Warrington Transport on the brink

[Deleted]

Warrington Transport looks like it's going to be the next Municipal operator to be sold. Their owners Warrington Borough Council have had to give them an emergency bailout and are about to carryout a full strategic review. Going public over the latter is normally a good indicator that serious consideration will be given to offers for the company.

So, if any enthusiasts who haven't got photos of the fleet or need one or two better do it soon. Oh, best get some of Halton Transports at the same time as that looks like it could fold soon too.

[speedbird1960]

Its all these Government cut backs that's causing council operated services to struggle.

[Deleted]

Your right to a degree but those cuts affect all operators equally. The major problem is that they are nolonger large enough to survive in what is now a privately owned sector. The private sector is dominated by extremely large groups some of which are foreign state owned. These large groups enjoy tremendous economies of scale which enable them to run on a shoe string budget and therefore keep fares low, so low that even Municipals can nolonger compete. Now you may disagree with the latter especially if you live in Liverpool as at £2.10 the fare would appear high and is but would be a lot lower if it wasn't for political interference.

Next time your on a bus just observe how many people actually get on and pay the full single fare. What you will find is that the majority don't pay at all, they all show their heavily discounted tickets and walk straight on. Those that do pay are normally buying their discounted weekly, day, or student, tickets. If your working and can afford to buy one of these tickets you may be thinking, what's wrong with that, isn't that what the majority of people want? However, if your not employed or are on a very low wage you may well be thinking that there's something wrong here. This is public transport, something that should be affordable to everyone and if everyone paid the same price I would be able to use the bus more often. You could even extend that train of thought to include the railways.

[Deleted]

I know what you mean Chris, I have the same problem. I live 7 miles from work and have to get two buses which takes over an hour and I still have a ten minute walk at the end. Like you it takes me 15-20 mins by car but I sometimes take my bike (weather depending) and that takes 30-35 mins depending on the bike I use. With regard to the fare it probably would have cost a gallon of diesel just to get there a few years back but nothing like that now. You say that you had to catch three buses to get to work and three to get back again. To pay the single journey fare (£2.10) on each bus would cost £12.60 per day. However, (as I said) very few people pay the single fare. Now, I'll demonstrate how cheap buses really are for regular users and you if you were to use only Arriva buses based on the information you gave.

Tickets bought from the driver;

£4.00 day ticket (Liverpool only). Saving to you £8.60. Cost per journey (6 journeys) = 67p

£15.00 Weekly (All Merseyside) Saving to you (assuming 5 day week) £48. Cost per journey (30 journeys) = 50p

Ticket bought on line;

£47.25. 4 Weekly ticket. Saving to you £204.75. Cost per journey (120 journeys) = 39.5p

I could go on but I think you get the drift. There are other tickets available online, through shops, and even Merseytravel. Therefore, it gets cheaper still especially if your a student who's parents can afford to pay upfront (sorry for the assumption my learned friends).