New Cheshire East bus review

[iMarkeh]

RE: New Cheshire East bus review

(07/07/2020 09:50)knutstransport Wrote:  AstraZeneca have scaled back the size of their operations at Nether Alderley but that has allowed other businesses to open on that site.

At one time the buses on the 27 were rammed at peak times, which is why the larger Cadets got introduced. However, it's worth remembering at that time morning peak services ran Congleton-Macclesfield-AstraZeneca-Knutsford and the reverse in the evening peak, eliminating the need for those travelling between Congleton and AstraZeneca to change buses in Macclesfield and meaning passengers making that journey were likely to be on the 27 opposed to the 130.

The Howards 27 didn't serve Congleton on their trips (and the timetable I can see from GHA in 2014 didn't either). The bus served Zeneca from both Knutsford and MAcc directions (1AM trip to Zeneca and 1 return PM trip). This means there must have been demand from Knutsford to Zeneca.

If they brought back the 27 and ran it separately to the 88, you are looking 1 bus all day and if you change the times to put the 35 mins at the Knutsford end, you can run 3 town circular trips. Infrequent yes but it's better than nothing and it's using up dead time.

(07/07/2020 09:50)knutstransport Wrote:  I think, other than the frequency, the main problem with the Knutsford-Macclesfield bus is it's trying to serve too many little villages and hamlets, where it's rare for anyone to board or alight and serving all those villages and hamlets means that the end to end journey time is slow which then makes it unattractive for leisure travel.

I echo this. The issue however is that the areas which fit what you are saying are the same areas who scream the loudest when their bus is taken away. The only way to win is have 2 buses, a stopper and a faster express bus but then you will have complaints that the fast bus doesn't serve them etc.

(07/07/2020 09:50)knutstransport Wrote:  An alternative option could be for the 88 to be split at Knutsford and for buses from Wilmslow to go via Mobberley Rd instead of Longridge, with the Macclesfield bus extending to Mobberley via Longridge and running on an hourly basis. That would retain direct connections between Mobberley and Macclesfield and mean that there's buses along both Longridge and Mobberley Rd. There could then perhaps be short extensions to the routes ending in Knutsford to cover other parts of Knutsford like the Bexton area.

I seem to recall it being said the short lived commercial 88A was hovering around the break-even mark opposed to D&G losing money from running it and the main reason for it being withdrawn was D&G needed to improve their balance sheet after losing a lot of money on their attempt running a Macclesfield-Manchester Airport commercial service.

The 88A was a fantastic route in terms of connectivity and potential. D&G have never made a big song and dance about their services though so it probably wasn't that well known about. Any route which D&G does now will take time to build up since all their services around Wilmslow have lasted no longer than around 3 months before they get cut or drastically changed so no one trusts D&G to actually deliver a long term usable service.