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Warrington Bus service


Geoffrey Settle

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I travel by bus a lot and I am fortunately that I can sprint to the bus stop in about 30 seconds and it runs every 15 minutes during the day.

 

At night well forget it I have to grab one going in my homeward direction and run from the nearest bus stop usually just over a mile. So I am getting my fitness back.

 

I can read whilst I am on the bus or waiting so I'm not idle and then there are the people to chat to or observe as well as spotting things from the bus.

 

There are days however when my bus comes into the bus station late parks up at another bay and then clears off without picking anyone up.

 

What are your thoughts and experiences? :rolleyes:

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Far far far too expensive and I only use them as an absolute last resort. If I ever venture out and get stuck in the morning rush hour I can sit in the same traffic jam as the bus and watch sky news..... far more civilised! :D

 

My mate worked out that it was cheaper to drive to town, park his car and for him and his wife and two kids to get the train to Liverpool than it was for them all to catch the bus to town and back from Callands!

 

Says it all really.....

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My mate worked out that it was cheaper to drive to town, park his car and for him and his wife and two kids to get the train to Liverpool than it was for them all to catch the bus to town and back from Callands!

 

Your mate mustn't have been aware of the best deals on offer - which I'm pretty sure I have pointed out to you in similar threads, Baz! :)

 

Callands to Warrington (bus)

Family Day Return ticket (up to 4 people travelling together, at least one under 16) £5

 

Warrington to Liverpool (train)

2 x adult Off-Peak Day Return £10.60

2 x child Off-Peak Day Return £5.30

Total £15.90

 

With a Duo ticket, two adults could travel for £7.95. With a Friends & Family railcard, you might be able to get the fare down to around £7.90 but you'd have to purchase the railcard in the first place, which is £28. And that's without paying for parking the car.

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Costly and unreliable. I used to use plus bus as an add on to my train journey and prior to that had a monthly. Gave both up due to cost and reliability issues.

 

I use the 18 which was supposed to be every 10 mins but now been dropped to every 12 mins in peak hours. Regulalry one doesnt turn up and then 2 together. When you are relying on this fro an onward service, its not acceptable.

 

Also shutting down all bar basic routes after 6:30 isnt helpful either for people connecting from other places. Not everythign revolves around the centre of Warrington indeed 50% of peopel who work in warrington dont live there and 50% who live there dont work there. No cross town services avoiding the centre or through the centre again doesnt help.

 

I wont go back now I dont think which is a shame because i to enjoyed reading and relaxing on the same.

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Pretty much what Baz and other have said.

 

I do sometimes use the free park and ride bus from morrisons at xmas time though.

 

I had to get home from Penketh on the bus once and a journey that would have taken me 10 minutes in the car took me well over an hour and cost me a fortune.

 

It also costs a fortune for my lad to get to college (2 busses each way at approx £1.40 each ride. That's over a fiver each day so he gets the free college bus on the two mornings he can and I drop him off on the other two and his dad picks him up on the way home from work. Cheaper and quicker that way.

 

If they weren't so expensive then I possibly would use them more or if I could claim my travel expenses back I might too.

 

We are going shopping on Saturday but if the 3 of us go from SH to town and back on the paid bus it will cost us £8.40.

 

Cheaper for us to drive and pay to park although finding a parking space could be a pain...... might just drive to the Trafford Centre or Widnes.

 

Instead of giving free buss passes out to all the over 60's/65's why don't they just make everyone pay a quarter of what it costs now. Most people with free passes don't use them very often anyway and we are subsidising them all with the higher fares we have to pay.

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It also costs a fortune for my lad to get to college (2 busses each way at approx £1.40 each ride. That's over a fiver each day so he gets the free college bus on the two mornings he can and I drop him off on the other two and his dad picks him up on the way home from work. Cheaper and quicker that way.

 

Don't know where he lives and which college he goes to (and so which bus services he would catch) but a Day Rover on Network Warrington only costs £3.90 - and students can buy a town weekly ticket for £6.75 - which would be a lot less than a fiver a day.

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Don't know where he lives and which college he goes to (and so which bus services he would catch) but a Day Rover on Network Warrington only costs £3.90 - and students can buy a town weekly ticket for £6.75 - which would be a lot less than a fiver a day.

