On Trains & Buses

It does appear that rail services in the north of England are facing a transformation that begins from next April when Arriva takes on the Northern franchise and First continues with Transpennine Express without the involvement of Keolis. Only time will tell how it all goes but here are some links in the meantime:

Massive boost to rail services brings Northern Powerhouse to life

Transforming TransPennine Express

FirstGroup plc welcomes award of TransPennine Express rail franchise

Some of the above take the form of press releases while others provide further information. There may be time yet for me to provide some commentary of my own to follow the above, but I hope that these will be useful for now.

From 2015-12-19 the following Cheshire bus services will be withdrawn:

RR3 Disley – Macclesfield X20 Middlewich – Cheshire Oaks X81 Winsford – Hanley

From 2015-12-21, the following Cheshire bus service changes will come into place:

27X Macclesfield – Knutsford: service withdrawn, registration cancelled. 36 Crewe – Haslington – Sandbach: service now only operates during school term time. 12:25 from Crewe withdrawn. 11:55 from Sandbach withdrawn. 39 Macclesfield – Congleton: service number changed from 39 to 87 to avoid number clash on network. New 07:00 journey from Congleton added. 18:00 journey from Congleton withdrawn. 12:00 journey withdrawn and 13:00 journey added. 44 Crewe – Nantwich: service now only operates during school term time. 38 Crewe – Congleton – Macclesfield: most of the extra commercial journeys introduced on 2015-08-31 have been withdrawn. 88 Knutsford – Wilmslow – Altrincham: timetable revised with some journeys added or extended. 130 Macclesfield – Manchester: timetable revised and runs on Sundays only.

From next Sunday, Arriva will be altering some services around Crewe, Northwich and Winsford. Service 85 from Winsford to Winsford Industrial Estate is to be withdrawn with some Monday to Friday morning and afternoon journeys on service 29 from Northwich to Over St. John’s getting re-numbered 29A and re-routed to replace it. The Saturday service frequency on route 29 is changed to be hourly. Saturday timetables also are revised for service 6 between Crewe and Brookhouse and service 8 between Crewe and Wistaston Green. Otherwise, service 84 between Crewe and Chester will have its route revised in Chester to start and finish at Chester Railway Station with some timetable revisions too.

These are some changes to bus services in Greater Manchester:

Service 43A High Park to Carr Lane Replaced by service 43 for evening and Sunday journeys with the Russell Road section of route no longer being served.

Service 46 Russell Road to Carr Lane Service is re-routed from Carr Lane to operate via Duke Street and Shakespeare Street (omitting Cemetery Road), before going via Lord Street, London Street, Sussex Road, Norwood Avenue (omitting Hoghton Street, Manchester Road, Hawkshead Street and Tithebarn Road). Journeys in the opposite direction reverse this route.

Services 43 and 46 will each revert to a 30 minute frequency.

Service 44 Crossens to Formby Evening and Sunday service will be increased to operate every 30 minutes between Crossens and Formby but will omit Walnut Street in both directions.

Telford & Wrekin council are embarking on a public consultation regarding the bus services that they support in their area. Apparently, it is only 2% of the total provision and costing around £1.7m per annum. Still, you do wonder if there are larger items of expenditure to interrogate and this is the story with much bus service funding in the U.K. Also, the consultation page on their website was not working when I looked.

In June, First Potteries announced that they were consolidating their operations in the Stoke-on-Trent area to just one depot at Adderley Green. The one at Newcastle is to close and a widespread network overhaul is to come. There is a summary on the website dating from July along with a service by service change summary. A few existing services are being withdrawn while others see route changes and there are frequency improvements. There is one new route and another two being introduced on trial following feedback from local communities. Let’s hope that things remain steady after all this change that comes not so long after a previous attempt to reinvigorate the First Potteries bus network.

Spring Bank Holiday bus service level in Cheshire is that of a Sunday.

Procession of Witness in Manchester tomorrow some bus services disrupted between 09:00 and 12:00. Journeys between Blackburn and Manchester are among these.

First York has published its Spring Bank Holiday arrangements. Park and ride services are as normal with Sunday timetables for others and some not operating at all.

Three Queens event in Merseyside (part of the seven-week One Magnificent City still ongoing so tomorrow could be another busy day. In fact, it looks like the crescendo so many may be travelling to see the sight of three big liners in the Mersey at the same time. Visit Wirral and Sefton Council have more information.

Nottingham City Transport is operating a Sunday bus service on Spring Bank Holiday, apart from W4 that serves Boots factory. First Glasgow is operating a Saturday service on the bank holiday and there there are diversions around Motherwell for a cycle race on Tuesday.

Sunday service on buses and trains in South Yorkshire for Spring Bank Holiday. Trains running as per normal Monday timetable now that strike has been suspended.