(15 Aug 2018, 9:01 pm)James101 wrote PSVAR/DDA doesn’t apply to vehicles with less than 22 passenger capacity.

I’m torn on opinion on PCL. Clearly their vehicles and presentation standards are not ideal but neither is the owner on a yacht in the Maldives whilst the pensioners of Croquetdale suffer. PCL are a marginal operator working scraps of services not profitable enough for Arriva to bother. Certainly, the output of Spirit Buses was much better, but clearly unsustainable. The issue here, I feel, is government policy on supported services more generally.

What is unacceptable, however, is dropping journies randomly on such infrequent routes. Again, much of the blame lies with PCL here, but maybe if they, or others, were paid a fair amount for the carriage of passengers it would be a better story?

The management at PCL isn't very good either, they appear to have forgot or not bothered to inform Northumberland County Council that afternoon journeys on service M1 no longer operate, as such anybody waiting will not be picked up even though it says on the timetable it is scheduled.

Compared to Glen Valley Tours previous allocation of a Plaxton Beaver to service 470, it is very strange at how outside of school times the versas carry pretty much fresh air. 

Im thinking maybe PCL could operate a commercial service to Newcastle by simply extending one of the Wooler services using a Versa. I could actually see it working as Arriva prove themselves unreliable when it comes to Alnwick services.

In all serious if the idea was to work maybe PCL could aim for a new attractive brand, ideal stopping places, reasonable fares, lots of advertisements of the service and also come at popular times of when passengers want to travel.

Suggestion:
Route N1 'The Northern Direct' 
Alnwick - Willowburn - Shilbottle - A1 - Morpeth - Stannington - Dinnington - Newcastle Airport - Newcastle St. Thomas Street - Central Station.


This service will replace service S1/S2 in Stannington, it will reinstate the link to Newcastle, it will allow links to Train and Flight Connections by serving Newcastle Airport and Central Station. Also will allow more choice for passengers, in particular Alnwick to Morpeth as the current X15 is always delayed for various reasons.

Fares:
It would be extremely helpful if fares were provided before travelling, as such if the service was presented alike the Stagecoach X24 service.

Ideal prices would be:
Child Single: £2 
Child Return: £3
Child Day Ticket: £5
Child 10 Journey Ticket: £10
These fares would be restrictionless, alike Go North East who allow the £1 deal on most buses...
Adult Singles and Returns: Would change between destinations...
Adult Day Ticket: £7
Adult Week Ticket: £30
Adult Monthly Ticket: £100
Also if PCL offered Town Rider tickets allowing local residents, commuters and other passengers make short hops for a reasonable price.

I honestly think if PCL want to make a success of their services they should move with the times, an example of Passenger decrease is the 15 and 16, when Spirit Buses operated the services people flocked from all over to ride the routes, that was because the service was well advertised, well reviewed and extremely reliable with Spirit providing any updates if there was any disruption. Since Spirit Buses PCL seem to have allocated a vast fleet of vehicles, large amounts of reports of delays, breakdowns and overpriced tickets. Also the allocation of Ex Sunshine minibuses which to most people would be unnoticeable as a service bus...