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Post by ThinLizzy on Jan 23, 2020 19:50:14 GMT
Further to the above, Halton Transport will cease trading after close of service on Friday (24th Jan). Reports suggest Warrington’s Own Buses are taking over the Merseytravel school contracts and supposedly offering drivers £200 incentive to join them, with Arriva allegedly offering £300 (based on comments on another forum). It’s unclear if anyone plans to take on any of their main network. Arriva cover quite a lot of the Runcorn area already. Halton Council held a closed meeting about the future of the undertaking (which is municipally-owned) on Wednesday night but the outcome of the meeting has not yet been made public. Meanwhile a number of services were cancelled today (Thursday) after drivers failed to turn up for work, including school services in Merseyside which left a number of students stranded. Some schools are reported to be in discussion with other operators to provide alternative services should Halton Transport cease operation after tomorrow, as is still widely expected. I'm just catching up with this news. Really shocked Halton are seemingly going out of business- thought they might have been picked up by Stagecoach or someone like Rotala Hopefully other operators will be quick to step in |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 0:33:50 GMT
Halton Council held a closed meeting about the future of the undertaking (which is municipally-owned) on Wednesday night but the outcome of the meeting has not yet been made public. Meanwhile a number of services were cancelled today (Thursday) after drivers failed to turn up for work, including school services in Merseyside which left a number of students stranded. Some schools are reported to be in discussion with other operators to provide alternative services should Halton Transport cease operation after tomorrow, as is still widely expected. I'm just catching up with this news. Really shocked Halton are seemingly going out of business- thought they might have been picked up by Stagecoach or someone like Rotala Hopefully other operators will be quick to step in Stagecoach are licking their lips, I bet. |
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Post by wirewiper on Jan 24, 2020 8:42:38 GMT
Halton Council held a closed meeting about the future of the undertaking (which is municipally-owned) on Wednesday night but the outcome of the meeting has not yet been made public. Meanwhile a number of services were cancelled today (Thursday) after drivers failed to turn up for work, including school services in Merseyside which left a number of students stranded. Some schools are reported to be in discussion with other operators to provide alternative services should Halton Transport cease operation after tomorrow, as is still widely expected. I'm just catching up with this news. Really shocked Halton are seemingly going out of business- thought they might have been picked up by Stagecoach or someone like Rotala Hopefully other operators will be quick to step in All we know so far is that Warrington's Own Buses are picking up some of the school work as of next Monday (27th January). I gather that they are not interested in the main network. There aren't that many roads over which Halton has sole tenure, much of their network is covered by Arriva services and Arriva are said to be looking at what they might take on in the event that Halton ceases trading after today. |
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Post by danorak on Jan 24, 2020 12:22:48 GMT
I'm not sure how the impending collapse of Halton Transport, and its call to a Public Inquiry for poor maintenance, fits with the narrative that council-owned bus companies are intrinsically better than others. You might almost think that ownership was irrelevant and what matters is councils dealing with congestion and working in partnership with operators.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 14:58:30 GMT
It’s reported that buses began being called back to depot around lunchtime. In terms of the main network, Arriva are replacing some sections of longer routes... 6: Upton Rocks to Liverpool 14A: Murdishaw to Hough Green 61: Halton Hospital to Broadgreen 62: Murdishaw to Hale Bank 200: Runcorn Railway Station to Business Park 201: Liverpool Royal Hospital to Speke Morrisons (with Arriva Click minibuses) Timetables and updated network map: www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-west/latest/arriva-is-introducing-new-services-in-runcorn-and-widnes/ |
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Post by wirewiper on Jan 25, 2020 10:12:36 GMT
