Bus Timetable Changes 3 September 2023

[Irene Swaine]

3 minutes ago, Padders said:

It's fine Irene,

Floor tile is back in the fridge ready for the next one...

Save room for HeHasRisen's cucumber in that fridge!

[Guest busdriver1]

8 hours ago, Irene Swaine said:

I rode it all the way to Glossop, and it was busy, even after Fearfall Wood, with a plethora of passengers waiting to board the bus back to Sheffield when we arrived at the terminus. It's a summer Sunday only service, so fairly low risk and abstract, aimed at tourists and ramblers.

Yes and why do you think there were no passengers? 🙄

thats easy - no demand. The same reason previous efforts for a service like it have failed

[Irene Swaine]

6 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

thats easy - no demand. The same reason previous efforts for a service like it have failed

Airports do have demand...it's just that 2 hours+ on a bus with no toilet, no food and drink facilities and the possibility of getting delayed in traffic didn't strike up enough demand to sustain feasability. You're up in Newcastle, aren't you? I live close to the route that this bus took. I have seen with my own eyes how it worked.

[RollingJ]

5 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

Airports do have demand...it's just that 2 hours+ on a bus with no toilet, no food and drink facilities and the possibility of getting delayed in traffic didn't strike up enough demand to sustain feasability. You're up in Newcastle, aren't you? I live close to the route that this bus took. I have seen with my own eyes how it worked.

Would anyone using the airport actually use such as service, though? The vehicles involved - standard stage carriage ones - do do not have sufficient luggage space.

[Irene Swaine]

3 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Would anyone using the airport actually use such as service, though? The vehicles involved - standard stage carriage ones - do do not have sufficient luggage space.

It was obviously intended that a direct service to an airport would be a unique selling point. In theory, it could have worked, with Robin Hood airport dwindling/under threat of closure and there now being a reduced direct train service (many of the TransPennine services run to Liverpool now, instead of the airport). But if you are going on a hen or stag party, say to Marbella, you will want to enjoy some booze on the way to the airport and ultimately, have toilet facilities close by, not possible on a bus along the snake pass. Likewise, the business man travelling to New York would want space to prepare for his important meeting, not possible with no table. 

 

I could see National Express doing a limited stop service, perhaps calling only at key points such as Broomhill, Ladybower, Glossop & Manchester City Centre. There is an advantage of being able to get to a major airport from one's local bus stop. However, even National Express seem to be struggling, they've closed their travel shop at the Interchange. Passengers have to buy their tickets from Select & Save on Arundel Gate now.

[HeHasRisen]

18 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Would anyone using the airport actually use such as service, though? The vehicles involved - standard stage carriage ones - do do not have sufficient luggage space.

 

I cant imagine the through traffic from Sheffield to the Airport was anything significant, and between Manchester and the Airport the bus would have been competing with a myriad of other buses, trams and trains.

 

In addition it would have been very rare that the timings of that bus would have fitted in with both legs of the plane journey. Wouldnt have seen me anywhere near it.

7 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

Passengers have to buy their tickets from Select & Save on Arundel Gate now.

Or, heaven forbid, online, like the vast vast majority of their customers will already do. Responding to changing buying trends in the year 2023 by closing (likely) loss making physical counters isnt "struggling" by any definition.

Edited August 24, 2023 by HeHasRisen

[RollingJ]

5 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

It was obviously intended that a direct service to an airport would be a unique selling point. In theory, it could have worked, with Robin Hood airport dwindling/under threat of closure and there now being a reduced direct train service (many of the TransPennine services run to Liverpool now, instead of the airport). But if you are going on a hen or stag party, say to Marbella, you will want to enjoy some booze on the way to the airport and ultimately, have toilet facilities close by, not possible on a bus along the snake pass. Likewise, the business man travelling to New York would want space to prepare for his important meeting, not possible with no table. 

 

I could see National Express doing a limited stop service, perhaps calling only at key points such as Broomhill, Ladybower, Glossop & Manchester City Centre. There is an advantage of being able to get to a major airport from one's local bus stop. However, even National Express seem to be struggling, they've closed their travel shop at the Interchange. Passengers have to buy their tickets from Select & Save on Arundel Gate now.

What has any of that got to do with the point of my post you quoted?

 

5 minutes ago, HeHasRisen said:

 

I cant imagine the through traffic from Sheffield to the Airport was anything significant, and between Manchester and the Airport the bus would have been competing with a myriad of other buses, trams and trains.

 

In addition it would have been very rare that the timings of that bus would have fitted in with both legs of the plane journey. Wouldnt have seen me anywhere near it.

Or, heaven forbid, online, like the vast vast majority of their customers will already do.

I couldn't work out why it was originally run to the airport, either - on the couple of times I used it beyond Chorlton Street, I was the only passenger.

[HeHasRisen]

They must have though, God knows why, that there was some pent up Sheffield demand for a direct bus to the Airport that takes 2 hours, that only ran 5 (?) times a day, and would have been absolutely useless for the raft of 6-7am departures major airports operate.

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, HeHasRisen said:

They must have though, God knows why, that there was some pent up Sheffield demand for a direct bus to the Airport that takes 2 hours, that only ran 5 (?) times a day, and would have been absolutely useless for the raft of 6-7am departures major airports operate.

Don't know about that, personally - Hulleys are fairly clued up. Next time I see the driver that was usually on that route I'll see if he can explain the thinking behind it.

[HeHasRisen]

Dont even see why they thought a major Glossop-Sheffield (and vice versa) demand existed tbh, there are no settlements on the A57 between Ladybower (where services turn off towards Bamford) and Glossop, and people take jobs on the basis of existing provision, not the likelihood someone will wander in 10 years later and put a bus route in. Just seemed strange all round.

Edited August 24, 2023 by HeHasRisen