I am not normally that bothered about busses, but I am just trying to get to the bottom of something. 284 appears to have been taken over by someone called Steel Group Investments. Who!? Their busses are a mottly collection of miss-matches with drivers who look like they have fallen out of the job centre. Now at least Arriva, who I thought ran the service had nice busses and smart drivers. This has left the area without Arrivas integrated ticketing, as all other busses along the mainly same route are Arriva, so you have to be careful as to whether you can use a Arriva day ticket for example. Any thoughts?
SGI haven't taken anything over. They're a new operator.
In April they introduced a 288 between Dewsbury and Birstall Retail Park via Batley.
Arriva launched a competing service 280 a few minutes in front of it.
SGI introduced a 284 service between Thornhill Edge and Dewsbury from 03/07/2013 along much the same route as Arriva's 281/2/3.
The 289 has its registration cancelled from 31/08/2013. The 284 has had its registration cancelled from 03/10/2013.
Unsuprisingly SGI don't accept the competitor's tickets but do accept all Metro tickets and ENCTS passes.
None of the Arriva services have stopped running so the area is not left without them.
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To be fair Metro are introducing PAYG Smart Cards in the not too distant future,so it should put a stop to all this single operator ticket shenanigans. I must say it drives me bonkers, so much so in the end I signed up to the Corporate Metro Card scheme at work,as I used to buy a First weekly ticket, I was sick of having to let buses pass me by.
I must say the K-Line drivers in Huddersfield are bunch of scruffy rag bags too, they don't appear to wear any kind of uniform and are a law unto themselves at times.
The introduction of Smart Cards will not stop companies offering single operator tickets.
The proposed introduction of Quality Contract may.
hock:
