First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester
Lets not forget though that Arriva is unofficially for sale in pieces, like FirstGroup is, so I am sure if Rotala offered for them they would go. There is quite a bit of dead mileage operating the 360 for example and it only touches into Merseyside at Newton-le-Willows. Rotala could pick this up at Golborne or Wigan quite easily from Atherton without the need for large distances of dead mileage.

I accept there would be a reluctance to rid stuff that enters into St Helens, but also routes like those in Skelmersdale may be better served by Rotala either from Atherton or Preston, indeed Preston already operate there.

Then there are the dead 34's that operate every morning between St Helens and Leigh when the service starts at Leigh, much easier to operate these from the Rotala base at Atherton which is merely 3 miles away rather than from St Helens which is about 12 miles, and note 34 not the 34A variation, the 34 and 34A could be renumbered if need be to satisfy Arriva.

In actual fact I was surprised that Arriva didn't buy South Lancs Travel when it was offered for sale as it would have filled nicely a gap that exists in their network between Bolton, Salford and Wigan, so they obviously weren't that keen then.

Arriva and Diamond have spoken about Wythenshawe and Bolton depots passing to Diamond but as yet nothing has happened. You couldn't move out the routes like the 575 and 10 out of Bolton as they would be too far to operate from other garages especially if Arriva pull out of Wythenshawe, you would then be talking about St Helens as the depot to do that which is some 30 or so miles away, accepted the 362 could be bolted on to the 320 or the 352 for through running, but doubt the other two could be.

Really it depends how desperate Deutsche Bahn is for the money as to what they may or may not sell. Depot by depot is much more likely but its not beyond the realms of possibly, lets not forget the 360 for a while was operated by Bolton depot, so how is it strategic to the network in St Helens?