The last time that I wrote about Cheshire East’s forthcoming bus service cuts, there still were a few details outstanding and these have come to light today along with more that I wasn’t expecting. One of those details that were outstanding were the Saturday morning journeys on the 130 Macclesfield to Manchester operated under contract by Arriva. Things remain as they are for the 06:45 and 07:45 journeys from Macclesfield and the 07:44 one from Handforth until January 27th of next year. Beyond that the journeys are set to get curtailed but we’ll need to see a new timetable to get the full story though my suspicion is some will start from Wilmslow given that terminating journeys there has been a feature of the service in recent years.
Other details from Arriva include running the Monday to Saturday Macclesfield town services 5 and 6 commercially until 22:00. There were changes coming and this is the form that they were taking. Commercial operation also is coming the Crewe to Chester service 84 with a next to ninety minute service frequency for services along the full route with the last departure from Crewe at 21:35. A 23:00 from their to Nantwich also will operate and the last service from Chester is set to run at 23:05. If only we had something similar for the equivalent services on the 130 route.
The mention of the 130 brings me to Wilmslow with faces becoming something of a bus service desert in evenings and Sundays. Handforth will be similarly affected too since the 130 serves both. However, it is the forthcoming withdrawal of 378 journeys on evenings and Sundays that really will quieten things in both places. Transport for Greater Manchester are covering the cost of the current service level until April 6th, 2013 when there is a contract changeover. That may allow a temporary reprieve but services are set to terminate on Grove Lane after that.
While on the subject of Stockport services, the 390 Bramhall - Poynton - Stockport one is to be reviewed with a planned change date of 28th January 2013. If they do happen to survive, it cut alleviate the curtailment of the 392 and 393 services at Hazel Grove. While that may sound promising, it’s best not to get too hopeful given recent experiences.
The only details that are outstanding now will be answered on seeing bus timetables. Scheduled public services has caught it in the neck this year while it was the turn of school-bus services last year. This year, most of them are making the transition to commercial services though the 108 from Leek to Fallibroome School is being truncated to start from Macclesfield. losing one of those journeys and a one that could have been useful to commuters if timings at the other end of the day were more sensible.
Now, all that really is left is to wonder at what faces us in the future. After all, there is the current Cheshire East Council overspend and tomorrow brings the reality of the Autumn Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 2011’s bus service cuts looked more like trimming the edges but those in 2012 and 2013 are going further and it is starting to look very austere in deed now. If we are looking at more of the same next year, then any reductions will be even tougher again. Hopefully, any campaigning would be more energetic that it was this year.
The mention of lack of campaigning apart from the good folk of Bollington brings me to wondering if it might be possible to reintroduce lost services in the future when the economic outlook is better and public finances have recovered. Keeping a log of lost services might be a useful reference point should opportunities arise. With a story in the media about car use peaking and what the current situation is doing to people’s finances, it is tempting to think that a bit of risk taking on the part of bus companies would get us somewhere. After all, there was a lack of that on display from some in recent months and D&G comes to mind when I think of it. Bus services have had a rough ride in Cheshire East in the last two years and we could do with a boost.
Today has turned out to be a disruptive day to be travelling. Flooding has been the main problem and tomorrow is said to bring its share of problems too. With that in mind, I decided to see if I could find which train companies used JourneyCheck as a place to look for live travel information. The list is below, with links to the actual JourneyCheck websites, and you’ll see that not every train company has one.
The websites of course are only good as the information that’s entered into them. Regarding the Northern Rail one, I have seen complaints about the train formation information (number of carriages, mainly) not being as good as it could be. Otherwise, they could have their use on days like today when you need more information than can be provided by a Twitter feed. If you use an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader, then they could be even more useful again. After all, with engineering works and station problems listed along with train running information, these look like good places to be looking while on the move.
After D&G’s service withdrawals, there is a sliver of good news from Arriva regarding town services in Macclesfield and the same applies to those linking the town with nearby Bollington too. The company is going to give running Monday to Saturday evening services on a commercial basis a go. The timetables for services 5 and 6 are set to change and we have yet to see what they will involve for residents of Weston and Upton Priory. The equivalent journeys to Moss Rose and Bollington are set to stay unaffected for now.
Of course, it is over to us to make use of what survives or it’ll get the axe too. That we are seeing an attempt to stick with offering services at all is a bit of brightness amid what else is happening on our patch and Arriva deserves some credit for that. It would have been rough for Macclesfield to lose town services when Knutsford is to see them continued unaffected and with council funding too. That prospect is not set to come upon us in January anyway and it will be patronage that drives whatever follows next.
However, there has been no news from Arriva today about the soon to be unsupported early Saturday morning 130 journeys from Macclesfield to Manchester though. Macclesfield and Wythenshawe depots seem to be operating separately so we still have to wait to see. Could something be happening to 130 evening services as well? There may be some good news for bus users around Macclesfield but I am not holding my breath just yet. A little more patience is needed but there’s not so much remaining to be revealed at this point. Once all is stable again, it might be time to treat Macclesfield to a summary of its public network like what I have done already for Knutsford and Wilmslow. It looks as if any remaining bus services could do with any extra publicity that I can provide.
Update 2012-11-19: It seems that a bit of arm-twisting was involved in keeping the evening services between Macclesfield and Bollington going, according to last week’s Macclesfield Express. Seeing some community intervention has to be a good thing and the next steps would be better promotion of the service. That Macclesfield town services are continuing too may be a result of the same type of pressure but there was no mention of that in the article. One only can wonder if greater community campaigning would have helped the soon to be lost evening journeys on the 130 (Macclesfield to Manchester), 38 (Macclesfield to Crewe) and 84 (Crewe to Chester). Maybe that’s something that we need to start, as belated as it would be at this stage.
