While I was away down south over the last week, we got fuller clarity regarding what is going to happen to those subsidised bus services whose funding is about to be withdrawn. Some such as the Sunday 10A between Bollington and Macclesfield will become commercial operations while others like the Sunday 108 between Stockport, Macclesfield and Leek or the summer Sunday 27 between Macclesfield and Knutsford will cease to exist. Seemingly, some operators are willing to give things a go while others aren’t.
Quite a few school services are getting the chop too though some operators (Hulme Hall come to mind here) are speaking to schools. This is something that is undesirable given the need to cut down on car use for the school run but you have to ask what kind of message service cuts like these are sending to people.
Still, the reductions aren’t going to be as bad as elsewhere but we cannot be complacent either, After all, the weekday evening (Monday to Saturday, that is) 130 Macclesfield to Parr’s Wood service just about came above the threshold for withdrawal of support. The counterargument to criticism of the loss of bus services applies here too: use it of lose it. That may sound harsh but it seems to be the world in which we are living at the moment.
Tags: 10, 108, 10A, 130, 27, Alderley Edge, Arriva, Bollington, Buses, Cheshire, Cheshire East Council, England, Knutsford, Leek, Macclesfield, Manchester, Parr's Wood, Spending Cuts, Stockport, Timetables
Is Edinburgh’s tram system going to look a bit like the National Monument on Calton Hill in the heart of the city unless the project gets past its first phase? Well, that’s how things appear following a recent council decision to limit the extent of the first phase to between Haymarket and Edinburgh Airport. To make sense, it really needs to be extended into Princes Street and, even better, Edinburgh’s East End. Money seems to be at the heart of the matter with Labour and Conservative councillors outvoting Liberal Democrats and the SNP abstaining. For Labour, this looks especially odd given all the discussion of the subject that went on during the 2007 election for the Scottish Parliament; the SNP opposed the idea.
Of course, the whole project has been beset by problems for a good while now and there is a council comment about the project unravelling too, one that sounds all too apt. Rows with contractors regarding the quality of their work and questions surrounding the effectiveness of the project’s management have been among these. The result seems to be a botched execution that has the misfortune of an economic downturn overtaking it. Edinburgh City Council may not have to borrow money for this now but it doesn’t look good when you realise what has been achieved in places such as Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Dublin. After all the work that has been done to prepare streets, it would be a shame to see the project stop at its first phase.
The first phase that now is planned does look like a comedown for an attractive city like Edinburgh. If I still live up there (and I left the city more than ten years ago, though I still return from time to time), I am not sure that I’d be considering the idea of using trams instead of buses for getting to the city’s airport for flights to my home country, Ireland, and other destinations. From a shopping point of view, it falls short too. As the plans stand, it almost feels as if it is a shuttle for anyone coming to Haymarket train station instead of being something for the locals. Unless the project continues into future phases, there is a risk that the system becomes a white elephant rather than being a real asset to public transport in a city that enjoys a very good bus network that also is very well used. All in all, it looks like yet another faltering step that surely could not happen elsewhere. For folk wanting to get there or though it, the sound of more work on Princes Street doesn’t sound too promising and it really stings that isn’t for restoring trams to the thoroughfare either, especially with it’s extending from next week until next summer.
Update (2011-08-30): The plot thickens on this story. Scottish Government now threatening to withhold £72m of funding if there is no extension as far as St. Andrew’s Square. Only time will tell if that more sensible course is the one taken. Now, why did SNP councillors abstain in the relevant vote at all?
Update (2011-09-02): The Scottish Government’s threat has done the trick. The tram line is getting extended to St. Andrew’s Square after all. Council borrowing may be needed but I hope that things go better from here on than they have done before now. The last thing that Edinburgh needs is the extension of what has become like a farce.
With what has been witnessed elsewhere, it has been a surprise that we haven’t been hearing about bus service subsidy cuts here in Cheshire East. That changed a few weeks ago and a number of bus services that have been identified as low priority are now facing withdrawal of council funding.It seems that the trend in other places such as Warrington, North Yorkshire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire finally has reached us too.
One surprise in there is Arriva’s Sunday service 10A between Macclesfield and Bollington. One time that I used it, it seemed well used but one occasion does not tell the whole story. It seems that they have decided to continue operating service 14 from Macclesfield to Langley on a commercial basis so that gives some hope for the 10A, even if you do wonder how long the 14 will continue on Sundays.
Of less surprise is the fact that the 108 serving Stockport, Macclesfield and Leek on Sundays is at risk as is the summer Sunday service 27 from Macclesfield to Knutsford. Indeed, there are other rural services like these that rate low on the priority list too but some are going to operated commercially. What will be interesting is seeing how long they last.
However, school services seem to be bearing the brunt of the cutbacks and it is their cost of operation that seems to be cause if you take into account the council figures. Nevertheless, it is pity to see withdrawals when you consider the contribution of the school run to morning and evening traffic levels.
To its credit the council has tried to let bus users in on what is happening though signs on bus stops could have appeared sooner; I only spotted them this week. On their website, there is a page devoted to Public Transport Criteria information and the relevant documents from the most recent council cabinet meeting are also there to be found too. Until Friday, it seems that the situation with regard to some services is fluid but we only can hope that there is as much continuity as possible when decisions have been taken and how things will take shape at the end of October.
