there are no buses on new years day,its so no6 can get drunk on new years eve

i know its good isnt it

come april there will be no buses after 7pm and none at all on a sunday so make the most of it now

in 2015 i am led to believe but still no buses

don't see why my council tax should subsidise buses for those who don't pay any

If you can't afford a car get on yer bike

i was thinking if the oldham game goes ahead people are going to have to walk to the ground or cadge a lift

which buses are stopping after 7 and on sundays?

All of them.

All buses stopping ? That has to be a wind up surely....?

i thought it was just some

It's to keep the roads clear for us car drivers.

no the council is withdrawing all subsidies to bus operators and stagecoach will operate 5.30 am to 7pm mon to sat as they consider all other times unprofitable and will not run them

..Chip, have you considered approaching that firm Exwold Technology in Brenda Road, apparently they're having to work 7 days a week due to massive orders for their airport runway de-icer.

As a non driver this isn't very good news for me. The Pools night games were my main concern as jumping on the number 6 or 36 is rather convenient and cheap, plus after the match you can have a couple before getting one of the last buses back home. Oh well I need to cut down on drinking anyway...

If the between towns services are cut back it is gonna cost many a fortune to get back from work. Sounds like 2011 could be a tough year...

But we're not living in a socialist state no more. Profit before people.

In the current climate that is EXACTLY what must and will happen!

You would hope that something could be sorted out. There must be a profitable way to run a bus service in the town after 7. Maybe smaller buses running every half hour just covering the main the roads. (Hartlepool Hopper style..!) I don't think anyone expects a bus to take them virtually to the door but scrapping all services after certain times must be a non starter. How are people who work in the bars, supermarkets or factories supposed to get to work?

I agree with Chip, everyone that I know that works for the council works under next to no stress with very flexible hours, it's time to put the cigars away and make people do a proper days work.

If this is actually true then the council should resign en masse. It would be a monumental disgrace for all public transport to cease at 7pm. I really can't see it happening, they would be a huge outcry and an awful lot of people would lose their jobs. Hartlepool would cease to function and become a big version of Horden.

Glad u can spot a tongue in cheek comment when you see one chip... this is the inevitable effect of a PRIVATE company running a PUBLIC service.. any profitable buses will run those with two old age pensioners and a dog won't.. It has been a few years coming but the rot started when they let a virtual PRIVATE monopoly run the transport service..

I'm not sure who runs Arriva but their buses run right into the late hours in Boro and Stockton.

transport interchange with no transport you could'nt make it up no trains after acertain time and now no buses

is the transport interchange our equivilant of the white elephant arena,remind me how much did this cost and how much was it supposed to cost when it was first planned

It's Arriva I believe.

take the franchise away from the greedy wan-kers. I'm willing to bet it was one of the stipulations of getting it in the first place that they couldn't just pick and choose which services to run.
They were quite willing to put free buses on in Darlington to squeeze out the franchise holder there, until basically the franchisee went bust because nobody would get on a bus they had to pay on as opposed to a free one.
Chip also makes some good points - it's typical of an organisation such as the Council that bus services and libraries are cut out before people holding non-jobs. It is perfectly correct to say a lot of the pen pushing twats in the civic centre wouldn't know how to survive in the private sector if their lives depended on it

PS that's not meant to come across as it may have sounded about working in the private sector as folks lose their jobs every day in the private sector - I'm talking about the realities of what work actually entails in most everyday jobs

if they withdraw the subsidy then no other company is going to step in because the average takings after 7pm are £50/60 per bus now 5 years ago the cost per hour to run a bus was £14 including wages diesel maintenance so running a bus for 4 1/2 hours is actually costing the company money and the shareholders wont like that.
the arriva service 7 on an evening is operated by their stockton depot so their hourly costs will be greater if you include the added cost of getting drivers through to change over as the arriva service starts at 6.30 so allowing for the time to get to its start point and the time to get back to the depot the driver would exceed the legal maximum driving time if there was no change of driver.
the only other company in the town which may take over the services is the tees valley coach company who pay less in wages so their running costs would be slightly lower BUT their fleet is not modern enough with regards to low floor requirements so not sure if they would be willing to purchase suitable buses due to the lack of profit.
with regards the hopper buses the company have them in other depots but the cost of having an evening fleet and a daytime fleet would prevent this scenario.
it may be all smoke and mirrors by stagecoach by putting their plans in the public domain now it gives the public of hartlepool time to lobby their councillors and put the pressure on them that the company cant.
they have said no redundancies but the current policy of disciplinary action for any breach of company policy means there are a number of drivers on final warnings that may be very cheap to dispose of.
(not me by the way am proud of my unblemished disciplinary record after 10 years)
one option is to reduce our working week from the current 40 hours as most drivers at our depot have a contract allowing them to cut our working week to 37.5 hours.
the company must give the traffic commisioner 56 days notice of changes to services so any changes coming into effect in april must be notified by the end of january begining of february so we wont have long to wait to know.

Shop At Binns

Go By Bus

23 Workmen

Happy Days.

Why don't they start charging the pensioners to travel on the buses again. I use the No.6 on a sat night to go out for a few jars and that last route back up to the fens is usually bouncing with pensioners who've been on the tiles. I don't believe that a return ticket for two to three quid is gonna break the bank. It's cheaper than a taxi. I would like to bet they would rather pay to use the buses than have no bus at all.

the council decided that it would allow concession pass holders unlimited free travel whereas most other councils put a time limit on it i have not heard that they intend altering this scheme. the bus company cannot do it without the council agreeing to it

this is something that has not been discussed yet as how can you sell a 7 day pass if you only operate 6 days a week

65+ now i believe for men again and think the womens entitlement is linked to their raised retirement age.
and thats the whole point off peak but our council had to squander more money by not making it off peak but anytime and pay the difference

I didn't know it was law Chip. Just thought it was a local council issue.
If there were to be no buses after 7pm then I think the few struggling pubs / clubs left will be pushed out of business. There just seems to be no forward thinking by this council whatsoever.
I have to agree with the comments about trimming the council deadwood down. All the private businesses have had to do it over the last 15 yrs or so to stay afloat.