Since London was the non-deregulation area they wished to emulate, am I to believe that TfGM would not have made in-depth studies into the London operation that concerned matters such as the length of time that franchises were to be let, amongst other associated franchise matters?
The link provided shows First Manchester, Hutton Travel and Warrington as the SMEs.
But the only "SME" not part of a major group is Warrington which suggested little to no interest from the actual small/medium sized end of the sector. Kelsian, as a sizeable international group with significant businesses in Australia, Singaport, USA & UK already, specifically bought Huyton Travel to be in a position to access franchising and is in no way genuinely medium sized. Neither are First Manchester as part of one of the biggest bus groups in the country.
Well London very clearly advised them that franchising would be expensive and TfGM's position seemed to just be to say we won't do it the same as London. London did try area tendering, similar to franchising, in their early days and it went very wrong very quickly though those mistakes may have been London Transports as all the winners were LT operating companies and the main driver was reducing costs at the time. When Manchester did start pushing franchising there was a lot of reliance on the success of London as justification but TfGM have not followed any part of the London model and were fairly dismissive of the cost risks that London raised (until relatively recently London was fairly heavily subsidised compared to the rest of the country) based on the fact they didn't intend to follow the London model from pretty early on.
Great to see a new bus route, but the lack of a Sunday service from scratch is dreadful.According to Bus Times Diamond will be operating the new 377 Stockport to Woodford service.
According to Bus Times Diamond will be operating the new 377 Stockport to Woodford service.
If there had been one, I suspect there would have been a lot of questions from people who currently have an hourly weekday service wondering why they don't deserve a Sunday service.
Good. Not providing a Sunday service is a policy that went out of date 30 years ago.
Bramhall will benefit from yet another service.According to Bus Times Diamond will be operating the new 377 Stockport to Woodford service.
Are there any plans to set up a Leigh to Liverpool service?
No, no real need for such a service plus that will take too long (the 10 Liverpool-St Helens takes 60 to 70 minutes alone), the old 34 when it was Liverpool-Manchester was more for just serving the Towns along the route (Prescot, St Helens, Earlestown, Newton Le Willows & Leigh) rather than those going end to end when there were much faster options.
Did the 415 have once to pass through the low tunnel under the railway line at the former Middleton Junction railway station? Admittledly, it is many years since I have travelled in that area.
The 129 and 415 were moved from Middleton to Oldham as I dont think Enviro100 EVs could fit on the existing route, so Solo SRs and the route was transferred to Oldham.
That’s correct, however both Oldham and Hyde road are supposedly going to be 100% electric by the end of the year meaning operation of the 415/129 needs to either move depot or change route.
Oldham is a bit up in the air as some are saying a few diesels are staying for the 350, 348 etc but the 348 can use EVs and i know because it's my local route and they sometimes use EVs
Been told the 348/350 will continue with B5’s
This is though another example of a bus service routeing determined by local authority boundaries - this route should really be extended to Wilmslow...According to Bus Times Diamond will be operating the new 377 Stockport to Woodford service.
Why?
Historically the old 377 (pre deregulation) operated that way but now there is no public transport between Dean Row and Wilmslow despite the fact that in the interim much new housing has been built in the area. But with Cheshire East‘s laissez-faire approach to bus services, I’m afraid its probably a non starter.
Didn't the 378 extend to Wilmslow and Stagecoach curtailed the service to Grove Lane?
Diamond ones aren't, the press releases from Alexander Dennis said Rotala ordered them, so it's whether Diamond Bus/Rotala want to sell the buses over to Go North West or if they will have to supply a fleet from elsewhere. All these contracts GNW have won are small franchises, therefore the operator must provide fleet and depots
www.alexander-dennis.com
according to Simon Dunn at Rotala, they are part of the TfGM RV pool. Quote from the WM Forum.