While the changes are unsettling and will be seen as short-sighted by some, they aren’t as bad as the stories heard in other parts of the country. For one thing, North Yorkshire has gone a lot further than this. What be seen from various documents is how many subsidised bus services are under observation. These include the evening Monday to Saturday 130 service between Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Parr’s Wood and there are a few others like it in there too. In a time when usage and cost are being scrutinised, we do not need to be losing necessary bus services that folk get about so vigilance and support for services is vital. With the squeeze on the public finances, nothing can be taken for granted.
Tags: 10, 108, 10A, 130, 14, 27, Alderley Edge, Arriva, Bollington, Buses, Cheshire, Cheshire East Council, Crewe, England, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Manchester, Parr's Wood, School Buses, Timetables, Wilmslow
On Saturday, I embarked on a trip to Wales and I happened to have the misfortune to travel when there were problems with a set of signals in the Trent valley. That meant that a connection from Stoke-on-Trent to Crewe was late because it was a London Midland service from London to Crewe. That meant that my planned journey from Macclesfield to Bangor no longer was possible.
The 13:13 London Midland service turned up after the 13:34 East Midlands service from Derby so I was travelling on that instead. The result was that the 13:49 Virgin train to Chester left without me even with its being delayed too. It was the 14:23 Arriva Trains Wales service that got me there where I caught a train to Llandudno Junction from where I took another to Bangor, where I arrived at 16:35 and not at 15:28 as I had hoped. Even so, no serious damage was done to my plans and I enjoyed a lovely sunny evening regardless.
That last outbound train spent longer in Conwy than expected. A train conductor had not warned cyclists that they needed to be at the centre of the train to disembark. The result was that the rest of us were left waiting while the cyclists realised where they needed to be and made their way there. Only for having the man staffing the refreshments trolley in our carriage, quite a few of us would been ignorant of what was going on. It was another example of a day when trains were in no hurry.
On the return journey the next day, there was only one delay and that was due to train coupling in Llandudno Junction. The sunny weather had lured a fair few folk to the north Wales coast so Arriva Trains Wales were making sure at least one of their services was long enough to convey all who came to catch it, something from which other operators would do well to learn. Six minutes may have been lost but that was no perturbation to my journey home because there was enough slack to cope with it. My arrival time in Macclesfield didn’t have to change like that in Bangor the day before.
Tags: Arriva, Bangor, Cheshire, Chester, Crewe, Delays, England, Llandudno Junction, London Midland, Macclesfield, National Rail, Stoke-on-Trent, Timetables, Trains, Virgin, Wales, Weather
It now appears that the current economic climate and the curtailments in public spending have affected two companies based not too far away from where I live. The first is the merger of the operations of Bowers and the Trent Barton depot in Dove Holes near Buxton. Apparently, Centrebus and Trent Barton are embarking on a joint venture that is to be based in Dove Holes with the Chapel-en-Frith depot looking set to close. The name for the new company is to be High Peak and is to grace the roads of Cheshire as well as Derbyshire since Bowers run quite a few services around Macclesfield and Knutsford. The 199 Buxton-Stockport-Manchester Airport route is another one that is bound to be moved to the new company and that means that Greater Manchester will be included among the areas served too. The long distance Transpeak service between Manchester, Buxton, Derby and Nottingham is to stay operating like it does today with the Dove Holes depot staying in use as the northern base. It is going to take time for the changes to come into place but this autumn could see the first signs of the merger once the reorganisation along with the paperwork and authorisations that it entails have been completed.
In another development, D&G has felt the effects of bus subsidy cuts made by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. That situation must have made an approach by Arriva regarding acquisition of D&G’s North Staffordshire business look very attractive. The result is that Arriva is buying it to build up Wardle Transport, a subsidiary that it has in the area. After the sale, D&G will continue to trade from Crewe and its sister company in the West Midlands, Midland, is unaffected by the change.
The announcements for both of these changes mentioned the reality of a more challenging trading environment. This is the more pertinent for D&G because one of it founders set it up after the Labour party’s landslide election victory of 1997 in the hope of the then new government increasing the funding for bus services, something that actually did happen. Now that the proverbial pendulum is swinging in the other direction, we are seeing signs of consolidation and, in some unfortunate cases such as McKindless in Glasgow (once Scotland’s largest independent bus operator), company failures. While there can be no doubt that the bus business is facing a changed environment, it might have its upshots too with higher fuel costs and a reduced standard of living making families’ having an extra car more expensive than it was. If that were to increase bus patronage, it could compensate for the reductions in public spending but only time will tell whether or not that comes to pass, especially with some councils such as Northamptonshire having some very draconian proposals.
Tags: 199, 27, 300, 58, 60, 64, Arriva, Bowers, Buses, Buxton, Centrebus, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Cheshire, Connect 19, Crewe, D&G, Derby, Derbyshire, Dove Holes, England, Glasgow, High Peak, Macclesfield, Manchester, Manchester Airport, McKindless, Midland, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Prestbury, Spending Cuts, Staffordshire, Stockport, Stoke-on-Trent, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Transpeak, Trent Barton, Wardle Transport, West Midlands, Whirley