It’s reported that buses began being called back to depot around lunchtime. In terms of the main network, Arriva are replacing some sections of longer routes... 6: Upton Rocks to Liverpool 14A: Murdishaw to Hough Green 61: Halton Hospital to Broadgreen 62: Murdishaw to Hale Bank 200: Runcorn Railway Station to Business Park 201: Liverpool Royal Hospital to Speke Morrisons (with Arriva Click minibuses) Timetables and updated network map: www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-west/latest/arriva-is-introducing-new-services-in-runcorn-and-widnes/The Arriva announcement also states that they will accept Halton tickets and passes for the next two weeks. Although the revised services start officially on Monday 27th January, they are aiming to cover as many journeys as they can over the weekend. Route 17 (Widnes - St Helens) which was jointly operated with Halton Transport, will operate to a reduced 40-minute frequency for the time being with the intention to increase this as resources become available. The 14A and 61 will no longer operate into Liverpool, and the 62 will no longer operate into Warrington. Arriva is advising passengers of connecting services at Widnes Green Oaks: 79C and 500 to Liverpool and 110 to Warrington. The 6 is a single early morning journey operated under contract to Merseytravel. Arriva is holding a recruitment open day today (Saturday 25th January) at their Beechwood, Runcorn Depot. |
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Post by wirewiper on Jan 25, 2020 19:22:32 GMT
Warrington's Own Buses takes on route 62 from Sunday and they are encouraging former Halton staff to apply for jobs if they want them. A basically hourly service will operate between Warrington and Halebank with some additional short/peak-time journeys and Halton Transport passes are being accepted for the time being. Warrington's Own Buses is also taking on the contracted evening 20/20A and Sunday 3D journeys in Halton.
A number of Merseytravel school contracts are going to Stagecoach from Monday.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jan 26, 2020 0:47:17 GMT
Halton Transport is rumoured to be closing after they finish today - I've seen a lot of people on other forums say this is not surprising though, with them struggling to buy young vehicles and a patronage on a lot of their routes low. They have also been called to a PI. Although plenty of independents have closed down, this is the first collapse of a mainstream bus company since National Welsh in 1992. We incidentally now have just 8 municipals left: Lothian, Blackpool, Warrington, Nottingham, Ipswich, Reading, Newport and Cardiff. Bringing these sentence together, and the collapse of National Welsh led to Cardiff - Barry Island services becoming part of Cardiff Transport.  |
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jan 26, 2020 0:53:04 GMT
It’s reported that buses began being called back to depot around lunchtime. In terms of the main network, Arriva are replacing some sections of longer routes... 6: Upton Rocks to Liverpool 14A: Murdishaw to Hough Green 61: Halton Hospital to Broadgreen 62: Murdishaw to Hale Bank 200: Runcorn Railway Station to Business Park 201: Liverpool Royal Hospital to Speke Morrisons (with Arriva Click minibuses) Timetables and updated network map: www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-west/latest/arriva-is-introducing-new-services-in-runcorn-and-widnes/The Arriva announcement also states that they will accept Halton tickets and passes for the next two weeks. Although the revised services start officially on Monday 27th January, they are aiming to cover as many journeys as they can over the weekend. Route 17 (Widnes - St Helens) which was jointly operated with Halton Transport, will operate to a reduced 40-minute frequency for the time being with the intention to increase this as resources become available. The 14A and 61 will no longer operate into Liverpool, and the 62 will no longer operate into Warrington. Arriva is advising passengers of connecting services at Widnes Green Oaks: 79C and 500 to Liverpool and 110 to Warrington. The 6 is a single early morning journey operated under contract to Merseytravel. Arriva is holding a recruitment open day today (Saturday 25th January) at their Beechwood, Runcorn Depot. Warrington's Own Buses are replacing route 62, which reached Warrington via Stockton Heath. As Arriva route 79c covered route 14a into Liverpool, Arriva are not keeping route 14a running into Liverpool. I rode route 79c from Widnes to Liverpool Childwall on 26.10.19. Route 14a had for a few years used some ex-Metrobus Scania OmniCity saloons, refurbished and given leather seating. |
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Post by grahamk748 on Jan 29, 2020 18:54:34 GMT
I read on another site that Grettons Coaches of Peterborough are to cease trading on 3rd April due to the lease on their current premises expiring and being unable to find a replacement, the have been in business 41 years. Also Target Travel,Plymouth are having their licence revoked next month due to PSVAR failures amongst other issues.
