Howards/Springfield

[Y458 KNF]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(Today 03:01)iMarkeh Wrote:  Howards never cared for the bus services anyway. They have never been BODS Compliant and so have been happily breaching the law for the past 2 years at least. And drivers seem to do what they want, happily banning people because a complaint has been made. Be good to see less taxpayers money going to an operator who believes they are above the law and doesn't want to operate properly.

In any case, the routes were all set up to fail and Warrington Councils numpty transport team just wanted to waste BSIP money before they were forced to hand it back to the government.

How long do they have the 62 Saturday contract for? might be worth it going to Ashcrofts if Howards continue to do questionable things.

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield
A few years back Ian Howard was one of the people complaining about almost all the Warrington contracts going to the council owned operator. Now he has some Warrington contracts he doesn't seem to be doing anything to prove that they were wrong to think the council owned operator is a better option than Howards.

I seem to recall Howards did the "throwing the toys from the pram" behaviour with the 289 and 48 routes under their previous form, digging out an old Dart that didn't meet the contract requirements for either route. Reports about how they treated drivers in the final days of the old business probably wouldn't help with recruiting the best drivers now, especially now it's even harder to find qualified drivers who aren't already employed.

[iMarkeh]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(Today 11:22)knutstransport Wrote:  A few years back Ian Howard was one of the people complaining about almost all the Warrington contracts going to the council owned operator. Now he has some Warrington contracts he doesn't seem to be doing anything to prove that they were wrong to think the council owned operator is a better option than Howards.

Neither WOB nor Howards are good options really for these routes. WOB are just complacent and have no care anymore for the network and promotion. Commercial work is being killed off by them in favour of chasing random other contracts. Howards and complying with open data laws don't go hand in hand. It's very much choosing the least worst option, not picking the best. In any case, Warrington Council shouldn't have been wasting so much money on these silly routes in the first place.