The Dash for Cash

Pseudonymous wonders whether the sale of three municipals is a matter of weeks is a coincidence or is it a sign that something is happening in those town halls up & down the country where the hardened few councils still like to run their own buses…

The answer undoubtedly lies in both the economic reality of running buses today, especially for single area operators and also the dynamics of local government finance. What could the key thoughts be among council councillors and for the directors of these ‘arms-length’ companies?

The economic reality of running buses does not bode well for single operators. Municipals are urban operators. Some, like Reading, Thamesdown and Lothian either are or may well be facing a reduction in passengers and revenue, as general jobs disappear in the economic downturn. There are no magical solutions other than cutting overheads & service. For single operators, overheads are often inflexible—there are no opportunities to share functions like First has been doing recently across its regions. Many of them are tied into local government pay rates and hefty pension & redundancy conditions. Cutting services is unpopular for any operator but for a municipal, the objections are much harder to overcome.

Go Ahead has announced its investment in new ticketing technology, and the trade press has a smattering of articles describing such investment as the next great opportunity for growth. Municipals need to invest too, but are reliant on public resources.

Investment is a serious issue for the remaining municipals. Local government borrowings are severely restricted. Not only do councils have to act prudently but they have to do so in respect of their overall borrowings, not just those for bus companies. Councils have to raise a fair chunk of capital spending from sales of assets—and there’s a double problem for their bus companies. With the property market in limbo, councils cannot sell assets (mainly surplus land and property) for sensible prices, if indeed at all. Councils up and down the land are committed to some long-term capital projects that will have first call on their meagre resources, and have a long list of priorities in front of new buses, technology and even plant, equipment and property repairs. Don’t expect to see too many new buses heading for the remaining municipals for a few years. Some are already looking good—Cardiff, Reading and Lothian have modern fleets, and to miss a few years of investment may not be too painful but for others, with already tired vehicles, the prospects are not looking good, especially with DDA compliance dates beginning to get close enough for concern to set in.

If a council has big commitments on capital spending and is expected to meet it from evaporated asset sales, then in the short-term it may simply be desperate for capital sales. Bus companies are probably one of the best sellers at the moment.

The boardrooms of the ‘arms-length’ municipals will be interesting places these days. Traditionally operating on lower margins than commercial companies, they will be more nervous of falling revenues and any lack of investment to maintain momentum than the big groups. When you operate at say five per cent you can very quickly find yourself in a deficit and with months ahead of you before you can see the benefits of service reductions and reorganisations.

The directors are composed of a mixture of professional bus people and councillors duly representing the local community. All, though, have the same legal obligations to keep their companies trading solvently. Directors will be discussing service cuts, knowing that local councillors will offer stiff opposition to cuts in ‘their’ bus services, and councillor directors will be sitting uncomfortably.

For councillors in control of the council there are compelling reasons for selling up:

• The capital receipt is probably a saviour for other politically sensitive projects that would have to be shelved
• The prospect of ongoing service cuts with huge political fall-out probably looks more painful than the short-term one-off pain from a sale, especially a ‘quick-fire’ one like Ipswich or Islwyn
• There’s a fair chance that the future investment requirements will never easily be met again and, for the more aged fleets, the growing mountain of replacement needs has to be seen against the DDA requirements, something directors will be making very clear to their council owners.

The risk of running a loss at your municipal is potentially disastrous. Councils are struggling not only with their capital budgets for next year, but also with their revenue budgets, and simply cannot afford to have to prop up their bus companies. Any slip into a loss is seriously likely to devalue any sale—and there’s a theory that the market is currently at its highest point, with Go Ahead perhaps making a definite effort to buy up what it can while it still exists. It’s budget time for Councils right now—they have completed their public consultations and they have a good idea of the problems they face, both in terms of cash savings to be made and of important projects and that look shaky.

Go Ahead seems to be doing a very good job of selling their ‘local businesses run by local managers’ message to Councils who, no doubt, find that message a blessing in softening their fellow councillors and peers. The OFT’s unresolved review of competition certainly makes a sales to the neighbouring group much less likely, and in this respect Go Ahead, looks to have no obstacle to overcome.

So it may well be that it is *the* time to sell the municipal bus company!

More on the Ipswich Buses Sale

Update: Ipswich council seems set to retain control by selling a portion (49%) of Ipswich Buses only

Ipswich Buses looks set to pass from public to Go Ahead ownership. It’s an interesting fact that the MP for Ipswich is a junior transport minister...

With the potential sale of Islwyn Borough Transport and Ipswich Buses, the number of arms-length municipal operators reduces to single figures. The announcement of both was something of a surprise. Neither council went through the “traditional” sales route. Why should that be?

Ipswich Buses presents itself well, with a strong, modern & developing web appearance

The most plausible explanation is to avoid Chesterbus-type issues. When Chester council announced a bidding process, it sparked a strong reaction from one of Chester’s “country” operators, Arriva. Arriva made an offer to take over and improve Chesterbus’ services, leaving the council with land receipts. This resulted in Chester council accusing Arriva of being anti-competitive. Its costly end was in the courts and resulted in an Arriva onslaught on Chesterbus’ key area, Blacon.

Thereafter, councils had to consider their options very carefully. The advice Plymouth council received was to seek a market testing ahead of any decision to sell. Such legal side-stepping failed to guard against increased competition from First, who might have most to fear from a PLC taking charge at Milehouse. There emerged a strong reaction by First Devon & Cornwall, in the form of Ugobus Phase 3.

