Looks like the end is nigh and services will stop when the last bus gets back to the depot this evening.
Bit of a blow to the area, I see a load of school kids were left stranded when their bus didn't arrive.
Feel for the drivers, hope they can get fixed up with Arriva who appear to be on a big recruitment drive.
Bit of a link to Widnes RL too, sponsored our shirts in 2001 when we were promoted.
One of the last council run services in the country
I'm sure Grant Chapps will be happy with the German owned , tax payer subsided company taking over
After all , they did a great job with the local trains
It's a good job we've got £100bn+ to spoff on HS2 eh?
Surely this comes under the Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram remit. He was elected on a ticket to improve and level up the bus services. We have yellow bus signs and a worse bus service. I haven't heard a lot from him he should be all over this. Halton Council own 100% of Halton Transport but after trying to sell it they appear to have washed their hands of it and let it go bust. I would like to see the council discussions which led to this decision made public then we could have a proper discussion on its merits.
Surely this comes under the Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram remit. He was elected on a ticket to improve and level up the bus services. We have yellow bus signs and a worse bus service. I haven’t heard a lot from him he should be all over this. Halton Council own 100% of Halton Transport but after trying to sell it they appear to have washed their hands of it and let it go bust. I would like to see the council discussions which led to this decision made public then we could have a proper discussion on its merits.
both Burnham and Rotherham should be looking into this given the noises they have been making around transport in the NW
We already know that an equivalent bus journey is 3 times dearer in the NW than London so why are they subsided to that extent and why are local services that they are "championing" so much being allowed to die away ?
A significant issue for Steve Rotheram in particular should be that if you get on a bus in Runcorn or Widnes it is significantly more expensive than if you get on the same bus in Liverpool. Or you can get a free bus pass in Liverpool at 60 including Merseyrail and at 67 in Runcorn or Widnes for buses only if they run at all. He was elected on a Ticket to sort this out. The Government should hopefully nationalise Northern Rail today or at the very least make very significant alterations to what is going on. Andy Burnham is making a lot more sense than Steve Rotheram on this i,e. work with the Government to sort this disgrace out and make the trains run on time than Steve Rotheram who is spouting climate emergency and they should have done this 18 months ago both of which may or may not be true but is not constructive in allowing him to influence a government in power for at least the next 5 years.
So sad to see this. Halton Transport has provided a great service. I hadn't realised it had been running for 110 years and although I don't live in Widnes anymore I recognise the excellent service it has provided the town. It's going to provide real issues for a lot of people.
So sad to see this. Halton Transport has provided a great service. I hadn’t realised it had been running for 110 years and although I don’t live in Widnes anymore I recognise the excellent service it has provided the town. It’s going to provide real issues for a lot of people.
First ever covered double decker buses in the world were run by Widnes BC
I guess it will not be long before the depot is knocked down.
And more houses built.
You do realise that the bigger the population oh Halton is, the higher the Executives pay will be .
I suppose if you look for the root cause, you would ask yourself; Why did they go bust? Answer; not enough people are using them. Why do they not use them? Answer; maybe because parking is free in Widnes, it's cheaper to drive into the town centre.
Maybe if the council charged for parking, then folk would have used the buses more often? Also, it can be cheaper to get a taxi from the town, to your doorstep, with your 'big shop', than to faff about trying to get from the bus stop to your house, when laden with shopping (taxi tariffs are set by the council)
I'm only an occasional bus passenger, they were a good service and I'm sad to see them go. Surely the Intelligentsia in the Council Chambers can somehow revive this situation, especially if they have a commitment to reduce the Carbon Footprint of WA8 & WA7.
Now what happens to the multi-millions generated by the Mersey Gateway fines?
Paulie xx
I suppose if you look for the root cause, you would ask yourself; Why did they go bust? Answer; not enough people are using them. Why do they not use them? Answer; maybe because parking is free in Widnes, it’s cheaper to drive into the town centre. Maybe if the council charged for parking, then folk would have used the buses more often? Also, it can be cheaper to get a taxi from the town, to your doorstep, with your ‘big shop’, than to faff about trying to get from the bus stop to your house, when laden with shopping (taxi tariffs are set by the council) I’m only an occasional bus passenger, they were a good service and I’m sad to see them go. Surely the Intelligentsia in the Council Chambers can somehow revive this situation, especially if they have a commitment to reduce the Carbon Footprint of WA8 & WA7. Now what happens to the multi-millions generated by the Mersey Gateway fines? Paulie xx
The Council don't gain anything from Mersey Gateway Fines or Mersey Gateway Fares. This all goes to Merseyflow which is a private company. Every time a Council Car or small van crosses the bridge they pay Merseyflow £1.80 each way, every time a council bin wagon crosses they pay Merseyflow £7.20 each way.
Lots of people don't have cars buses are an essential service not a choice. If they charge for parking in Widnes some people will go elsewhere taking money out of the Borough.
It will be interesting to see if the council can get hold of any of this £5 billion to help save the service
Transport system of every country is the best option to provide the masses with great facilities. According to different styles,
Paulie - The bridge fines all go to a private company, who financed the bridge to be built by another company. The fines will have played a small part in their number crunching when doing the initial deal, which all goes towards their profit.
Why would anyone who drives want to use the bus? For some there is no choice and that is where the problem is. Depending on where you want to go it can take forever to get there due to the (Necessary) circular route. Also if there are say 3 of you it will probably be cheaper to get a taxi than a bus which doesn't help and again would be significantly quicker. Time is the biggest factor for people not using a bus if they don't have to.
Public transport in this country isn't great, and such a big service won't be subsidised these days.
Emissions targets are rubbish as it's a piss in the ocean overall, but that won't stop the loony left pushing to spend 10's of billions of pounds (That we don't have) on things that won't make a jot of difference in the bigger picture, rather than bigger problems like schools, health service & (Ironically) transport links. It's going to be this decades white elephant, and massively disproportionate spending as it's the latest bandwagon.
If buses and trains were reliable, efficient and a reasonable price then lots of people would use them (Just see the numerous other countries where this is the case!), but they fail on almost all of these counts. How many bus services are there to the station to allow further journeys? I'm sure with all the data available these days more effective routes could be used to up usage a bit, but it's just a fact that people don't want to spend ages commuting anywhere every day.