Christmas Services

[Mayneway]

RE: Christmas services

(21/11/2014 17:25)Dentonian Wrote:  Details of Greater Manchester's Christmas bus services are still being finalised. As usual, some smaller ops have not informed TFGM of their intentions. I think the normal general arrangements will apply though, summarised as follows:

24 Dec: Normal M-F service, but all finishing c.1900hrs.
25 Dec: 43 (Airport-M'cr) will run hourly to cater for Airport staff and passengers. No other services will run
26 Dec: Some major corridors will see a limited service - Sunday levels at best to cater for Shoppers.
27-30 Dec: close to Normal service.
31 Dec: Mon-Sat type service, but with most finishing c.1900hrs. Some corridors will have an hourly service (with a gap either side of midnight) until c.0300hrs NYD
1 Jan: A few major corridors will see a limited service, but less than Boxing Day and with tea-time finishes
2 Jan: Mon-Sat type service.
3 Jan: Normal services resume.

Tendered services will be normal for the day of the week on 27-30 Dec & 2 Jan. On the eves only the daytime services will run. TFGM policy is that no bus services will be subsidised on 25, 26 Dec or 1 Jan.

Crazy!
Regular bus users like me who work on Boxing Day and New Year's Day forced to pay double fares in taxi's to get to and from work.
When will they realise that the country dosen't grind to a halt anymore at 7pm on Christmas Eve and restart on the 27th.
Do they not look at other areas such as Merseyside and twig that there might actually be a need for some limited services to run on Boxing Day?

[Barney]

RE: Christmas services

(21/11/2014 17:49)St Helens Rider Wrote:  There are other rail stations on Merseyside which normally see tendered services Evenings & Sundays but aren't served. St Helens Junction for example, is completely without buses on New Years Day. Not good when it is the town's main link for trains to/from Manchester.

Perhaps the fact that Maghull and LSP are on the Merseyrail Electrics network and serve Merseyside is a factor. I can't really see Merseytravel paying for a bus service connection so that passengers can get a train to/from Manchester on New Year's Day. In truth there is only a limited amount of funding for such services.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Christmas services

(21/11/2014 19:24)Barney Wrote:  Perhaps the fact that Maghull and LSP are on the Merseyrail Electrics network and serve Merseyside is a factor. I can't really see Merseytravel paying for a bus service connection so that passengers can get a train to/from Manchester on New Year's Day. In truth there is only a limited amount of funding for such services.

Think its more a case of the nearer to Liverpool probably gets first bite of the funding, then there's nothing left for us out in the sticks.

[wirralbus]

RE: Christmas services

(21/11/2014 23:27)St Helens Rider Wrote:  Think its more a case of the nearer to Liverpool probably gets first bite of the funding, then there's nothing left for us out in the sticks.

Its probably written into the contract that there is a full service on those routes on that day.

[M60lad]

RE: Christmas Services
It would also help if TfGM were to actually list what services are going to be operating over the Christmas period, yes they publish the summary leaflet every year but it would help if they listed say which service will be operating Boxing Day and how often said services will be operating and what time they will probably be operating to.

Also what happened to the Christmas Service book that TfGM(GMPTE) used to issue many years ago that used to let you know everything including what operator would be operating a service and how often it would be operating

[SF07]

RE: Christmas Services
Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan Christmas details has been posted on their website:

*22, 23, 29, 30 December 2014 and 2 January 2015: Weekday holiday timetable with the Friday/Saturday evening journeys on service X34 running on 22/23 December between Leigh and Manchester only.
*24 December: Weekday holiday timetable until 1900/2000
*25 December: Special 43 timetable, no other services run
*26 December: Special timetables on services 22, 23/23A, 42, 43, 50, 76, 85, 86, 101, 109, 112, 192, 201, 203, 204, 216, 219, 250, 255, 256, 330 and X50.
*27/28 December: Normal timetables
*31 December: Weekday holiday timetable until 1900/2000 then special Nightbus services on services 43, 86, 142, 143, 192, 201, 203, 216 and 219.
*1 January 2015: Special timetables on services 42, 43, 50, 86, 101, 192, 201, 203, 216, 219 and 250.