It’s tempting to suggest that Caerphilly and Ipswich have learnt not just from Chester but also Plymouth. The process may have started ahead of First's Plymothian Ugobus intentions. In Ipswich’s case, the council will know that “country” operator First is a strong, national group, specialising in urban transport. However logical a single operator—Brighton-style—might be, the council will know that the OFT would never accede to First buying Ipswich Buses. The council might conclude that First may feel threatened by an incomer in the same way Arriva was in Chester and First in Plymouth. Rather than risk destabilising the local network and potentially reducing Ipswich Buses’ selling price, it might therefore be better to go about matters in private rather than public.

What about local democracy? By not declaring its hand, are Caerphilly and Ipswich preventing residents from entering the debate? This is a serious point. Plymouth’s was probably the liveliest to date, also making full use of the internet. A petition had 25,000 signatories. According to one Plymouth MP, the campaign had “overwhelming support from people in Plymouth, including many Conservative voters and Plymouth’s Labour councillors”.

Ultimately, such a groundswell failed to persuade the council who, after all, represent the city & its subjects, representatives elected to make difficult decisions for their areas as a whole.

The government’s response to the Plymouth campaign was clear. Ipswich’s Chris Mole MP, a transport minister, declared that decisions were best taken by locally elected people.

In addition, we also know that the government proposes councils sell assets, where they can, and for the best prices. Going public too early may reduce that price.

At this point, it’s tempting to ask, who’s next? It’s no longer possible to monitor the minutiae of those people who visit this blog but one search term yesterday did attract my attention. It was “Chester Bus v Arriva”. Drilling down, it was from a well-known firm of specialist solicitors, with offices in London, Edinburgh & Glasgow. I might be getting five from putting two and two together, but is there anyone else out there currently looking at selling?

Meanwhile, the Ipswich sale will develop along a predictable path. There will be opposition from those who can only see withdrawals and fares rises resulting. The weaker voice will be from those who suggest that Go Ahead would not wish to invest millions in Ipswich only to see the network untangle; and who feel that life will be more secure if Ipswich was part of a bigger shoal of fish in the pond.

Ipswich to Sell

Update: Ipswich council seems set to retain control by selling a portion of Ipswich Buses only

Another municipal is set to bite the dust. The latest is Ipswich Buses, with advanced negotiations believed to find a conclusion in the new year. The local media suggest that Go Ahead is “expected” to be the successful bidder.

It seems that the former labour-controlled council has always rebuffed recent approaches. The current Liberal/Conservative administration seems to have no such qualms, though I recall that when in opposition it wasn’t particularly pro-sell off. What’s probably happened is that a Go Ahead tempting offer has come at a time of relative austerity, resulting in acceptance. Councils need the money.

Views in Ipswich are understandably polarised. There are the usual scaremongers who pessimistically predict fares rises and service cuts. There remain concerns about the “family silver”. These are in the majority. Yet, Ipswich Buses have done a fair few service cuts and fares increases of its own, recently.

What’s interesting is the line Ipswich council has taken. They appear to have done a “Caerphilly” rather than a “Plymouth”. By that I mean Ipswich hasn’t gone through any of the pain or consultation (depending upon your view) of a structured process that has resulted in first a declaration that a sale may be possible and then a tendered, market testing. There’s currently a challenge to the sale of Caerphilly’s Islwyn to Stagecoach. The results will be relevant to Ipswich. The behind-doors decision no doubt follows competitive activity upon the announcement of a sale against both Chesterbus and Plymouth Citybus.

We should’ve realised earlier that something was up when a number of people checked in to Omnibuses after searching for the “sell off of Ipswich Buses” or similar. You never know whether such terms are speculative, cranky or correct. In this case, they were correct.

Honestly, you don’t expect news of quite this magnitude over Christmas!

Topsy-turvy 2009

It’s been a topsy-turvy year. How so?

1. Old enmities surfaced upon the publication of a report by West Yorkshire ITA on quality contracts. This is a recipe for conflict.
2. Old sparring partners found common ground with then publication of eight statements of intent designed to bring operators and PTEs together in voluntary partnerships.


3. The bus & coach manufacturing sector faced the biggest drop in orders in recent memory, following several boom years, with either the threat of or actual redundancies.
4. Some operators remained buoyant in their orders, with Stagecoach for example investing in 50 new vehicles for its Cambridge Citi network as, with other orders, Stagecoach invests £10mil in the 12 months to November 2009.


5. Concessionary travel reimbursements continue to worry operators throughout the industry, as the market becomes distorted as commercial services become marginal; and marginal services become loss-making, as operators transport passengers at a fraction of the true cost or fare.
6. Older people seem quite content to spend on coach holidays and, for those operators prepared to invest in properly targeted products, this key segment still seems a rich seem.


7. The competition authorities again have the knives out for the industry, with their market study, Cardiff Bus ruling and in ordering Stagecoach to divest in Preston.
8. They recognise that Eastbourne under Stagecoach wasn’t such an anti-competitive move, after all.


9. The recession forces operators far and wide to re-evaluate networks. Not even Blazefield is immune. First Bus is at the forefront of major cutbacks across its empire, the result of static growth and rail decline.
10. Yet, First Devon & Cornwall bucks the trend in Plymouth (with Ugobus Phase 3, in response to the sale of Plymouth Citybus) but sees swinging cutbacks in Cornwall.


