New Cheshire East bus review

[knutstransport]

RE: New Cheshire East bus review

(09/07/2020 11:37)iMarkeh Wrote:  We can look back at how the 27s used to run 10 years ago and revert the bus network and all go back in time to when buses ran just because they can or we can try and adapt to new passengers and try to secure the long term services making the service as viable as possible to try and keep the subsidy low. Beggermans Lane was kept on for a wheelchair users wasn't it?

On the occasions when I've used the bus no-one with an obvious disability has got on or off at Beggarmans Lane. The stop used to be used a lot more when there was a more frequent service and people from that area used the 27 to go shopping in Knutsford town centre but now it seems the few people who have no other option than the bus for shopping go all the way to Macclesfield as it means they can make a return journey by bus, without having to go back almost as soon as they've arrived.

In the current circumstances unfortunately a lot of the demand for the Macclesfield-Knutsford bus in the coming months is going to be for people going to postponed hospital appointments and job centre appointments (Macclesfield job centre has effectively become a 'local' job centre for almost all of the former borough of Macclesfield.) It's not going to be practical for everyone to have appointment times which fit nicely around an inconsistent bus timetable - so the best thing would be a more regular, consistent service e.g. an approx xx:30 arrival in Macc every hour and an approx xx:45 departure every hour (including at peak times.)

Quote:The difficulty now is that the 88 wouldn't work without the extensions because the increased running time over GHAs 88 timetable.

Not sure of the relevance of the GHA 88 timetable. When D&G first took over the 88 they ran half-hourly Altrincham-Wilmslow-Knutsford with a 65 minute journey time, a 20 minute layover in Knutsford and a 5 minute layover in Altrincham. Someone at Cheshire East decided the 88 having a layover at Knutsford and the Howards 27 having an even longer layover in Macclesfield wasn't cost effective and the layover times needed to be reduced to bring down the subsides.