Rollercoasting

It’s been a rollercoaster fortnight for Stagecoach. The Competition Commission continues to show its dislike, a 15m coach goes on the road (and there’ll be another 44 along soon), the Megabus Bournemouth route looks set for the chop, the Oxford Tube steals from rail and Go Ahead, and Torquay’s to consider Seacoach.

 The dreaded Competition Commission’s darft report (or should that be a darft [sic]?) on the Scottish Citylink/Megabus tie-up comes to the inevitable conclusion that it expects Stagecoach and ComfortDelGro to dispose of some of its joint venture services. Stagecoach acquired 35 per cent of ComfortDelGro’s Scottish Citylink business in 2005, after Megabus started Scottish operations in 2003.

Stagecoach & ComfortDelGro maintain their previous stance, calling the draft “perverse”. The Scottish Executive has no issues with the current arrangement. Bus Users UK feels the same. Even Scotrail operator First is nonchalant. The Competition Commission appears to disregard the train as an effective rival and, as ever, ignores the main competitor, the private car. It ignores, too, the fact that before Megabus, Scotland already had an express monopoly.

And if Stagecoach/ComfortDelGro is to divest of what looks likely to be the Saltire Cross Perth-based services, to whom should it sell? Is there a chance for National Express, perhaps?

 Better news, though, came with the delivery of Stagecoach’s Megabus’s first of 45 Volvo B12BT/Plaxton Panther 65-seater 15m coaches, as part of an £11mil order, all of which are due by the end of May. As we said here, this would catapult Britain’s least popular coach length suddenly into becoming very common on our motorways. Barfordian is believed to be the only other operator of a 15m coach, a 67 seat Bova Futura. A 15m coach is the maximum permitted length for a rigid.

 Meanwhile, the future looks less certain for Bournemouth Megabus customers. Passengers from Bournemouth, Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth are warned that services may be reviewed from 25 March.

 On the other hand, Stagecoach’s Oxford Tube has seen growth from First's rail service and competing Go Ahead’s Oxford Espress, following a WiFi enabled free email and internet access trial, now permanent. More than 6,000 passengers a day are said to travel on what is Europe’s most frequent express and the commuters and students appreciate the WiFi service. Stagecoach continues to use its fleet of 81 seat Neoplan Skyliner double decks on the Tube, following a £2mil investment in 2005.

 Seacoach could become a reality in Devon, with a proposed high-speed ferry linking Torquay and Brixham, according to Transit magazine. Apparently, this is not an early April fool. Upon the purchase of two 27m 150 passenger catamarans at £1.6mil each, the new service could complement rather than compete with Stagecoach’s own 12 bus service from Newtown Abbot to Brixham via Torquay, said to be among the top 10 busiest in the UK, with 5mil passengers travelling each year (more than double travelling on the Oxford Tube). There’s a blog on the 12/12A, from a driver’s POV. There is already a ferry service (by Western Lady) across Torbay.