11. National Express went phut, thanks to the east coast rail line, divesting of a bus business, with the promise of more to come, though the express coach network remained static if uninspiring.
12. First, on the other hand launched the very much inspiring Greyhound, to profit from a resurgence in budget travel.

The OFT has approved the sale of Islwyn Borough Transport to Stagecoach. Now all Caerphilly council needs is auditor's clearance following the challenge from Clayton Jones.

Missed Opportunity

Boxing Day is a busy day in the Busing household. Traditionally, the extended family comes round. We even accommodate my fickle brother-in-law and his fads & fancies. And although it’s a lot of work before and after, so long as the family chooses to be social over the sales, it’s worth it.

That’s why you didn’t see me in the sales yesterday. Millions searched for bargains. For me, it was the laughter around the dinner table that was quite priceless.

Searches to the Omnibuses Blog upto 1800 hrs, on Boxing Day

It seems, though, that many people now chose to spend Boxing Day other than in the family home, preferring high streets & malls. The media’s even elected to call this a ‘tradition’. How can that be, when Boxing Day shopping is only 10 years old? That’s aside, the real traditional sporting fixtures, of course, and here people seem to manage without their bus service, because none exists.

As we’ve said in previous years, where *was* that bus service? People who supported what was reported as the second busiest shopping day of the year did so without their bus. With everyone off work (save for shop workers, of course), families are free to shop with their cars. But surely that’s the case on most Sundays, too, when strategic buses these days are well supported. And, let’s face it, would you drive on Boxing Day if you had the choice?

A survey of south central bus operators shows that neither Transdev Yellow Buses, First Hampshire & Dorset, Stagecoach South nor Wilts & Dorset offered anything on Boxing Day. No change from last year, then, save for Bluestar, operating services 1, 2 and 9 every hour and 18 every half hour, during ‘daylight’ hours. And, as we are now coming to expect from Southern Vectis, there was a Sunday service.

As at 1800 hrs yesterday (after the last buses tended to have departed), it was interesting to note the number of searchers who were looking for Boxing Day bus services, from Bournemouth, to Leeds and back to Southampton. If such numbers were arriving at Omnibuses, think how many there are who searched in vain. The bus industry needs to start changing with the times. In 2006, we said there would be risks, staffing and publicity issues. In 2010, we think more should dip their toe into the pool of revenue that undoubtedly exists o Boxing Day. So long as my family chooses my home over Homebase.

i Marc Morgan Huws of Southern Vectis on Christmas (and other things)

Unseasonal Snow

For those snowy parts of Britain suffering this week, it’s rather ironic that on the one day we look forward to snow—Christmas Day—none was generally forecast. Yet, this week, snow and frost have been significant factors in messing things up, even down to the possible post-Christmas arrival of internet ordered Christmas gifts and fare. Santa is not pleased.

We “enjoyed” heavy snow last February. Then, we argued that the best time for a heavy, sustained snowfall was indeed late evening on Christmas Eve. The worst time is mid-morning, because:

• People are at work but leave early
• Cars then clog strategic bus routes
• Schools panic and request transport home, like, *now*, irrespective as to whether garages have vehicles or drivers in the right places
• Buses increasingly get out of position and this compounds timetable chaos caused by an overloaded road network
• Waiting passengers become exasperated
• Revenue reduces sharply as costs increase, as passengers melt away and motorists offer lifts
• Parts of the network become increasingly cut off by snow

With the internet and increasingly Twitter seemingly available just about everywhere these days, here are ideal media to get short messages out quickly. Though First recently abandoned its social media experiment in Bath, it is now using Twitter in the south west and in west Yorkshire. There were web snow bulletins from First Essex. Other operators use Facebook to get messages out quickly.

When First Group placed this Christmasy slide on its website, it could barely have considered the real consequences of this week's snow...

In a post on Tuesday, First Group’s Leon Daniels encapsulated things from an operations perspective, as follows:

“Whilst there is some merit in ‘pressing on’ through thick and thin at snail’s pace, and ‘getting through’, the truth is that your passengers have largely disappeared—preferring not to stay out in the awful conditions. If you are not careful, you end up with the fleet damaged and suffering from the effects of freezing up, and the staff exhausted. When the thaw comes and everyone wants to get back on your services to go to work or shopping, you are on your knees with too few serviceable buses and not enough staff.”

One other very noticeable side effect where services keep going is the grimy state of the buses themselves. All the Big Five take a pride in their vehicles’ appearances but this changes during exceptional conditions. Frozen garage water lines & bus washes plus road salt and slush gradually spread filth from behind the wheels to obscure windows. You’d think passengers would be forgiving but, in my experience, they tend to wonder why the bus side isn’t as clean as the windscreen.

It’s interesting that under these conditions various highways authorities usually get a roasting. Here, in the media’s mind, the bus service and winter salt spreading seem similarly aligned. Most authorities do an excellent job at keeping most strategic & bus routes open most of the time though, like bus operators, they cannot work miracles when the snow comes down faster than their teams can shift it, or when rain falls on already cold roads (salt treated or not), as seemed to happen in Cornwall on Tuesday, claiming the lives of two travellers on a Williams Travel, Camborne excursion.

Meanwhile, services were suspended in both Bournemouth & Southampton for a time on Wednesday, during one of the busiest days of the year. First pulled out, after four crashes. Transdev Yellow Buses did the same, following rain on frozen roads causing black ice, especially on untreated residential streets. Both parties were criticised for their safety efforts which, passengers claimed, caused distress for elderly and disabled passengers. In TYB's case, the decision to come off was at 0745 for about 40 minutes, well before most pensioners would be travelling, with free travel not due to kick in for some 1¾ hours.

