Chester Update

With Arriva’s third competitive service starting this morning, how are things doing in Chester? Omnibuses’ Northern Corespondent went to find out...

Most of Chesterbus’ elderly double decks have now left the city, to be replaced as I understand it with cascaded First Manchester examples, being readied for the new school year. They will be younger than Chesterbus’. Of the 18 Chesterbus non-open tops, one was from 1980, another from 1981, five from 1982, and the remainder from 1984-89.

This means that during the summer, there’s been much less ‘interest’ on Chester’s routes. The usual mixture of Chesterbus Darts old and older continues, of course, pending the arrival from various parts of the First empire of 10 second hand Scanias. At least the Darts' capacity better matches the numbers travelling on the 1/1As & 15. I don’t pretend to have a totally accurate picture but neither party has anything like full buses.

The bus exchange can still become busy with buses, though not generally overly so. From time to time, there’s some stacking, and reversing of vehicles onto stands. The whole place is due for demolition, anyway, with redevelopment work during August already started adjacent to the nearby inner ring road. With an additional Arriva service, the exchange will hot up further, of course, till its closure.

There have been times when Arriva drivers have been faced with more mothers-with-buggies than they have space. This is an encouraging sign in an otherwise equal contest. It’s quite possible that this indicates the potential for passenger growth. Meanwhile, there’s a significant fares differential, that sees a single trip on First Chesterbus on the 1/1A/15 and newly competitive 9s at 30p cheaper than the Arriva fare, at the time of writing.

There’s also no doubt that Arriva’s 07-reg buses offer by far the better passenger environment, but the roads served on the 1/1As are peppered with speed humps and cushions. It can be uncomfortable for passengers, no matter the type and age of bus. Parked cars and awkward turns occasionally mean drivers cannot always correctly line up over the cushions. Wallop! The full humps and speed tables are quite severe and, sadly, it won't be long perhaps till Arriva’s new vehicles join Chesterbus' in rattling.

From today, Arriva continues its Chester competition with 10-minute service 9, between Chester and Piper’s Ash (Mondays to Saturdays daytime only). First Chesterbus operates every 15 minutes and hourly in the evenings.