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Post by VWH1414 on Feb 19, 2020 21:22:12 GMT
Manchester Community Transport is to close in April: www.manct.org/statement/Apparently they were days away from closure before HCT Group saved them in 2017 - but they can no longer sustain the losses that MCT is causing HCT Group. |
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Feb 22, 2020 22:39:29 GMT
Manchester Community Transport is to close in April: www.manct.org/statement/Apparently they were days away from closure before HCT Group saved them in 2017 - but they can no longer sustain the losses that MCT is causing HCT Group. As they run mainly tenders, some emergency short-term tenders are inevitable. I think we could see more Go North West in south Manchester, especially on evening and Sunday tenders. I had a favourable final experience on MCT this morning. I picked up some timetables and saw when that MCT bus on route 96 was due to depart. It had just left the stop but was still near the pavement, and the driver did let me on.  |
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Post by wirewiper on Feb 24, 2020 18:31:28 GMT
Unless its appeal is successful, Target Travel of Plympton, Plymouth will have its Operating Licence revoked from 17th February 2020. It had already lost all its Plymouth City Council contracted bus routes to Stagecoach South West in 2018, and most of its Devon County Council contracts went to other operators last year - the last remaining, for routes 49/94 (a single contract operated with one vehicle) has already been re-awarded to Tally Ho! of Kingsbridge from 17th February. There are a number of closed school routes, special matchday buses operated for home games at Plymouth Argyle and some Tesco superstore routes for which new operators still need to be found. A limited operation may be allowed until the end of March if necessary to allow school transport to continue. Plymouth Argyle Supporters Club and the team themselves will also need to find an alternative provider for away-match transport. Target Travel of Plympton duly ceased operations after Saturday 15th February, operating all their football services (Plymouth Argyle's home game went ahead despite Storm Dennis) and the 49/94. Tally Ho! coaches has now taken on Target Travel's remaining work, together with some staff and vehicles. As well as their main base in Kingsbridge they also have a base next to Target Travel's in Plympton. |
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Post by wirewiper on Mar 15, 2020 12:20:09 GMT
Heritage Coaches of Sussex (The last remnants of Countryliner really) apparently closed down in December - with most work passing to Worthing Coaches. Jim Stones Coaches is also closing down on the 18th April - Sadly with all drivers made redundant unless a buyer for the business is found. Apparently they are closing due to uncertainty over bus franchising and LEZ plans, with Jim and his wife now retiring. Most of Jim Stones' services are being taken on by other operators from 19th April: 583, 589, 590, 596 to Warrington Transport ("Warrington's own buses") 584, 682 to Diamond Bus 599 (school route) to Vision Travel Operators for the 589 588, 595 and school route 933 are still to be confirmed. |
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Post by VWH1414 on Mar 16, 2020 11:59:35 GMT
Heritage Coaches of Sussex (The last remnants of Countryliner really) apparently closed down in December - with most work passing to Worthing Coaches. Jim Stones Coaches is also closing down on the 18th April - Sadly with all drivers made redundant unless a buyer for the business is found. Apparently they are closing due to uncertainty over bus franchising and LEZ plans, with Jim and his wife now retiring. Most of Jim Stones' services are being taken on by other operators from 19th April: 583, 589, 590, 596 to Warrington Transport ("Warrington's own buses") 584, 682 to Diamond Bus 599 (school route) to Vision Travel Operators for the 589 588, 595 and school route 933 are still to be confirmed. To add to the list of Jim Stones routes there is also route 593 (Leigh - Tamar). Though this is apparently not going to be replaced as it is covered by Stagecoach routes 8 & 9 already. |
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