Merry Christmas

Remember Scotland’s Border Courier bus service? It combined small parcel and medical deliveries with a conventional bus timetable. Our North American cousins have borrowed the concept and, as usual, gone one better. Brings a whole new meaning to the term “crush loadings”. Might this be an end to our school bus capacity problems?

Christmas blessings from Omnibuses. Thank you to all readers, contributors, those who have sent in information, advised and commented. Most of all, thank you for your support for the Omnibuses Blog.

Borismaster

For TfL, is the announcement that Wrightbus will design & build Routemaster 2 a matter of pride, indulgence or just pandering?

Or, is there a real need for a bespoke bus for London? Are the conditions in London really special to the capital? It seems there is and they are. Mayor Johnson who, behind Sir Moir Lockhead, Brian Souter & Lord Adonis, was yesterday declared by New Transit as Britain’s fourth most important & influential person in transport, talked enthusiastically of the RM2 as a “new icon”.

They said no one would be man enough to consider building one. They said there’d be virtually no market outside London—and this probably still holds true. That hasn’t stopped ’em.

Whatever your view, this design is highly important. Following yesterday’s early Christmas present to the people of London, we now know that the ADL & Wrightbus discussions favour the latter. With products like the handsome Gemini 2, the award of this contract gives Wrightbus the edge as British Isles’ premier bus builder, though it’s still not the biggest. It offers Wrightbus cachet & status. Much time, effort—and money—has gone into the project.

What can we expect of and from the New Bus for London, the NB4L?

1. Three doors, including a lockable rear platform, to allow one person operation. This much had already been leaked by TfL.
2. Two staircases, on account of the lockable rear platform.
3. 87 seats A total capacity of 87. To accommodate the stairs and platform, expect a long and relatively unmanoeuvrable wheelbase when compared to bendies these will replace.
4. A greener powerplant than any hybrid on the market, with a claimed 15 per cent fuel efficiency when compared to the current London hybrids. This technology could easily be applied to any bus on the market, of course.
5. It’s likely to skew the market for second-hand double decks. TfL announced a year ago that double the expected 400 Routemaster 2s would be built, cascading young SLF stock onto the open market.
6. The May 2008 design winners may have contributed little to the overall design.
7. The safeguaring of jobs at Wrightbus.

This is no longer a design contest, a drill or an academic debate. Rightly or wrongly, the Borismaster RM2’s become very real.

Selling Out

There are compelling reasons why smaller operators wish to sell and good reasons why larger operators wish to buy. Next month’s purchase by Trent Barton of south east of Sheffield’s TM Travel is a classic case in point.

For TM Travel, a reliance on contract work is not the best place to be when local transport authorities contemplate a difficult financial future. TM Travel was a mid-1990s start-up, growing rapidly (and not unusually) in parallel with the public sector-funded good times, into a sizeable fleet (including by acquisitions of its own). But there are flaws, as smaller, lower cost operators come with some issues. Is Trent Barton’s Wellglade buying wisely?

1. Lower cost operators return lower margins. With no shareholders to please and provided the owners are happy, there’s no real problem. TM Travel itself relies on its lower cost buying power for its success at winning contracts. Larger operators, however, are less benevolent. Upon take-over, there are never palatable ways of increasing margins. Unless, of course, the new owner has a specific, low cost motive in retaining low margins, as we suspect in this case.



2. Lower cost operators tend to rely on contract work. Though the Local Transport Act 2008 regulations will change things, there’s currently a five-year threshold. School contracts tend to be let for three. As contracts run out, so the operation can become vulnerable. In theory, lower cost operators can only plan for the period between now and the end of the local authority contract break clause (notice period). There’s no longer-term security. It’s conceivable that the operator’s revenue base may erode. In TM Travel’s case, it relies much on home to school transport contract work, as well as its local service contractual relationship with Derbyshire & South Yorkshire PTE. Little is operated commercially.


3. With the torrid financial future ahead for local authorities, home to school transport may be safer but the returns are lower. Local bus contracts could be subject to early review. Niche operators could be in trouble.


4. If upon take-over there is investment and some necessary fleet renewal, overheads increase and, of necessity, so do contract prices. There’s the real threat of an opportunistic competitor squeezing margins to the detriment of the existing operator by forcing prices down. As a colleague once put it, the lower cost sector is many headed. Cut off one and another tends to pop up.


5. Where an operator relies on a mix of schools and tendered local bus services, there are fewer opportunities to market services (though there are exceptions). A collection of disparate, geographically spread services offer nothing more than a lack of cohesion. Trent Barton does growth on the back of marketing but may struggle in TM Travel’s case.

On the Brink

Almost not so rare and almost twice in one week! This time, it was a chance escape yesterday for the Wilts & Dorset driver of the 0655 Ringwood to Christchurch service 176, as his Leyland Olympian left the road and teetered perilously on the brink of toppling, between Burley and Thorney Hill. The police attributed the near miss to icy conditions and indeed I saw a rather interesting spectacle of a Renault Clio perched above the road, having slid off to rest in a hedge. In the Clio’s case, this was driver error though no doubt the highways department will get the blame.

