West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby TYM » Thu May 15, 2008 2:29 pm

[quote="alasdairh
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? :?[/quote]

Your ticket will still be valid and at the same time. Citylink will still be running but they have now have competition from West Coast so there will be a duplication of services, with West Coast operating their's 10 minutes earlier than Citylink.
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby Hello » Thu May 15, 2008 4:13 pm

I thought that the change over to westcoast was because citylink had for whatever reason decided to stop the service am I correct in thinking that two buses one operated from westcoast and one from citylink will now be leaving together say ten minutes apart.If this is the case I would imagine one bus will run empty what a waste of fuel and money . westcoast would have been better served putting on alternative times bus journeys a few days a week giving us even more choice ten minutes is a nonsense its neither here or there when you have to get a lunch time flight bus or train and the earliest you can arrive in glasgow is 11.45.
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby daftdog » Thu May 15, 2008 6:59 pm

Hello wrote:I thought that the change over to westcoast was because citylink had for whatever reason decided to stop the service am I correct in thinking that two buses one operated from westcoast and one from citylink will now be leaving together say ten minutes apart.If this is the case I would imagine one bus will run empty what a waste of fuel and money . westcoast would have been better served putting on alternative times bus journeys a few days a week giving us even more choice ten minutes is a nonsense its neither here or there when you have to get a lunch time flight bus or train and the earliest you can arrive in glasgow is 11.45.


Both companies will run the service as of Monday 19th May.
West Coast Motors will be operating Campbeltown - Glasgow service from 07.05, 11.05 and 16.50 and Glasgow - Campbeltown 08.50, 13.20 and 17.50.

Citylink may be operating their normal timetable, but it could change on the 19th May, as 18th May is the is the end of their current timetable.

It will no doubt be survival of the fittest and customers will benefit in the short term at least.
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length of journey

Postby Tom B » Thu May 15, 2008 7:37 pm

I always thought a 3 hour 'express' with a 5 min stop in Inveraray, might attract some new customers to the route ? I must admit I've rarely been on the bus since my student days, partly due to the length of the trip (4 1/2 hrs+ ?), but could be persuaded back on if I could pick up a bus in Glasgow at 6.30/7pm and be down before 10....?, especially with petrol prices on the up and up, and environmental considerations too. I'm sure this has been thought through somewhere though...
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby alasdairh » Thu May 15, 2008 8:07 pm

I'm still in my student days and on the bus quite regularly.... So is this ten minute earlier service any cheaper and/or quicker in terms of journey time? Or do we still visit every hamlet with a bus stop on the way down?

Also from above one post says my ticket for next thursday 22nd May will still be valid and there's another saying that citylink's timetable may change as of the 19th :lol: Think I'll just take some money with me and get on the first bus that comes with 'Campbeltown' written on the front. 8)
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby erchiepeenkles » Thu May 15, 2008 11:39 pm

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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby Ileach B » Fri May 16, 2008 7:50 am

Bit of a reminder of when Essbee came here and it looked like a race round the scheme with 2 buses!
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby daftdog » Fri May 16, 2008 9:11 am

alasdairh wrote:I'm still in my student days and on the bus quite regularly.... So is this ten minute earlier service any cheaper and/or quicker in terms of journey time? Or do we still visit every hamlet with a bus stop on the way down?

Also from above one post says my ticket for next thursday 22nd May will still be valid and there's another saying that citylink's timetable may change as of the 19th :lol: Think I'll just take some money with me and get on the first bus that comes with 'Campbeltown' written on the front. 8)



I don't expect there to be any surprises with the new summer timetable by Citylink, as the buses have been running at these times for years. What i meant was, it is totally possible that Citylink COULD make a change to counter the new Westcoast service, as its a new timetable period. I don't think they will change though and will just undercut on fares.

another thing.. Westcoast have said the fares will be cheaper, but haven't stated on here what they are when asked or on the Westcoast website what these cheaper standard fares will be. So, just how much are the standard fares??

The fares are going to be the difference between what bus the "paying"customer gets on. All the free bus fare customers will no doubt get the Westcoast service to keep it local, but should everyone else keep it local?? After all, at the end of the day, a business like a bus company makes its own decisions based on economics, so it stands to reason most customers will vote with their wallet/purse.

If a bus company pulls a service from its timetable because its not commercially viable, should the customers who lose that service be loyal to that bus company?