 

 

Still on the ball with your specialist subject James. :wink: Hope you are keeping well. :)

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I agree with the latter. Why do the tickets have to be renewed in person at only two locations which are closed outside of normal working hours?

 

Going back a few years to when I had a Savercard, however WBT did offer to set up a standing order and post out my monthly season ticket as it expired: it pays to ask.

 

Keep an eye out for this though: smartcard season tickets coming soon (and hopefully online renewals)?

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The last time I went to Liverpool on the Train with my wife and 2 children (one 3 years old) it was £9 odd return (about 2 months ago). I parked at the station for £2.50 so about £12.50 total. A bus day return ticket is useless on Sunday if you are getting back to Warrington after 6pm as the buses seem to stop before this.

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I use the busses all the time and find the cost reasonable if you use a bit of common sense e.g. a Day Rover means you can travel all day for £3.90, and always get a return ticket if you are just going to use one bus there and back. There are, however a few frustrating aspects of the service at the moment. For example there are 3 busses that pass my road twice an hour going into town so you would think there would be one every 10 minutes.Too logical that! Many times you get 2, or even 3 in line astern to be joined further along the route by another one on a different route. Not to mention a couple of Arriva busses joining in the game of leap frog. And of course the way 99% of Warrington busses aren't allowed out of their garage after 6 PM or before 11 AM on Sunday. However a little pre-planning helps to ease the frustration some of the time. :wink: :wink: :wink:

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Your mate mustn't have been aware of the best deals on offer - which I'm pretty sure I have pointed out to you in similar threads, Baz! :)

 

Callands to Warrington (bus)

Family Day Return ticket (up to 4 people travelling together, at least one under 16) £5

 

Warrington to Liverpool (train)

2 x adult Off-Peak Day Return £10.60

2 x child Off-Peak Day Return £5.30

Total £15.90

 

With a Duo ticket, two adults could travel for £7.95. With a Friends & Family railcard, you might be able to get the fare down to around £7.90 but you'd have to purchase the railcard in the first place, which is £28. And that's without paying for parking the car.

 

See post by PJ..... :D

 

plus what use is a service that hardly runs on a Sunday? WBT are hardly going to get people out of their cars and onto their buses if they don't operate when they are wanted....

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See post by PJ...

 

So that's £12.50 versus £5 - which isn't "cheaper to drive to town, park his car and for him and his wife and two kids to get the train to Liverpool than it was for them all to catch the bus to town and back from Callands" by a long shot! Care to revise your original post?

 

plus what use is a service that hardly runs on a Sunday? WBT are hardly going to get people out of their cars and onto their buses if they don't operate when they are wanted....

 

Oh, I agree totally. I was very annoyed when the council withdrew subsidy for Sunday evening services in 2010 and voiced my opinions very strongly at the time. What we're left with is essentially what can be run commercially with only one shift. I'd like to see buses continue to at least 7pm or 8pm on Sundays (as a compromise if we can't have the whole timetable reinstated), but it's not going to be any time soon with cuts to Bus Service Operators Grant (aka fuel duty rebate) coming into effect in 2012 and continuing pressure on council finances.

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JimmyMac, I think Baz may have meant that it was far more expensive for the Callands to town element of the journey by bus compared to by car but I could be wrong.

 

If we take my journey as an example it would cost a fiver to get to Town on the bus and about £7 in a cab back as there were no buses when I needed them. Thats £12 and I'm being very consevative with the cab fare. So £2.50 and a few drops of deisel against £12, plus no walks to and from bus stops at both ends, win,win for the car mate.

 

If I was prepared to walk from the Golden Square car park (free on Sundays), which is roughly the same distance from Central station as the Bus station is, then it is indeed as Baz says, cheaper for me and my family to get from Callands to Liverpool by car and train than it is to get to and from town relying upon WBT and their inadequate and overpriced service.

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Had to nip into town this morning to sort out as bit of business. I went in the car and parked at the cockedge car park. Managed to get both jobs done in about forty minutes. Cost about ten pence in fuel and a pound to park the car.

 

Had I gone by bus it would have cost me £3.00 return.