Fortunately, since the W&D open top toppling of 2008 and the London toppling a few days ago, no one has suggested double decks are inherently unsafe (unlike the reaction to articulated buses). It was nevertheless amusing to read some of the (predictable) Echo comments, which included (and I paraphrase), “Why operate a double deck for four passengers?” and “Perhaps a minibus would’ve been more appropriate”.

If I had a fiver for each time I heard these particular arguments. People make assumptions when they see an empty bus. It may be mid-route, operating against the peak flow, at off-peak times or during the evening, yet they feel there should be a waiting minibus parked up ready to operate at less busy times, effectively doubling garage space, maintenance overheads and depreciation costs.

Why would an operator run a double deck when a minibus might do? The answer is simply that it wouldn’t and doesn’t. In the case of the 176, it returns as a 175 carrying pupils to Ringwood, on school days.

Ah, but yesterday was a school holiday. Bring out that minibus, then. In fact, rural Ringwood, population 12,500, sustains an almost total double deck fleet in its cramped garage, thanks to school and college movements. It has three Solos, three single decks and 17 double decks. Not bad for a town of just 12,500.

Islwyn Sale Hits Buffers?

Latest (27 December): OFT approves Islwyn Borough Transport sale

The industry legend that is Clayton Jones is challenging Caerphilly council. Jones was once one of its councillors. He wonders why it’s selling Islwyn Borough Transport to Stagecoach when it might be worth more on the open market.

He asks why, for example, has Caerphilly council not offered its arms-length operator more generally. Post-Chesterbus, selling councils now seem to go through a process that masquerades first as expressions of interest to see if a sale might be viable. Jones feels that Caerphilly hasn’t done so.

Caerphilly council, on the other hand, may have good reason to follow up the Stagecoach deal. It would net the council some £2mil, while disposing of a loss-making, taxpayer draining operation. Some Islwyn services operate jointly with Stagecoach. Though Jones claims there would be other bidders, the parlous state of IBT’s finances and small fleet probably precludes other big boys. Veolia might be interested but, like Jones’ St David’s Travel, there are allegations and rumours of issues and problems. Jones himself could use IBT as a means of re-establishing himself in the valleys, post the Shamrock sale.

Looking at this dispassionately is the £2mil offered by Stagecoach good value? It’s certainly broadly the sum First paid for troubled Chesterbus. Chesterbus was no star performer but did operate a fleet about *double* Islwyn’s size.

Ultimately, whatever Jones may think or do, the OFT is currently informally considering whether the sale is a good one. Jones apparently offered to buy IBT four years ago. At that stage, the council was not for selling.

Settling a Controversy

I trust that I can settle the controversy regarding the graph uploaded on 3rd December. You will recall that the graph depicted registrations for bus & coach chassis from 1975-2008. It excluded Gen1 minibuses, as these are regardec as commercials.

The essence of the controversy was whether you should read the graph cumulatively, or not. In other words, the total number of vehicles could be viewed in two ways.

1. Taking 1980, starting each of the two categories at zero on y-axis, the total might be some 5,400 new vehicle registrations (2,400 double decks and 3,000 single decks).


2. Or was the total actually 3,000? This might be derived as the 2,400 double decks plus the difference on the graph between the conclusion of the double decks and the start of the single decks [2,400 + (3,000 - 2,400)] = 3,000. Under this method, each peak of the graph represents the total cohort of vehicles delivered in that year.
   

Comparing various points on the graph with published annual SMMT figures, I now conclude that no. 1 above is accurate, in every particular.

Refurbs

The painters and decorators are in, again. We take a look at this week’s web updates from Trent Barton, Stagecoachbus and, first, Transdev Yellow Buses.

Just like its neighbours Wilts & Dorset and Bluestar, TYB has joined the Facebook so-called revolution. Nothing especially unusual about that these days, save that TYB’s pages have some rather nice content. Here you will find a handful of archive photos including some advertising shots dating back to the innovative 1980s campaigns. Any chance of any more photos? The site asks, “Do you remember our trolleybuses?” We surely do. How could we forget.

The TYB friends count is just some 30 short of W&D, in a very short timeframe.

The Stagecoachbus website has brought itself more or less up-to-date. Out goes the rather cramped and over-full pages in favour of more white space, less clutter and a thoroughly modern feel.

It has never been easy for Stagecoach to portray such a large sphere of operation on a single site. Potential passengers are no longer faced with deciding in which region their potential bus service lies, though a map-driven facility remains. Mind you, the replacement is a rather long list of over 150 locations from which to chose. The casual visitor needs a little patience. Click the town and you get the appropriate route numbers showing.

This my seem straightforward and, in theory, it is. If you select Winchester, for example, you need to know your route numbers, as before. Adding the final destination helps. Some routes numbers in Winchester section unhelpfully refer to “Winchester” itself, rather than the outer terminus.

There were also some minor glitches. A couple of pages failed to load first time round. Winchester to Basingstoke masquerades as “76/86 (Andover)” with no hint of Basingstoke. The 76 in fact goes to Andover, the 86 to Basingstoke.

Never fear, there’s the usual “From” and “To”. Oddly, it took three attempts for it to recognise Winchester to Basingstoke. The results are the same as the old website but are displayed infinitely better. “Find a bus” crops up handily on several screens.

What’s happened, though, to “Using the Bus”? And Traveline’s been relegated to the small print at the bottom, without logo.

In a collaboration similar to Southern Vectis’ new web site, Best Impressions has partnered with Netescape to refresh Trent Barton’s site. The design is Impressive, while the back office know-how comes from Netescape. The approach isn’t dissimilar to Stagecoach’s. Whereas Stagecoach’s looks good, Trent Barton’s is better—brisk, spry, eye-catching and thoroughly contemporary. Easier, no doubt, with a smaller network.

