Oakwood Travel (Classic Bus North West)

[robertclark125]

RE: Oakwood Travel (Classic Bus North West)
What a mess, but then, some weird decisions have been made by this firm, and indeed its predecessor CBNW. Registering a commercial service from Fleetwood to Preston over a subsidised Cumfybus route, which ultimately led to Cumfybus abandoning all operations on the Fylde was a very strange one. It was of no surprise then that CBNW abruptly withdrew, and led to LCC having to retender the service, with Rotala North west taking over.

The red rocket is another weird service. The idea of a non stop shuttle from Blackpool to Manchester via the Trafford centre is great on paper. The reality is, CBNW would've been better having a stop in Preston, and also should really have had it all stops in the Blackpool area. I saw the red Rocket a few times, and it's fair to say it didn't take off (pun intended).

It's therefore fair to say that the whole thing is a shambles. And, unlike the situation in Cornwall, where First took over the routes of what was left of Western Greyhound, when the latter folded in March, in this case, all of the Catch 22 routes have duplication, though they provide direct end to end links that BTS don't provide. Whether BTS would want to then alter their services, to replace the end to end links, is another matter. Having already made changes recently, I doubt it.

The only service that another operator could take on is the Red Rocket, and even then, with substantial changes. I would think that the service would have to call at all stops in Blackpool borough, before going onto the motorway to Preston, where it could call in at the bus station, and possibly at a point in west Preston, before going to Manchester.

One possible idea I think is that a replacement could call in at both Park and Rides in Preston. Now, before I have people pointing out that Preston Bus run a subsidised service 1 linking both sites. However, the Red rocket (lets number it X1 for the sake of this article) would only call at Portway P&R to set down towards Preston and Manchester, and Pick up only towards Blackpool. The X1 would call in at Walton le Dale P&R to pick up only towards Manchester, and set down only towards Preston and Blackpool. That means the two sites can be used by Prestonians wishing to go to Blackpool or Manchester.

It's an idea, but whether anyone would take it on, is another thing.