http://www.stagecoachbus.com/manchesterchristmas.aspx
http://www.stagecoachbus.com/wiganchristmas.aspx

[Mayneway]

RE: Christmas Services

(22/11/2014 10:27)Dentonian Wrote:  I'm not sure exactly what level of publicity will be available, but as I said, some Operators have yet to inform TFGM of their plans, so an accurate picture might not be available until its too late to produce and print something. Also note that any publicity for these few days would have to be produced by staff over and above all the normal work. Finally, this sort of short-term operation is probably more suited to t'interweb and also the larger Operators will be putting their own Christmas period timetables on websites.

Most people still use TFGM as their first port of call and not everyone has access to the Internet, but it dosen't surprise me that their leaving it up too operators. Just look what happened in recent years when we had snow. The lack of any decent information from TFGM was well very helpful, and judging by the long term forecast in most of the daily rags yesterday this year will be no different.

[Mayneway]

RE: Christmas Services

(22/11/2014 11:03)Dentonian Wrote:  We are back to the resources argument (money and time).
As for the past problems with winter weather (2011?), there was a deep inquest into this, and the main problem was local authorities not gritting bus routes, and not communicating with either the Operators (esp. First) or (then) GMPTE. It was resolved to improve communications and gritting priorities, and this has worked since - albeit the weather hasn't been as bad. As regards this year's winter forecast: You've obviously not seen the same as I have, and that is that this winter will be much wetter, but also warmer than usual - so flooding, rather than snow/ice would be the problem. Besides, even recent weather stories have shown, when the daily rags warn of severe weather in "Britain", they mean South-East England.

Sadly I don't think communication has been resolved. A few weeks back Moorside Street in Droylsden was closed for two weekends (9am-6pm) affecting some major bus services. Not only did TFGM or Stagecoach fail to provide a shuttle service for passengers cut off with no bus service at all but there was absolutely no mention of it on TFGMs website. Now yes, on Saturdays it's all commercial so you could (and probably will) argue that it was down to stagecoach to inform passengers (as they did), but on Sunday 168 and 169 are tendered so I would have thought it worthy of mentioning as like I've said most peoples first port of call is TFGMs website.

Getting back to the original point about Christmas guides though. I've just picked up this months Buses magazine and judging by the story about TFGM and the 141 guide perhaps it's best that they don't produce one if they carnt even spell words such as Manchester, that appear in their very own title lol.

It's not your department that produced the guide is it Dentionan

[Mayneway]

RE: Christmas Services

Haha good one Dentionan I knew you would pick up an error or two in my post, in my defence when I use my iPhone to post on here it has the habbit of changing certain words as I press the send button.

Surly the guide should have been proof read before being sent to the printers?

I never mentioned preparing for winter weather. I said when we have winter weather such as snow TFGM have let passengers down by not keeping us informed as to what's running, what's not etc.

As for the road closure, TFGM knew about it as A4 bits of paper were stuck on every bus stop pole advising of the road closure and informing passengers that no shuttle buses would be running. They might as well have printed a local taxi firms number on there.
Sadly instead of placing the signs in the timetable holders ( that don't hold timetables just signs telling waiting passengers to put their hand out for the bus they want), they were stuck around the pole making them impossible to read.
My point being - they go to the trouble to put signs up on bus stops which were useless yet didn't feel the need to publish the information on the website so yet again failing to keep us passengers informed!

[Mayneway]

RE: Christmas Services

So there we have it. If a vital piece of information is classed as 'local' nobody need know about it.

What's ironic is I've just looked on the website and low and behold the 353/354 won't be serving Greenfield for the next two weeks due a road closure. Interesting as this is deemed as worthy of a mention but the fact three major bus services were re routed for two weekends meaning a hell of a lot of people had no transport on the busiest shopping day of the week isn't. Just about sums them up.

I will wait and see when and if the snow hits whether they have learned from previous years but I won't hold my breath. In my opinion they simply fail to keep passengers informed on all levels. Not just in the winter but inferential.
You've summed it up yourself. Too many chiefs and not enough indians.