The route finder asks you to select two locations and can cope with a change of bus. The route list is colour coded, like its vehicles. There’s a useful and easy to read FAQ plus, for those new to the bus, how to use Trent Barton’s.

If you know your route name or number, we liked the “Our Services” link, top right. Here, you get a large display of all routes rather than the usual and now tiresome drop down list that doesn’t fully show. The newsletter’s been thoroughly updated and loads more quickly. And there’s even fleet details but, thankfully, in a format in which even the general public might be interested.

Trent Barton’s old site has been relatively static almost since it went live in 2002. It’s started to look a little homespun but generally has held up well. This latest revision should see it through a few more years yet.

Get Smart

For me, the most significant parts of Tuesday’s 85-page DfT “Smart and Integrated Ticketing Strategy” were on pages 34-37.

First and foremost, though the government expects local transport authorities to lead on smartcards, from April 2010 it will incentivise operators to hasten their commitment to equipping buses by offering an *additional* eight per cent bus service operators grant (BSOG) for buses so fitted. The DfT suggests this is equivalent to some £800 per bus (dependent upon mileage, etc).

Transport ticket enthusiasts have only just got used to the replacement of short and long paperboard punch tickets and their replacement by Setright and Almex Model A. Now they will have to pass from Wayfarer 3 and TGX200s to smartcards and mobile tickets—and possibly no ticket at all. Note the Wilts & Dorset ticket

BSOG was once a blunt instrument. The DfT wishes to make it sharper. Well, here is one significant way of doing so, one that will help repay the operator for investment fairly quickly.

Secondly, there is the further expectation—in black & white in the strategy—that the Transport Act 2008 has strengthened the tools available to LTAs to assist in integration. This, the strategy says, “will create the sort of seamless travel Londoners can enjoy already”.

We have to agree with the DfT that smartcard “infrastructure” will encourage and enable seamless travel, removing some of the barriers that prevent passengers using more than one bus service or mode. The strategy admits that transport networks can be “fragmented and complicated”. But smartcards won’t remove the hurdles completely, just make them more transparent. A passenger with a smartcard will still need to pay for travel but in a different way. And it’s still likely to be cheaper to “buy” a return ticket from operator A than two singles, one each from operators A and B.

The DfT’s paying some £20mil to help England’s nine largest urban areas, being the six PTEs and Bristol, Leicester & Nottingham (where the business case is obviously strongest). It’s supporting the impenetrable ITSO to the tune of £60mil to facilitate smartcard integration, via the Prestige project.

The DfT looks to 2015 to see smart ticketing in major urban areas. By then, will we see widespread use of contactless bankcards and mobile phones overtake smartcards? Arriva has already launched m-ticketing nationally.

i DfT Smart & Integrated Ticket Strategy

A Rare Toppling

Whenever there’s a bus crash of any sort, my heart stops. Hearing it on the radio, the newsreaders always seem to go for effect. They announce the crash and the numbers injured but only seem to state the location in the second sentence. As I await a clue as to the bus operator, everything around me seems to slow to a stop. Where is it? Who’s injured? Is it one of mine? Then comes the sigh of relief. But for the grace of God go I…

Yesterday’s London toppled of an Abellio (Who?) Dennis Trident was no doubt a case in point. The incident occurred just days after a Leicester bridge bash.

Toppled double decks are extremely rare. Do you remember any of them in recent times? Try here and here. The environment in which the driver found himself meant that there was no opportunity for the bus to roll. It’s nevertheless worth remembering an important feature of a double deck. It may be a side effect but the laws of physics prevent it from rolling. It wasn’t one of the benefits of double deck operation we listed last month, though it’s an interesting safety point.

This is unlike a single deck bus or coach. If a single deck comes off the road at a bank, there’s the real prospect that it will roll. Modern coaches comes with R66 rollover protection. This in theory ensures the roof is not overly deformed and it guarantees some residual integrity of the structure. Nevertheless, in a rolling situation, those passengers not wearing seatbelts face the very real threat of ejection. This will result in crushing.

Single deck buses have no such R66 protection though their operating environment is usually urban, at slower speeds. The likelihood of a rollover is therefore much diminished.

Back to the stricken Abellio bus. In what may have been an oversight, nothing appeared the operator website that might reassure those who were looking for information. Abellio itself soon ensured that its name-emblazoned front panel was removed from the toppled decker and the route number C3 and Clapham Junction destination was transformed to “Sorry, not in service”. As if anyone had any doubt.

Family Friendly Travel

These days, travelling as a family on a rural or inter-urban bus just five or so miles can set you back about 20 quid. Commercial bus operators don’t make it attractive for families to travel together. For one thing, there’s no real incentive, because families rarely travel together now. Hmmm, I wonder why that might be.

For family travel, there seem plenty of arguments to keep your car. Once you have the car for this reason, it’s also all too easy to bring it out even when the bus might prove the more attractive.

With one eye on Copenhagen, there really shouldn’t be this fares disincentive against the bus. We need a level playing field and there rarely is one now. I say rarely, as for example London children—rightly or wrongly—get free travel and that helps the family travelling together. Such moves come at a price that only public bodies can contemplate (and quite honestly, few can afford).

What can other operators do? Well, given that so few families do travel on the bus, you’d think operators might have nothing to lose.

