Since the Wright-bodied VDL’s and DAF’s that underpin the 27 Macclesfield-Knutsford service were brought into use, they have sported a Cheshire County Council specified navy and orange livery. This morning, I spotted one of them wearing a new silver, yellow and green livery, of the same kind that was brought into use by Cheshire East Council. Repainting of buses mightn’t sound a priority activity but I suppose that paintwork gets shabby over time and there’s never any harm in changing colours while you are freshening up things.
Increasing capacity is of higher priority than painting things and that brings me to the sight of double decker buses on the Macclesfield-Bollington route. When I first moved to Cheshire, the route benefitted from the introduction of new Plaxton Mini-Pointer bodied short wheelbase Dennis Darts. At the time, they stood out in a fleet full of Mercedes minibuses and old arthritic Leylands, Lynxes and Olympians. Since then, the world has turned and Dennis Darts are the dominant type with double deckers and other longer single deckers being in the minority. With that in mind, it is interesting to see the 10 getting larger capacity vehicles of an age older than those brought into service back in 2000. It’s always good to see more people using buses but it would be better if they got to travel on newer vehicles as well. That increase of passenger numbers must have helped the 130 too and an increase in usage is apparent to eyes that remember how many used to be on those Leyland midibuses that were operating on the service ten years ago.
When Cheshire East Council launched online bus tracking for routes 27 and 130, it looked like a step in the right direction and that still is the case. However, there caveats regarding the supplied information that need attention. To my mind, it seems that not enough of the buses operating those route have trackers installed or turned on. What we cannot expect is that every bus connecting Macclesfield with Knutsford or Manchester is tracked because that may mean a restricted pool of buses for initiative such as what Cheshire East Council have in operation. Breakdowns and maintenance can mean that the usual buses are unavailable so untracked vehicles have to be tolerated. Nevertheless, I am getting the impression that not enough are being tracked and that makes the tracker little better than a rolling bus timetable. Another thing that I have spotted is that it doesn’t take account of cancelled services and there were plenty of those during the recent run of arctic weather. In a nutshell, things need improving before the tracker is truly dependable and my only hope is that the general extent of usage will convince the council to do just that and maybe even expand the service to other bus routes.
The first full working week of 2010 was a hectic affair after the previous weekend’s snowfall and that during the early hours of Tuesday morning. Many a website was being hammered in the search for travel information during the disruption and this one was no exception with it getting as many hits in a week as it normally does in a month. The past week has seen things calming down though there have been problems in places. One of these has been the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton and the 58 was being diverted even as lately as today because of snow drifts and troublesome road conditions. However, the Cat and Fiddle webcam shows a clearance from the way that things were not so long ago. Hopefully, the run of normal Atlantic weather will continue to normalise things even it means getting wet from time to time (or was that nearly all of the time?). The sad part might be having to find another talking point but anything’s better than seeing people getting hurt on ice.
Heavy rain might have been visiting Macclesfield this morning but bus travellers between Macclesfield and Buxton still are being diverted around by Whaley Bridge. Of course, what is rain at lower levels can become sleet and snow up higher on those hills. With that there was last night, you wouldn’t have imagined that heavy rain lay ahead but such is the British weather that big changes like that often happen quickly. What does take a while is the melting of any ice that has formed and the rain only makes it more slippery in the interim period. The result is that I have tended to walk on the carriageway where the footway looks very suspect. Speaking of roads, buses are able to travel and the usual complement of buses serving routes 4, 10, 11, 21, 27 and 130 were out and about. So, while the snow hasn’t departed us yet, milder (and wetter) weather lies ahead. Quite where all the water locked up in snow and ice is going to go is anyone’s guess but rivers and streams could get very full and the next complaint that we get to hear could be about flooding. Well, there’s always something but we have little choice but to get through it.
Since Sunday, there has been a very noticeable thaw. That’s not to say the snowy blanket is in marked retreat but that any that is lying on Macclesfield pavements is reducing and roads are staying clear or are clearing. The lack of severe frosts over the last few nights only can have helped. Bowers is providing an ever more complete service over its routes (amyone travelling between Macclesfield and Buxton needed to go around by Whaley Bridge when I last looked) and Arriva’s services around Macclesfield seem to be running OK from what I can see. The same statement applies to train services too.
More snow is forecast but this will be of the Atlantic variety so there is a chance that it will not stall what is a slow thaw; there may be disruption like what affected Ireland in recent days (bus services around Cork and Kerry were affected) but that may be part and parcel of things generally warming up. With all the snow that is lying, it is best not have a fast rise in temperature or we will have transport disruption due to flooding. So, it might be better to have a slow clearance than a fast one, especially in hill country where places are heavily plastered with the white stuff. I, for one, will be taking things as they come and it is looking as if places may be slippery on the way to our more usual maritime mix of weather.
Posted on January 27th, 2010