And lets face it, the new service might be being portrayed as a benefit to the passengers, when in fact the leaving 10 mins early is more about getting to the stops before the Citylink Service does.
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby Ranald » Sat May 17, 2008 10:45 am

Apparently the service leaving Glasgow for Campbeltown this morning was turning away passengers as it was full of people heading to Inveraray and they refused to run an extra vehicle.
Can you blame the man for going out of his mind temporarily?
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby Stone Cold aka Doags Bs » Mon May 19, 2008 2:39 pm

Ranald wrote:Apparently the service leaving Glasgow for Campbeltown this morning was turning away passengers as it was full of people heading to Inveraray and they refused to run an extra vehicle.

I can confirm on Saturday that it did that as I was on it Image.

Only for 10 minutes was it full to capacity.
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby daftdog » Mon May 19, 2008 5:28 pm

I wonder how day one went with this service then. Can anyone tell me what the fares were and if they were indeed cheaper than Citylink.

If anyone was on the bus this morning, did they notice if customers waited for the Citylink service or not. ( i know some must have, as they would no doubt have had prepaid tickets), but just curious as to how it went :)

Did the Citylink Service overtake at some point :?:

Hope there was no "High noon" in Inveraray between the drivers :lol: :lol:
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby WC1 » Mon May 19, 2008 5:49 pm

Let's imagine this does get to the point where WCM are 'pushed off the road'. What next? Drivers paid off, company downsizes? Where do the schools and other local organisations that rely on WCM for private hire coaches get them then? Certainly not from Stagecoach. Forget who's the cheaper of the two, or who runs 10 minutes early. What's in the long-term interests of Campbeltown and Kintyre in terms of services other than the Glasgow run?
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby daftdog » Mon May 19, 2008 6:04 pm

WC1 wrote:Let's imagine this does get to the point where WCM are 'pushed off the road'. What next? Drivers paid off, company downsizes? Where do the schools and other local organisations that rely on WCM for private hire coaches get them then? Certainly not from Stagecoach. Forget who's the cheaper of the two, or who runs 10 minutes early. What's in the long-term interests of Campbeltown and Kintyre in terms of services other than the Glasgow run?


I can see your point there, but look at the amount of shops that closed down over the years with the big supermarkets coming to the area or the disappearance of the insurance man coming round every week to collect your policy dues or the boom in buying on-line. People will vote with their wallets at the end of the day.

And lets face it.. WCM stopped Sunday runs when it wasn't financially viable for them to continue those runs, so if they can make decisions based on money, then so can us customers, without an ounce of loyalty. Its a big bad world out there..
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby lornemacd » Mon May 19, 2008 7:07 pm

I got the CityLink this morning just so I could get a longer break after the Carradale bus that arrived just before 11.

It wasn't busy but was not as empty as I expected, it may make for the more comfortable journey that I had requested in my last message for a bit.

Certainly not as classy a bus as we're used to with West Coast Motors though! :twisted:
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Re: West Coast Motors - CityLink Change...

Postby Hail to the Thief » Mon May 19, 2008 7:51 pm

daftdog wrote:I wonder how day one went with this service then. Can anyone tell me what the fares were and if they were indeed cheaper than Citylink.

If anyone was on the bus this morning, did they notice if customers waited for the Citylink service or not. ( i know some must have, as they would no doubt have had prepaid tickets), but just curious as to how it went :)

Did the Citylink Service overtake at some point :?:

Hope there was no "High noon" in Inveraray between the drivers :lol: :lol:


Was on the 11.15 Citylink bus, as this was the pre-booked return part of my ticket. I did ask if I could just get on the West Coast Bus with the ticket, as I'd been told when I came down on Thursday that West Coast would honour the pre-booked tickets, though at this point they didn't know whether Citylink were going to provide a rival service.

The Citylink bus was at the terminal pretty sharpish, and often caught up with the WCM bus on the road, though didn't overtake. Think both were stopped at Inveraray at the same time, though on this occasion it was quite amicable :wink: .

Couldn't tell you about either fares, though I thought I heard someone say at one point that Citylink had lowered prices to match WCM. Does anyone know what kind of prices are on offer with either provider, looking to book the most economically friendly fare for next weekend.
Last edited by Hail to the Thief on Tue May 20, 2008 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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