Arriva St Helens Paint Shop & Repair Centre

[Barney]

RE: Arriva St Helens Paint Shop & Repair Centre

(01/08/2016 00:39)mr t Wrote:  The thing about the 47 is firstly its chronic reliability and punctuality due to the gridlock every day in Thornton Waterloo Crosby and Formby, its unpredictable most days, and Sapphire is meant to guarantee timings and reliability so its not suitable. Also it mirrors the train for most of the route so trying to inrease patronage by X amount simply wont happen as most people travelling longer distances will just use the train far more reliable.

I agree that the 47 suffers badly from reliability issues which, ironically, have only worsened since the opening of the new link to Switch Island at Thornton. Also, the Formby by-pass is often closed due to all-too-frequent RTC's and there is no alternative diversion. As for the argument that the route parallels the train service I would disagree. At most points on the route, the 47 doesn't come within a reasonable walking distance of any rail station.

The 47's main competitor is Stagecoach's X2 which initially began as an hourly service using mid-life coaches but is now every 30 minutes using Scania DD's bought new for the route and rumours now abound that the X2 is being considered for upgrade to Gold standard.