Stagecoach MCSL - Chester & Wirral Depots

[iMarkeh]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral
Personally I would keep the 1 as it is. Everyone has known for a long time about the 1 being the bus to the Zoo. People don't even think of the X8. The thing is, there is a massive market for people from Chester and Ellesmere Port into Liverpool. There are 3 key areas there that you need to serve. The 1 is the same route it has been for years (even the upcoming change is only very slight) and it works so I think unless anything major were to happen, it will remain as it is. There is enough recovery time in the timetable to accommodate traffic (Quite a few trips end up stopping regularly along the route for a few minutes as they have become early).

Any changes should be the X8. Serving Birkenhead, though it sounds good, it would be useless and just add too much time. Remove the Zoo from the X8, make it go back fast from Hoole to Cheshire Oaks (but leave the route flexible so if traffic is on the M53, drivers can divert via Backford and vice versa). Cheshire Oaks is a good market from Chester but the X8 is less often and is scheduled to take longer than GOLD 1. Obviously removing Chester Zoo makes the whole X8 route from Cheshire Oaks north 10 minutes quicker. Many of the earlier X8s sit at the zoo for 3-4 minutes because they are somehow really early (meaning increased journey times which are unnecessary). Also serving the zoo at daft times like 6.15am, 7.15am (commuter times) definitely doesn't help.
The only way I would agree to serving Birkenhead is if it ran fast from Eport but then it runs straight past Clatterbridge (people would complain it doesn't go in to that roundabout bus stop for the sake of an extra 2 minutes) and through Higher Bebbington/Egerton Park (residents in these areas would complain for extra stops and if they were introduced, Arriva would moan that Stagecoach are competition).

I think the best option for the X8 to make it as viable as possible is simply remove the Zoo and make it non stop from Eport to Liverpool via M53 (cutting another few minutes from the journey time). If the X8 didn't serve Cheshire Oaks, it would be another time saver but you can't cut out every little stop or it will end up very useless.

To back up the X8 moving away from the Zoo, I would (as said previously), extend GOLD 1. Then for people at the rail station, there is an enhanced service to the zoo and if needed in peak summer time, dupes can be added. I (and many residents around Ellesmere Port) would love for there to be more faster buses to Chester.

In short, my opinion for short term changes are:
Make X8 non stop from Hoole to Cheshire Oaks (and preferable make it non stop from Eport - Liverpool but unlikely)
Extend the GOLD 1 to Chester Rail Station (enhancing services to the zoo & making up for the loss of the X8)
Renumber the X2 to 36 (X2 is no longer Xpress as it runs onwards to Runcorn etc. Number makes it sound much faster than it is)
Extend Eport route 6 to Chester hourly with the short circular numbered 6A (Opposite to 36(X2) giving half hourly fast bus and improving through connections)
Create a service down the A41. It has been much requested around Ellesmere Port. I don't know where the demand is properly but it makes sense in that it takes 50 minutes from Great Sutton to Chester but driving it takes about half that (X8 could be that bus but I think Eport town Centre is a bit too valuable for it (for some unknown reason).