There have been updates to the Cheshire East Council Bus Subsidy Reductions and Bus Service Changes page today. Most are new links to D&G Bus timetables that are set to come into force in January. One of these is for the 38 between Macclesfield and Crewe. Sunday evening services are set to finish with the 17:35 from Crewe and the 18:50 from Macclesfield since D&G are unwilling to operate them without council funding, confirming what was in the offing from last week. There is a new timetable on their website with this information and it’s a shame to see those Sunday evening services going and I hope that it’s not forever. Also, their Cheshire timetables page also is a good place to be looking for other service changes by the latest round of funding cuts too.
As yet, there is no word from Arriva about what is happening to services that they operate which are going to lose their funding. Monday to Saturday evening journeys on the 10 between Macclesfield and Bollington is one that has attracted a good deal of interest and publicity but there are Macclesfield evening town services affected for the same days. Early Saturday morning journeys on the 130 from Macclesfield still face an uncertain future while the fate of their Monday to Saturday evening services is sealed unless a surprise is sprung on us yet. Form last week, we know that D&G are not going to offer these on a commercial basis.
The passing the 56 day bus service change notice period last week must have triggered all the alterations that we have seen so far. It does make you wondering what is happening with Arriva’s operations. Are there discussions going on behind the scenes of which we know nothing as of now? Enough grotesqueness has appeared already and we still are left wondering what more is to come. Is pointless to hope that this round of cuts will be the last? That’s the way that I’d like it to be but doubts exist in my mind about it. Whatever comes next, my plan is to continue sharing the main points of detail on here as I have been doing so far.
With the uncertainty that increasingly seems to be pervading Cheshire East Council support of bus services, I am adding another summary of the public transport services available in Wilmslow to follow the earlier one for Knutsford, just so more folk realise the options that are available. As things stand, Wilmslow does gain something over its nearby neighbour when it comes to bus travel, but it really seems to score when it comes to train services, even bettering Macclesfield in some respects.
Trains
Wilmslow’s four platform station is a busy one for the size of the place and probably gets a lot of commuters to and from work every day too. That’s thanks to there being several services an hour between it and Manchester, some of them being local stopping ones. These include one that goes via Manchester Airport, not as far away as the name suggests, and then into Manchester Piccadilly calling at places such as Heald Green, Burnage and East Didsbury. These usually come from Crewe so connections with other Cheshire towns like Holmes Chapel and Sandbach are afforded as well as with Alderley Edge. There are more local Crewe to Manchester services than these and most go via Stockport.
Aside from the above Northern Rail offerings, there are a number of longer distance offerings too. These are provided by Virgin, CrossCountry and Transport for Wales. The first on the list operates hourly services to and from London as part of its three per hour frequency from Manchester. CrossCountry again starts from Manchester but continue south to Birmingham and beyond, with there being an earlier Sunday start than we have in Macclesfield. The last of the listed long distance operators runs its Manchester to south Wales services by Wilmslow. Once, all of these terminated at Cardiff, but most now continue to places in Pembrokeshire such as Pembroke, Milford Haven, Haverfordwest and Fishguard. These places are reached after a stop in Swansea too. Trains for these aren’t stabled in Manchester though but in Crewe for some reason and that ensures earlier services to Manchester of a Sunday morning than Macclesfield, so it is tempting that Wilmslow is being a little spoilt by what they get from the railways.
Buses
Wilmslow gets on a little better than Knutsford when it comes to bus travel. After all, there are Sunday services for three of the town’s services. These are the 130 that goes from Macclesfield to Manchester, the 200 from Wilmslow to Manchester Airport via Styal and the 378 from Wilmslow to Stockport. Two of these sadly are seeing council funding withdrawal for some of their journeys with 130 weekday evening services looking like they’ll be ceasing to exist and 378 weekday evening and Sunday services also under threat. It does look odd to see the 200 being left untouched while these are facing cuts since there cannot be as many using it; certainly, I found myself using some pretty quiet journeys when I did travel to Manchester Airport by bus. Let’s hope that too much doesn’t get lost with all that’s happening.
Along with the two return weekday evening Macclesfield to East Didsbury, early morning Saturday services to Manchester are in doubt too. Otherwise, 130 services are set to remain untouched with most of them being operated commercially. The Monday to Friday daytime frequency is next to half-hourly and these buses get well-used too. On Saturdays and Sundays, the frequency is largely hourly, so the service remains more than a little useful.
That hourly service pattern also applies to the 378 and the 200, with the latter only being a daytime service operated with a single bus and one driver; these days it’s in the hands of Welsh operator GHA. Other than these, there’s also the next to hourly Connect 88 from Knutsford to Altrincham and that doesn’t run on Sundays or bank holidays like the others.
Very Usable, Albeit in Uncertain Times
Wilmslow doesn’t come off badly when it comes to public transport options. The main worry is about supported services given cuts in public spending. Greater use would help too and increasing awareness is the main reason for this little piece. Things have come a long way over the last decade, and it would be better not to lose the gains that have been made. It looks as if improved economic fortunes cannot come fast enough, but they may surprise us when they do; just as upturns never last forever, neither do downturns like this one.
Posted on December 4th, 2012