Southern Vectis is offering a £10 family day ticket on Sundays, from January to March. This nicely coincides with SVOC’s slackest time. This helpfully includes *three* not just two children. The issue remains difficult if one of your “children” is 17.

The industry needs to be bolder when it comes to encouraging families to travel together and not just on Sundays. What about, for instance, the period immediately after Boxing Day, when there are *plenty* of families all out together clogging the roads in cars but few of them on a bus? An ideal opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and stress levels—and gain some extra revenue.

Even in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some National Bus subsidiaries offered free weekend travel (including Saturday) to children accompanied by an adult fare payer. Of course, that was easier in the feather bedded years of network support. If you don’t try, though, you will never know so, may be, it’s time to extend that offer once again. If only someone could take the plunge and then share the results.

Wilts & Dorset offers a five people group ticket at £14 for a day’s unlimited travel, equivalent to double the standard adult rate. Bargain for all day travel, but there still remains the relatively short distance return travel that is so off-putting to families.

Transdev Yellow Buses has the right idea by reducing its family one day card from £9 to £7. This entitlement allows up to three children but what happens when they get over 14? All day parking in Bournemouth ranges from £3.50 to £6.00. Free at Castlepoint.

Change of Culture

Green eco-drving systems are proliferating.

This is the technology that “self-monitors” driver behaviour—their acceleration, speed, breaking, etc. A black box flashes a green, amber or red cab signal depending upon the driver’s style (or there are other, similar warnings, depending upon the system). This is very important if the driver is to be persuaded to consider emissions and fuel consumption. And there are obvious benefits for passengers whose ride improves markedly, as a result.

But it’s more than a black box with coloured lights. The information downloadable at Control allows operators to understand how their drivers are performing. Used properly, operators can re-train their drivers accordingly. Used properly, drivers should be trained beforehand. Drivers can see for themselves how they’ve changed and how they’re ranked.

And then there are reported fuel savings of about five per cent. If each bus undertakes 40,000 miles p.a. at 8 mpg, it uses 5,000 gallons of diesel. If the price to operators (less BSOG, VAT) is around £2.75 per gallon, the fuel saved amounts to £700 saved per bus p.a. Say there are 400 vehicles in the fleet, the total saving in excess of £250,000, nearly enough to pay for the managing director’s Christmas bonus. And these don’t include savings in self-insurance costs.

There’s another interesting fact about the technology. On the whole, drivers welcome it. Not all, of course, but many. Even were the technology available 20-30 years ago, there would’ve been no way the unions would ever accept this sort of measure. They would’ve viewed it as a disciplinary tool whereas, used properly, it rewards. And those drivers who felt that coloured cab lights might distract and *cause* crashes are proven wrong. Dramatically reduced accidents result. We’re talking about a complete change of culture, driven by management and supported by technology.

Omnibuses meets Marc Morgan Huws

Southern Vectis is unique. It’s literally on an island and has to manage accordingly. At the helm is commercial & operations manager Marc Morgan Huws someone who, with his team, has ensured SVOC is something of a south coast success story. MMH initially started in politics & local government before moving to SVOC, Solent Blue Line, and then taking a development role with both. He returned to SVOC following the Go Ahead takeover. Here, MMH talks about Go Ahead management style, scrappage, Scanias, growth, his approach to marketing, Christmas day services, BUUK, the SVOC blog, and what’s different about SVOC.

OB: What makes bus operations on the Isle of Wight so different?

MMH: There are some obvious differences: the bit of water has protected us from outside interference so we have been able to invest heavily in marketing, network provision and things like roadside infrastructure without being bothered by outside forces. That bit of water also proves costly. Basically, we have to have the infrastructure, organisation and resources to do everything a bus company has to do, on the island. We could run three or four times as many buses with our structure and infrastructure, so our overheads are high. Things tend to look gold plated, built to deal with every eventuality. In many ways, that has been a great strength. Through NBC and its break-up and sale, the island retained its structures, head office, central works, etc. We have the resources to do anything as a result pretty much all within our control, and that is a huge asset. In essence, we can pull all the levers at Nelson Road!

Without wanting to sound like I’m running down anyone else’s staff (and I’m definitely not), we benefit from having an exceptional workforce through all levels. We have generations of families who have worked for us, low turnover, and are a company that many, many people want to work for. Our staff are a great asset, and a very stable one. They form a very sound foundation for everything we do.

The island is so distinct that we know exactly what our market is, where our customers and potential customers are, who our stakeholders and partners are or should be, and they know who *the* bus company is, too. Because we are a closed community we have clear objectives, but we also have a very clear responsibility to the community. That in itself makes us work very closely with our partners, and not just for our own ends, but for the good and well-being of the Island.

OB: You’re now consistently using BUUK to audit your services. Why them and aren’t they just a load of cranks?

MMH: The guys we have worked with are anything but 'cranks'. In many ways they are ideal—they have no connections with the island or the company, but understand what the industry tends to deliver and needs to deliver. Gavin Booth, Stephen Morris and Julian Osborne share our vision of what an excellent operator should be doing. Their help it invaluable therefore in taking an objective view of how we manage against shared values. Although we have tended to find that we know the challenges, they are excellent at identifying those things we miss, either because we are too close to those challenges, or they have been left in the 'too difficult' box. It’s become more than a 'look and tell' process. We’re sitting down and debating the potential changes we can make with them. In some cases their suggested solutions haven’t been practicably possible, or haven’t been to our liking, and we’ve actually found other ways of delivering even better solutions. They have become part of a 'tripartite' team, working with not just us but Best Impressions too, on developing roadside information, for example.

