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Indeed. Nothing like an unreliable service to discourage your customers from using your services.
This has been going on for some time though.
Just prior to Covid the company was proposing a service from Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent) into the Peak District. It would have been quite a useful, if limited, service offering a single out and return bus but allowing a country walk in-between. I had my worries 'what if the last, indeed only, bus home doesn't turn up? Now I'm glad the service never started and I never had the opportunity to find out.
Cancellations due to driver shortages isn't unique to Hulleys, other operators are doing exactly the same, it is just that as they are a small operator it is more noticable. The Breezer service seems to be getting cancelled to protect one of their core services, the 170/170a Chesterfield to Bakewell (and the open topper has appeared on the 170 last couple of days!).
I would suggest launching the Breezer service without adequate resource (ie no spare bus or spare driver) was probably ill advised. The Breezer season ends in September after the school holidays and there are some timetable changes to their "normal" bus services, including the addition of an evening service to the 257 (Sheffield-Crosspool-Yorkshire Bridge-Bamford-Hathersage-Calver-Baslow-Bakewell), hopefully that runs well and attracts sufficient custom. For the new timetable see https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/newsupdates/service-changes
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The leaflet you link to still appears to state it runs daily in the school holidays
I would suggest launching the Breezer service without adequate resource (ie no spare bus or spare driver) was probably ill advised. The Breezer season ends in September after the school holidays and there are some timetable changes to their "normal" bus services, including the addition of an evening service to the 257 (Sheffield-Crosspool-Yorkshire Bridge-Bamford-Hathersage-Calver-Baslow-Bakewell), hopefully that runs well and attracts sufficient custom. For the new timetable see https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/newsupdates/service-changes
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The leaflet you link to still appears to state it runs daily in the school holidays
Killingworth
Established Member
Well it certainly isn't running that route today. Spotted it at Chatsworth operating on the 170 to Chesterfield and seen again later at Baslow the 170 on a not very conpicuous label top right hand side of the windscreen
That online timetable has been hastily prepared. It does not say it is running on weekdays this week, on the other hand it doesn't specifically say it isn't.
However I also saw Stagecoach's open top service at Chatsworth. It runs every 30 minutes on a tour of the district and even on a grey drizzly day it was attracting some custom. Their schedule is generous and uses 2 buses allowing a layover of perhaps 5-10 minutes at Chatsworh.
In half term holidays, it does.
It also puts an apostrophe in the plural of Monday and has Code C in the timetable with no explanation I can see. Not a great effort.
Would someone else be interested, Wellglade?
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Oh please, no! Wellglade are no better than they are for cancellations and lack of serviceable vehicles, it's not a well run company at all.
I hope Hulleys overcome their difficulties and things get better for them but if they do ever put themselves on the market, anyone but Wellglade!
cnjb8
Established Member
Wellglade already have a 50% stake in High Peak with Centrebus. If Hulleys were to go under, High Peak could take on some of their routes. Stagecoach would probably be interested too
What I don't understand about Hulleys is the constant fleet changes, they almost seem to operate as more of a dealer than a bus operator.
It's got to add considerable expense to the operation, buying, painting and selling buses just to replace them with something almost the same.
It's got to add considerable expense to the operation, buying, painting and selling buses just to replace them with something almost the same.
MasterSpenny
Member
The new MCV EvoRa info:
I am pretty sure that its from a dealer order, and according to BLOTW (buslistsontheweb.co.uk), it carries fleet number 12, and the registration is BV23NVH.
I am pretty sure that its from a dealer order, and according to BLOTW (buslistsontheweb.co.uk), it carries fleet number 12, and the registration is BV23NVH.
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With the way they have run TM Travel since they took over with buses in various liveries from previous use & generally look rather tired I would hope not Wellglade. It has gone from a nice smart fleet to a mostly rather scruffy & poorly presented operation.
TheSel
Member
Goldfish62
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No Breezer again yesterday, which was disappointing as I'd travelled from afar to try it out. Nothing publicised on social media about that or other cuts though because it seems it's no one's job at Hulley's to do such things at weekends.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Breezer never reappears.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Breezer never reappears.
Killingworth
Established Member
The bus itself was still active on the 170 route on Friday. Quite confusing to see it at Chatsworth. - where it might have been possible to picture itt with both the Stagecoach open toppers.
derbybusdepot
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It's how operators overcome/deal with their operational difficulties that sets them apart.
Unreliability completely undos any gains from £2 fares, enhanced services etc. Should Derbyshire County Council be paying BSIP money to operators that struggle to operate their existing services? Funding/subsidies would ideally be paid based on performance.
m79900
Member
That wouldn’t be so bad to be honest, the timetables might be easier to understand, and their buses are always kept nice. It’d be sad to see another local operator go down though.
Killingworth
Established Member
Wellglade operate TM Travel. Their vehicles are a collection of elderly vehicles in dull liveries and with often battered interiors. My ride on their 218 on Friday morning was on SN61BRZ, a former Lothian bus still in tbose colours months after arriving from Edinburgh. On the upper deck all seats on the nearside werre covered in dried leaves harvested as it battered its way along country roads. The number may have suggested they hadn't all arrived that morning. Other double deckers are often still in London red shades.
Hulleys also use a variety of second hand vehicles but thay are infinitely better turned ou both outside and in. Baslow is quite a small village and pride is taken in the fleet but it's not easy to recruit and retain drivers in such countryside.
Robertj21a
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Unfortunately, the 'Really Good Bus Company' is far from it nowadays. It started to go downhill some years ago - and nothing has yet stopped the slide. Shortage of drivers continues to create uncertainty for passengers.
m79900
Member
It’s not so much driver shortage as bus shortage, and new more reliable ‘threes’ buses should release enough spares to combat that.
I also witnessed this on Friday, the Breezer open top bus was on the 170 but the Breezer bus route was on a normal Double Decker. Apparently theres been a fault with the open top bus
Killingworth
Established Member
That's puzzling. Are you sure the normal doukbe decker was on the Breezer route? The open topper seems to have been seen on the 170 quite often That route has seen a lot of cancellations in recent weeks. The Breezer should have run yesterday and today good weather for t .
Specific reference to the Breezer operating during the summer school holidays has disappeared from theirr website although reference to the half term school holiday (long gone) remain, see; https://www.hulleys-of-baslow.co.uk/breezer
northwichcat
Veteran Member
As I already posted there was a closed top Enviro 400 running the Breezer last weekend, despite it not tracking, so I'm happy to believe the other poster who reported the same on a different date. Are you sure the Breezer hasn't been running? Or, have you just seen the open top bus on another route and not seen it tracking, so concluded it's not running?
The Hulleys webpage you link to has numerous grammar mistakes on it, so I'm not sure you can conclude much from it.