Stagecoach MCSL - Chester & Wirral Depots

[iMarkeh]

RE: Stagecoach MCSL - Chester & Wirral Depots

(11/03/2020 18:36)L401CJF Wrote:  The issue with the 22 route is the Geography of the route itself. Typically, the route takes passengers into Chester in the morning, then brings them out of Chester in the evening. Any journeys out of Chester in the morning, and then into Chester in the evening arn't very well used in comparison - same as most cities really. When Avon ran the route, and Rock Ferry depot after them it worked out well in that the depots were both at the correct end of the route for the time of day - ie ready to start service in the morning in the direction passengers were going, and finish service in the evening where the passengers are going again (the West Kirby end). Problem now being the depot is near Chester, the usage of the route hasnt changed - naturally the majority of passengers are going to be heading to the West Kirby end of an evening, not into Chester so the route does have to go back that way, but they have already tried later running Chester bound services of an evening and they were hardly used.

Clearly the route still has to go to West Kirby of an evening, as thats where the people need to go, but as there is no demand for a return service to Chester at this time (it has been tried and failed), surely it does make sense to run back empty from West Kirby to Chester depot, as its quicker and cheaper than running it back in service because it didnt carry enough passengers to make money. Given that nobody used it, but it had to wind around the route and follow a quite slack timetable, it would save money and inconvenience few people to just run it back dead. In my mind, I can't understand why Rock Ferry didnt hang onto the 22 anyway - it seems a lot more sensible than the current setup with all its dead mileage and mostly empty morning positioning runs.

Higher wages, drivers need to return to the depot for breaks (therefore paying an hours wage overall to swap drivers (30 mins each way). Plus shunt vehicle costs.

It's a difficult one. Lower costs on fuel but higher costs of staff.

I wonder if the Croft 38s could be extended from West Kirby to Heswall and then run the 22 from Heswall to Chester. Are there that many through passengers? Didn't seem many. Back to the old X22/38 days haha.
West Kirby to Heswall must have done alright for it to be one of Avon's consistent routes hourly from early till late.