Had Mrs sid gone with me and we had both gone on the bus that would have been £6.00 or in my car about a quarter of a tank off fuel which, if the estimates for my fuel consumption in the brochure is right, 70 miles.

 

So walk a hundred yards, get a bus, shop, get a bus back with shopping, walk a hundred and twenty yards back to house and spend £6.00 on travel alone.

Or walk six feet, get in car drive to town and park up,do shopping, drive back walk six feet back into house with shopping and spend at most £2.50 on travel.

 

So unless I am going to have a few beers then bus travel is something I do not do.

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Had to nip into town this morning to sort out as bit of business. I went in the car and parked at the cockedge car park. Managed to get both jobs done in about forty minutes. Cost about ten pence in fuel and a pound to park the car.

Had I gone by bus it would have cost me £3.00 return.

Had Mrs sid gone with me and we had both gone on the bus that would have been £6.00 or in my car about a quarter of a tank off fuel which, if the estimates for my fuel consumption in the brochure is right, 70 miles.

 

So walk a hundred yards, get a bus, shop, get a bus back with shopping, walk a hundred and twenty yards back to house and spend £6.00 on travel alone.

Or walk six feet, get in car drive to town and park up,do shopping, drive back walk six feet back into house with shopping and spend at most £2.50 on travel.

 

So unless I am going to have a few beers then bus travel is something I do not do.

 

 

On your own it costs 10p in fuel plus £1 parking, a total of £1.10. With Mrs Sid it costs an extra £1.40 in fuel, in fact 15 times as much petrol needed!. :unsure:how can I put it delicately? Is Mrs Sid very well nourished? :):wink:

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JimmyMac, I think Baz may have meant that it was far more expensive for the Callands to town element of the journey by bus compared to by car but I could be wrong.

 

That isn't how I read it - it implies the whole train journey as well.

 

If we take my journey as an example it would cost a fiver to get to Town on the bus and about £7 in a cab back as there were no buses when I needed them.

 

Sunday services is a different argument. Just wanted to correct the initial comment by Baz.

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Sunday services is a different argument. Just wanted to correct the initial comment by Baz.

 

You are just sticking up for WBT and their crap service Jimmy.... The only bit I need to correct is the fact that the original journey was indeed made on a Sunday and as such is totally useless to get a bus. So by that logic, if WBT cannot be arsed to carry us properly on a Sunday, why the hell should we subsidise them if we decide to make the journey on a Saturday?

 

Plus, car travel over such a short distance is infinately better than some skany old clapped out train

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As those with cars pay road tax, insurance and of course have the depreciation factor to consider then regardless of how many times we/they use our/their cars then we/they might as well make the most of them eh especially when they are so convenient and we/they are paying for them anyway :wink:

 

Taking into account our trips out today I wonder how much this would have all cost on a bus and even more so how long would it have taken :shock:

 

Can anyone work it out for me please <_<

 

One trip from SH to Warrington Collegiate and back mid morning.

 

One trip to Homebase at Bridge Foot to get some more paint as I ran out. Not in stock so a trip to B&Q at Milner Street.

 

Back home......

 

Later.. a trip to Warrington Library to take some library books back and a drop off at the accountants on the way to Penketh to pay for my car batteries.

 

Followed by a 'can you pick me up from college as we've finished early and I don't have enough for the bus fare home cos dad was picking me up later.

 

GRUMBLE.. but ok so on the way back a pop into the new Decathlon and Tesco as we were passing so spent some money we wouldn't have spent if HE had got the bus I guess.

 

So maybe cars and the ease are also making people shop more as we get around a bit easier so as such are keeping many businesses IN BUSINESS..

 

Who knows, but if we had to use a bus we wouldn't have shopped where we did or gone where we did or spent what we did.

 

Oh and how much for my other half getting to Birchwood and back leaving home at 6.30 and and return about 4.30 pm ?

 

Note.. no trips into the Town Centre though Geoff as I'm leaving that until Saturday when the free bus is on unless we got to Widnes.

 

So rid us of our cars and make us use public transport and we may have no choice to all shop online or work from home.. yeah lets all become hermits :wink: COOL :D

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