West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

[hoots the scoop]

Anyone else hear that West Coast Motors will no longer be running any CityLink Routes including those north of the city? Instead WCM plan to run the routes themselves at cheaper prices and better times.

Now that does sound like a plan.

[Hello]

That is very interesting and I would like to see perhaps an early bird three or four days a week express service from campbeltown to glasgow arriving at 9a.m or even an overnight service arriving at 6am

[westcoast]

West Coast Motors will be operating our own Campbeltown - Glasgow service from Monday 19th May. The new departure times from Campbeltown will be 07.05, 11.05 and 16.50 and from Glasgow 08.50, 13.20 and 17.50. Fares will be cheaper and we will have occasional special offers and saver tickets available.
There will be no booking fee for concession cards.
Please call into the office or telephone 552319 for more info.

[daftdog]

West Coast Motors will be operating our own Campbeltown - Glasgow service from Monday 19th May. The new departure times from Campbeltown will be 07.05, 11.05 and 16.50 and from Glasgow 08.50, 13.20 and 17.50. Fares will be cheaper and we will have occasional special offers and saver tickets available.
There will be no booking fee for concession cards.
Please call into the office or telephone 552319 for more info.

What are these cheaper fares?? When you say occasional special offers and saver tickets.. what are these and how occasional?

Personally, for the sake of 10mins, i would go with the best available fare when i travel (what is cost effective for me).

[StephenJ]

Is this in addition to the current service, or replacing it?

These times appear to be only marginally different (all services leaving 10 minutes earlier than before) but it seems to me as a semi-regular bus user that these new times are potentially slightly more inconvenient to a lot of people who would wish to use the bus? Was any consultation done with current users of the service? Are the changes for a reason, for example to avoid road congestion, or are they arbitrary?

People who work in Glasgow 9-5 and want catch the bus to go to Campbeltown now will have even more of a rush to get to the bus station (never easy at that time of day via public transport). The same applies to those in Campbeltown, although they will be used to having to get off early, as the times have never been ideal.

Will the buses also arrive at their destinations ten minutes earlier? Even if they will, it doesn't seem that saving ten minutes at the end of the journey offsets the downside of leaving earlier. The early bus time from Campbeltown was bad enough as it was, getting into Glasgow at 11.25 instead of 11.35 wouldn't be a huge selling point to me.

Also, will the ticketing arrangements change? Will those who have not managed to purchase bus tickets in advance continue to be treated worse than criminals by Buchanan Bus Station staff, as they have in recent years, or was that purely a Citylink customer service innovation that can now be discarded in favour of the friendly service we used to experience on the West Coast buses?

[WTC]

Not wishing to distract from the original post but where is the bus going in the photo?

The Wee Pictures?

Or is the photo a fake!!!!!

[WTC]

Do I win a prize?

My own bus perhaps!

Can I gat a grant?

Can anyone get a bus and run it?

(EEEESSSSSSBBBBBBEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[lornemacd]

As a regular bus user, a couple of comments that may be of use are;

On busy runs why does the Campbeltown – Glasgow bus have to fill up before passengers getting on at Lochgilphead are put onto the second bus when it is inevitably going to have to run the whole way also? This often leaves an uncomfortably full bus with passengers travelling the longest distance and only a few on the second one. This really only applies mid summer and Fridays and Sundays.

Another great comfort boost would be the use of the on-board toilet particularly with the amount of elderly people travelling. I have not been on any other run of a similar length without a functioning toilet.

These are two small nags on an otherwise great and appreciated service but I do feel improving the comfort would certainly increase the amount of times I use the bus option and most likely others.

[westcoast]

The ticketing arrangements will change - and we're trying to do this as quickly as possible.
Currently tickets can be booked in any of our offices or bought on the bus - seats do not need to be booked in advance
and we won't treat anyone like a criminal for not having a ticket!
We hope to have card facilities available in the very near future which will allow telephone bookings and we should be able to sell tickets in buchanan bus station shortly for anyone wishing to book there.

The buses will arrive ten minutes earlier and the times have been changed to better serve the ferry connections.

The bus in the picture (it's not a fake) is heading to Glasgow.

Please call us for any info, we'll be glad to help

[Hello]

As a regular bus user I would like westcoast to take on board the comments of lornemcd as my feelings are the same and act .The experience of the sardines in a tin effect after the lochgilphead crew have got on is not pleasant the one thing he did not mention was the heat way too hot or lack of air conditioning but its a good service despite all that. Please do consider an early bird service to glasgow so you can get early connections to London etc I do understand that you have to connect to the ferries .

[westport321]

are we going to be able to book online and print out the ticket????

[petewick]

West Coast Motors will be operating our own Campbeltown - Glasgow service from Monday 19th May. The new departure times from Campbeltown will be 07.05, 11.05 and 16.50 and from Glasgow 08.50, 13.20 and 17.50. Fares will be cheaper and we will have occasional special offers and saver tickets available.
There will be no booking fee for concession cards.
Please call into the office or telephone 552319 for more info.

Will we be able to use pricebuster cards on the Glasgow route?

[westcoast]

yes you will be able to use pricebuster cards on the new service
this will make the fare cheaper than the current apex fare
and it doesn't need to be booked two days in advance

[daftdog]

Firstly, thank you for answering the questions put to you on this forum westcoast.

As the service starts this coming Monday, can you publish the standard fares on here before then?? Not everyone has access to the courier or local adverts or you could even update the westcoast web site and put the prices there (could remove the citylink link for the Glasgow-Campbeltown-Glasgow service while you are at it )

[alasdairh]

As the service starts this coming Monday, can you publish the standard fares on here before then??

I have just bought an online txtticket (before I noticed this post) to travel to the town next Thursday (22nd) on the 13:30 service from Glasgow.... will my ticket still be valid and does this mean that the bus will be leaving at 13:20 or what?