Howards/Springfield

[knutstransport]

RE: Howards/Springfield

(08/08/2016 18:48)T42 PVM Wrote:  Hopefully Howard's Win the contract, At least we know it will be ran properly by them

Personally I'm not keen on the idea of High Peak operating any service in Knutsford. In the past they've had too many operational difficulties in getting buses to Knutsford in winter meaning early services people rely on to get to work don't operate because it's been snowing in Buxton. They also seem to think passengers are happy to pay more for a poorer service, which isn't the case and has been proven by passenger numbers falling when they reduce the frequency of services at the same time as putting up fares.

Hopefully High Peak drivers on the 27 route this week are informing passengers of the change of operator before they sell any weekly tickets! I see the Howards 27A services won't serve AstraZeneca which will actually benefit most people given how much AstraZeneca have scaled back their operations and that they no longer provide a subsidy for the 27 service unlike they did when Bakerbus ran a hourly service using brand new Wright Cadets. I'm not sure what High Peak did but a number of GHA drivers missed out AstraZeneca on the 16:45 Knutsford to Macclesfield anyway presumably they simply didn't have room for more than one or two extra passengers to board the bus* and the people from Macclesfield who worked at AstraZeneca would likely have held Arriva weekly tickets and travelled on the 130 route.

As for who I want to win the contract, it'd partly depend what various operators include in their bid. I wouldn't be keen on Howards losing the contract to a bigger firm who aren't going to do anything above and beyond the minimum required. However, if the bigger firm offers to run more services and will provide a reliable reasonably priced service then it's a different matter.

* Except when GHA decided to use a double decker which was then not really that suitable for the services via Over Peover.