Warrington's Own Buses operate 20 buses without MOT

[Deerfold]

I'm not an expert on Warrington transoort, but I was shocked a couple of years ago when visiting family in Warrington to find the bus station utterly empty at Sunday teatime, perusal of the timetable boards indicated that there we no buses operating in the town on Sunday evenings! Looking at the timetables now, it is noticeable how many contract services are run by WOB, but this has been achieved by pulling buses off of other services at peak time, so that the morning and evening so-called peaks have a WORSE service than midday! Where there is a weekday evening service, it seems to be at the useless frequency of every two hours which makes going into town by bus for the evening an impossibility for most passengers. I cannot see any individual fare tables but £23 for a weekly ticket for what is basically a small town is expensive (GMPTE weekly bus pass is under £20 for a much larger area) as is a day ticket for $5.95 likewise expensive, when travelling to Leeds recently a WYPTE day bus ticket across the whole of West Yorkshire was only £5.50 and a First Day Leeds ticket £4.70. These are just two off-the-cuff examples, but it doesn't look a good comparison.

I just had an email today to tell me Leeds are withdrawing that ticket with the cheapest replacement being £5.20

Travel in PTEs is usually cheaper than other towns.

 

[daodao]

One that prioritises mandatory public services like education and social services over discretionary ones like public transport while keeping within a tight overall budget?

Newport's municipal bus company has given up evening and Sunday services entirely. All we have now is four minibuses operating a DRT service, funded by Transport for Wales (ie the Welsh Government). That's for a city with a population of nearly 150,000. One reason is that they're in dire financial straits, owing huge sums to the pension scheme. It probably helps driver retention and recruitment too. They've had some maintenance issues that attracted the attention of the Traffic Commissioner too.

I do t know if Warrington is in a similar position.

Newport Transport still operate 2 "out-of-town" services on Sundays (until early evenings) and weekday evenings - route 30 (joint with Cardiff) and route 29 (to Cwmbran via the new Grange University Hospital). Stagecoach South Wales still provide services into Newport from the valleys on Sundays (until early evenings) and weekday evenings, but there are no buses on weekday evenings and Sundays in Newport east of the River Usk, other than route 29 which runs via St Julians.

Warrington is not unique in having limited bus services outside business hours - look at provision in places like Macclesfield, Crewe and Shrewsbury, where the main hospitals no longer have bus services after 2000 on weekday evenings or on Sundays.

Since Warrington diverted service CAT5 away from Bowdon/Dunham a little while ago, I no longer see their buses frequently, but until then, they appeared to be modern and well-presented. However, like all bus operators, Covid has hit them for six, and I presume they are now struggling to survive. I suspect that they will soon suffer the same fate as neighbouring Halton Transport. They do not primarily serve PTE areas, so do not benefit significantly from the largesse that TfGM wastes on profligate Sunday and weekday evening provision.