Case Study

The joint First and Wilts & Dorset Salisbury-Bath service X4 may only be of regional significance but its withdrawal in January serves as a national case study highlighting the difficulties rural (well, inter-urban) operators face.

W&D yesterday ended speculation that the service was to be withdrawn. W&D cites the poor reimbursement from increased free travel passengers as the reason. This may well be a main factor but there are others, too, as to why the service is now less viable:

• Increased operating costs are not matched by an increase in passengers of 3.5 per cent, particularly as the growth is in free travel, for which W&D gets inadequate reimbursement. This is a tail you will hear throughout England but one that appears not to be replicated in Scotland or Wales, operators there suggesting that reimbursements are more generous.
• The service is clearly over 50 km and drivers and operating constraints fall within the EU rules. W&D didn’t cite this as a reason, probably because the press wouldn’t understand it or worse, misinterpret it as some sort of safety failure.
• The W&D part of the service has to cover the higher overhead associated with brand new Mercedes Citaros (PVR=3).
• The section between Salisbury and Warminster at slightly over half the mileage only really carries end-to-end passengers with little prospect of any middle-to-end income. That west north west of Warminster gets revenue from both, owing to Westbury, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon and Bathampton.
  

Loadings never tend to be 'poor' on any journey and passengers will find it hard to reconcile W&D’s decision. It’s a route that *appears* sound but it’s what lies underneath that matters. There is little chance that they will anywhere near comprehend the problems W&D faces. The reality is that profit margins are tightening within the industry and measures such as free travel reimbursements and UE hours are not helping.

And the ultimate question, in the light of earlier W&D changes and those made by the likes of Western Greyhound is, “What’s next?”. Will a combination of national free travel and EU hours force further reductions of a similar nature to the X4?

First is likely to use its existing resource within the X4 service to replace W&D’s and operate half-hourly (as now) between Warminster and Bath, there being a more sound revenue base over this section plus, of course, the white heat of the Bath local economy. The subsidiary question is how will Wiltshire council react to the Salisbury-Warminster withdrawal. It must be more viable than some of the routes Wiltshire has tendered since 1986. Perhaps funding for a two-hourly connecting or through service?

Fair play to W&D for trying to improve matters with the upgrade to Citaros. W&D clearly feels these vehicles are better used elsewhere.

X4 as a through Salisbury-Bath service began operating 24 years ago as a joint Bristol Country Bus/Badgerline and W&D service. It was initially operated by dual-purpose REs and Nationals. The service even extended in the mid- and late-eighties to Bristol, as part of a half-hourly Bath-Bristol limited stop X3 (Frome)/X4 service. During the height of the Badgerline v. W&D Salisbury bus war, both maintained the joint operation, with through ticketing continuing. 2006 saw W&D invest in new Citaros with air con.