Aren't the 12, 37 and 38 commercial during the daytime with only the Evening/Sunday provision being supported?
Still funding going to them. If the funding dropped, you wouldn't have much of a service left commercially.
Can anyone recall, was the 85 operated commercially when it last ran on a Sunday? Interestingly, no attempt has been made to reintroduce a Sunday service on that route since it was withdrawn back in February 2022. Then again would that be something that Cheshire East Council would more likely fund or would it need Staffordshire Council to provide funding?
I think part of it is that the 85 isn't that strong of a route. Crewe to Nantwich is alright but it's not amazing with lots of growth potential. Crewe to Newcastle is a lot of fields. The other routes which are getting funding provide services to areas which are a lot more dense, have a higher level of usage generally and provide useful links between the most major towns in the region.
This would be the case regardless of operator, if D&G decided to pull out of Cheshire whichever company came in to run the routes would require the same funding D&G do. There is simply no money in the bus industry anymore.
Not quite, most other companies with such a large network would run more things commercially rather than just scrounge. D&G couldn't care less for attracting new customers and have put in such low effort for years, it's no wonder that they get little reward. The 84X, what have they done to attract people to the route in the past 18 months? Sod all except change the times to be just ahead of Stagecoach. What have they done for years on the 12 to encourage people to use them over Arriva? Sod all. What did they do to attract people onto their 38 over Arrivas 38 when they were competing? A leaflet and branded buses that lasted not long then they just threw any old tat out and leaflets stopped.
Competing routes and they put in such little effort it's unreal and no wonder they need so much taxpayers funding to prop them up. Wouldn't any operator if they put in as little effort into running services as D&G do?
The Leighton Link buses have been branded for ten years, so your comment is quite blatantly incorrect!
The 38 branding didn't last long and nor did the 82 branding. I seem to remember other brandings haven't lasted long in the past either. And I did say "rarely lasts long" specifically because I know the Leighton Link is an exception to the seeming rule.
