Halton Transport

[Valandil]

RE: Halton Transport

(17/06/2012 17:31)K853 MTJ Wrote:  At peak times in may possibly be a squeeze, but an extra journey or two working off schools should cover it ok.
The 26 serves the new Tesco, with the 13 (Run by Widnes Commercial Motors) serving the hive. WCMs largest vehicle that has been used is an Optare Solo M880. Although its normally run by a Bluebird minibus. The layout down there is simple enough, a road going into the main park, with a car park to the left for Brewers Fayre and Premier Inn, and one to the right for everything else. To turn left or right you use a small roundabout (I say roundabout, its one of those slightly raised concrete things on the floor). Thats where the service turns around and parks up at the stop it passes on the right going towards the roundabout.
An SPD turning there is out of the question IMO, an MCV might just fit with a great deal of skill, praying and blind luck. The Bluebird turns around with ease, so an 8.8m Enviro would be able to negotiate it rather easily.

This is assuming that the minibuses go onto the 2. It may be a lot easier to get bigger buses around there in practice, having only seen it properly 2 or 3 times, its hard to gauge it properly relative to the bus itself.
The 17A doesn't need an SPD really, and the 26 still uses bus 20 (Although an SPD is commonplace on there now).
Personally, I'd say a 9.8m Enviro would be just about perfect seeing as this is the smallest length available with a decent 6 cylinder engine!

Oh I see: I assumed the Tesco was a part of the retail park.
Yep, I know 'The Hive' in that case: the 13's been serving there for ages, right? (Or is it 13a?)
So the 2 just means to get Halton in on that part of the town centre -- good move, if they can ensure that the 2's won't get behind time.
By my calculation, they'll have in theory 13 mins to do the extra leg (assuming still just 1 off at Halebank turning circle), which sounds like a lot, but when you factor in the time taken to drop people off by the market, navigate the traffic lights, zip around the retail park, and get back, there might not be very much time to spare ... and any delay will just accumulate throughout the day, since it looks like there's little opportunity to reclaim lost time.
I wouldn't be nearly so pessimistic, but every time I've tried to catch the 2 or 12 in the past, they've not been anywhere near on time, despite theoretically having 11 mins off in Widnes every hour.

If you're right about only minis getting around there, they won't have the flexibility to sub in covering vehicles as well ... not that this is the type of thing that Halton ever does anyway!