Service 909 to Doncaster no more

As expected, Stagecoach are revising their 909/910 (Brigg-Scunthorpe-Crowle-Garthorpe) services from 6th September, with the Scunthorpe-Doncaster part of service 909 withdrawn. This was introduced as an hourly service last November before being cut back to 3 return daytime journeys in April. An attempt to restore bus links that clearly didn't work, though at least Stagecoach gave it ago. There continues to be two Scunthorpe-Doncaster train services an hour - which is probably a large part of the reason for Stagecoach's failure.

Other changes include the withdrawal of the Saturday Scawby diversion to service 909 - New timetable. Service 101 (Scunthorpe-Gainsborough) also sees a minor change.

The withdrawal of the remaining 909 Doncaster, plus the loss of tenders to Hornsby, is going to affect Scunthorpe depot's workload. The 94/95 tender required one bus all day, while the loss of the service 16 tender, plus the 909 cutbacks, will reduce utilisation of the fleet in between school/college services. This isn't too significant, but neither is it great news for a depot that seems largely starved of investment. The Scunthorpe town service network has seen gradual cutbacks over the past few years, and 4 new MAN/Enviro 300's for the Humber Fastcat 350 aside, the depot has not seen any vehicles delivered since Road Car days. With large scale fleet renewal going to be needed in the next few years to meet Disability Discrimination Act deadlines can Scunthorpe depot justify the investment, even if cascaded vehicles are used? While I'm certainly not trying to concern or worry anyone, a look at fleet types and ages at Scunthorpe compared to other Stagecoach East Midlands depots and it's easy to see how the depot's fleet is not as modern as elsehwere.

(As a side note are Scunthorpe depot's Spryte's and Solo's DDA compliant?)