It seems uncertainty over the future of the 300 Knutsford
Town Circular evening service has ended with D&G Bus planning to take over
the service from 9th May 2016. (Tomlinson Travel announced almost 2
months ago they were withdrawing the service.)
However, it should be noted in the early 1990s the route was operated by
Starline Travel to operate to a 15 minute frequency in the daytime and a 30
minute frequency in the evenings. It was
reduced to a 30 minute frequency all day when Starline Travel were taken over
by North Western (now Arriva North West) and there have been a few cutbacks
since Arriva gave up on running the service, such as a pre-8am service being
withdrawn and less services running in the afternoon.
Fairly recently the 27 Macclesfield to Knutsford service was
cut back. A Summer Sunday service, which
used to be operated by Bakerbus and extended to Tatton Park, was withdrawn as a
result of council subsidy cuts. The
weekday service was also reduced as the subsided hourly service on weekdays has
been replaced by a commercial service which doesn’t operate every hour. The Saturday service was reduced to 2 hourly
but has since been increased to hourly again.
Also not that long ago the 47 bus between Warrington, Lymm,
High Legh, Knutsford and Lower Peover was withdrawn. In recent years this was just two return workings
on Tuesdays and Fridays (operated by Tomlinson Travel) but it used to be five
return workings daily (operated by Warrington Borough Transport.) Some Warrington Borough Transport services
extended to Northwich via Lach Dennis and Lostock Green. The reason for the original cutback was down
to a disagreement between Cheshire County Council and Warrington Borough
Council over funding for the service.
The 289 service (between Altrincham and Northwich via Knutsford) was
re-routed via High Legh when the 47 service was cut back.
An unusual route, in the H50, used to operate on Tuesdays
and Fridays only. This ran from Sandbach
to Altrincham via Congleton and Knutsford.
It also included a stop at the Rostherne entrance to Tatton Park. This was also withdrawn as the result of the
subsidy cut.
The one exception to the cutback trend has been the 88
Knutsford to Altrincham via Wilmslow bus route.
This route had been hourly for a very long time (it used to be the 288
route operated by Starline Travel in the early 90s.) In late 2014 the frequency was increased to
half-hourly and some earlier and later services were added – the first bus from
Knutsford is currently at 05:25, while the last service from Altrincham is
currently at 19:20. The full timetable
can be found here: http://ghagold.co.uk
Surprisingly, given Knutsford’s location, as far as I’m
aware there has never been a direct bus to Manchester Airport and there has
never been a bus to one of the area’s biggest landmarks, in Jodrell Bank.
