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RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - Barney - 09/03/2015 20:24
(09/03/2015 19:50)motormayhem1 Wrote: They should never of messed with the 500 as its a big profitable route but use to attract a lot of passengers but passenger numbers are slowly dropping and agree that its only going to get worse.
I think that I am correct in saying that every provincial airport in the UK has a dedicated airport service to the main town or city, many running 24/7. JLA's airport service is embarrassing. Yes, I know that the 86A is a frequent and reliable service and that the 82A also provides a link to Liverpool ONE, but is making tourists take an hour's journey on a regular service bus and then a taxi ride to their hotel the best introduction to our fine city?
As I posted a few weeks ago, a commercial service is exactly that and profit is the ultimate factor not good PR for third parties.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - T42 PVM - 09/03/2015 20:36
But then again why should people spend more Money because Arriva are once again ruining a Service that does well
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - Barney - 09/03/2015 20:40
(09/03/2015 20:28)Dentonian Wrote: Presumably, the thinking is that passengers should make their way to South Parkway and catch a train to Liverpool city centre.
That was the thinking with the 501, but since its withdrawal last year because of poor loadings even that journey has become problematic. Let's be honest, after a two, three or four hour flight how many of us want to spend another hour or more travelling the final seven miles by public transport to your city centre hotel? The black hackney cab drivers must be delighted with Arriva's decision to curtail the 500 service.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - H101GEV - 09/03/2015 21:44
Personally, I hope the 500 does get MAX branding or at least some sort of recognisable improvement. Even though it being curtailed in the city centre isn't ideal, it has to be said that the great majority of passengers on 4469 yesterday when I rode it boarded at Liverpool ONE anyway. Only a couple boarded at Queen Square and Lime Street.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - Bevan Price - 09/03/2015 22:04
(09/03/2015 20:24)Barney Wrote: I think that I am correct in saying that every provincial airport in the UK has a dedicated airport service to the main town or city, many running 24/7. JLA's airport service is embarrassing. Yes, I know that the 86A is a frequent and reliable service and that the 82A also provides a link to Liverpool ONE, but is making tourists take an hour's journey on a regular service bus and then a taxi ride to their hotel the best introduction to our fine city?
No point in a 24/7 service at JLA when there are no overnight passenger flights. And don't forget, Manchester probably has 10 times more flights per day than JLA.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - T42 PVM - 09/03/2015 22:09
I think the flight count is going up at Liverpool tho as Ryan Air have introduced a few
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - mr t - 09/03/2015 23:40
The problem with the 500 is it cannot be run reliably through the City Centre due to the amount of congestion and stupid junctions that it must travel through to serve a few hotels, it becomes uneconomical to travel for half an hour at least in town then back out, for the sake as above said of a few passengers to hotels. If anybody actually tried catching it at stops other than the Queen Square and Liverpool One they would be left hanging around waiting for it to eventually turn up so they would inevitably end up walking to QS or L1 or flagging down taxis anyway.
When it was first introduced it served a purpose - it was a regular limited stop service that only competed with the 80As every 30mins, and ran every half hour and served at the time what was very few hotels in Liverpool en route including most in town. That was about 10 hotels.
What has happened since then is Capital of culture and Liverpool One and town have all gone boom and we now have around 40-50 hotels in the City Centre so it is impossible to serve them all. Most are generally based around the Albert Dock, and the triangle of roughly Lime Street/Duke Street/The Strand/Exchange Street/St Johns Lane. At the same time other routes from the airport have been intensely upgraded so there is now the 80A every 15, 82A every 30, 86A every 15. These all serve the Lime Street/Hanover Street/Liverpool One areas. So essentially the 500 is not needed here, the same way as when it used to serve the coach station and Station. Who goes from the Airport to the coach station?
Due to the success of Liverpool One and its associated road "improvement " schemes travelling up the The Strand is virtually a no go for buses as is through Tithebarn Street and all around town how many days is there an incident of some sort in town? So if anything it is the councils fault for its diabolical road schemes over the years with virtually no bus priority provision. Proven by how quickly operators pulled services from L1 when it opened, and more recently the Pier Head, The Strand traffic lights still only let 4 buses turn right up James Street and similarly exiting James Street to head for L1 or Mann Island. Running through the City Centre is now a regular nightmare for buses and Makes running the 500 abysmal and the 86A probably ends up in town quicker than the 500. To be fair it was increased to every 20 minutes for a good few years but demand obviously wasnt there. Passengers at JLA have dropped off lots over recent years as has been publicised so that hasnt helped the 500s. Plus flights are so infrequent in comparison to other airports and in reality people will get whichever bus is first at the stands to town and sort themselves out from there they dont care how long it takes as long as they can sit down, why wait upto half an hour for supposedly "faster" service.
There is many times I have actually seen the 82A leave full as it came in first, then the 86A left empty and the 500 comes in 3rd and leaves with a handful of passengers. If anything it is actually overbussed to town - why not take the 80A or 86As out? Then it would leave the 500 with more passengers?
The 86A was tried 24 hour operation and failed miserably as we know. And there are no night time flights so there is no real need for it at the airport anyway.
And finally, as has been said its of course about profit and using resources accordingly - the 500 and 81 are suffering terrible reliability - so Arriva are killing 2 birds with 1 stone, like the 62/63 situation at Bootle that people moaned about - by curtailing the 500 it saves a bus and improves reliability greatly, This bus is then going to be used in the 81 timetable which gains extra running time and similarly improve its reliability. Happy passengers all round then, and no cost.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - MPTE1955 - 10/03/2015 11:05
2601/2 are commanders and not cadets, they are B7L's with luggage racks as well that may also have been used every now and then.
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - mr t - 10/03/2015 13:32
The service was originally run by Selwyns with 3 buses and Arriva took over they took one bus off them which became 2479, and then they branded Commanders 2601/2602 for it too
RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot - H101GEV - 10/03/2015 13:46
Let's not forget the three blue Scania OmniCitys, 2061-63. When the 500 frequency was increased to every 20 minutes, I believe that was when Commanders 2601/02 were given AirLink livery and luggage racks.