OB: How much better off is SVOC under Go Ahead than say Arriva, First or Stagecoach?

MMH: Who knows. I haven’t worked for any of those three. From a personal point of view I probably wouldn’t be at SVOC if it hadn’t’ve been bought by Go Ahead. I have a lot to thank Chris Moyes for.

OB: Is Go Ahead’s hand-off management model a myth or reality?

MMH: Reality. Everything has it’s limits, but apart from filling in the KPIs each week (and there are plenty of them!) and ordering things like uniform and office furniture though the group, we really are left to manage ourselves on the island. I’m a director of the local chamber of commerce, and spend a lot of my time developing local partnerships and relationships in our local community, and that’s very much one of the strengths. I know the local market and community, and we develop to meet the challenges and opportunities that exist locally. There’s no cap on free thinking and that really allows us to develop individually within a big group.

OB: What led you to the conclusion that Southern Vectis was better off branding as a network rather than continuing with the “rainbow” style of recent times?

MMH: The strength or weakness is in the name “Southern Vectis”. It was all or nothing, make SVOC a great brand and reap the rewards or let it rot and pay the consequences. I’m a believer, so there was no doubt in my mind that we could deliver. In fact, if we couldn’t deliver, what would I have been doing there? The Island is a very distinct area with a distinct network. The network is very important, with cross Newport flows making use of more than a single route. It never occurred to me once that we should do anything other than sort out the SVOC brand as a strong network product.

OB: What drew you to Scania as a replacement for your double decks? Why are ex-London Scanias soon to cascade your Citaros to Bluestar? Is it true that SVOC is less content with Scanias than, say, Bluestar, and why?

MMH: Scania offered a non ad-blu option and could deliver in time. The product looks good and customer feedback is good. Drivers love them. All new buses take time to settle in, and we have worked closely with Scania to get over some teething difficulties. Perhaps the true test is that our engineering spare vehicle levels are much lower, but we are making service day in day out.

The concessionary fare problems have prompted us to replace the 39 seat Citaros on route 9 every 7/8 minutes with 76 seat Scanias every 10 minutes. Capacity is probably more of an impediment that the difference between the two frequencies, so our judgement is that the change may actually be revenue and passenger positive, while saving cost.

The Scanias at Metrobus have a good history and have been reliable, so they give us a good near immediate source of deckers to replace the Citaros with.

OB: Break over-heating problems on the Scanias seem a cause of concern on both sides of the Solent. Can you elaborate?

MMH: Scania have cured the problem, and we have a programme to modify the buses.

OB: How successful has your “From the Driving Seat” blog been? How have you judged its success?

MMH: It’s one of those things that once started can’t really be ended. I constantly get asked questions about issues raised in it from people I would never have thought read it—both inside and outside of the company, the island, and Southern Vectis. It’s read by more people than I’d ever have imagined. Bit scary sometimes!

OB: How much of your passenger growth can you attribute to free travel and how much to a strong network?

MMH: We’re still growing now, even with some contraction of the network and the removal of the tourist routes from the free travel scheme. It’s impossible to divide the growth up. It’s the complete package of frequency, consistency, speed, marketing and low floor provision that drives commercial growth and, indeed, drives the high level of free travel growth. There’s nothing to suggest that free passengers aren’t persuaded to travel more with us just as fare payers when we get the product right.

OB: Christmas day services 2008 may have been a leap of faith but at least in their first year they broke even. Why aren’t other Go South Coast companies taking a similar stance to you, this year?

MMH: We’re back to that 'hands off management'. It makes us much more individual, and each of our models of operation is different, so some things are easier for some of us than others. We all have our own strengths, advantages and flexibilities. SVOC never slipped into early finishes on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and we’ve run night routes and Boxing and New Year’s Day service for a fair few years.

Christmas Day for us was just one small step further, whereas for others there are big steps to take in between. It’s the night network and it’s very efficient. Our tight network means it runs over good, solid routes and very efficiently, with a minimum number of drivers. We have no shortage of volunteers and they are willing to work it at a sensible rate.

Last year I sweated a bit in case I had to tell my wife and children that I had to drive! Night bus works without inspector cover, and there was never any thought that we would need to pay anything for that. Southern Vectis Commercials has to be on call as the Volvo and Iveco agents for the island, so we need no extra engineering cover.

We have a culture of managing things lightly where possible, so it’s quite normal to have a manager at the end of the phone as our cover. Last year it was me. Ironically no-one on the island called me at all over Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but I did take about 20 calls from rail replacement staff on the mainland over both days, including arranging to have another operator’s coach towed from Gatwick during Christmas Day lunchtime!

OB: SVOC has tried many ways of growing its business—and succeeded. What’s left to try and how much extra ridership increase could result? What’s your target? How do you top some of the top-flight vehicles already seeing growth on the IoW?

MMH: We’ve spent over four years getting the basic product right: fast, frequent, consistent routes, low floor vehicles, high quality supporting information and infrastructure, carefully recruited and well trained staff. In many ways we’re now at the beginning of a journey. It’s now all about seeking perfection: smoothing and polishing every rough edge, training staff in providing truly great customer service, imaginative marketing to tempt car drivers to switch to us...

People say to me, you must be getting bored now, it’s all done. I tell them we’ve laid the foundations, built the shell, and now we’re going to fit it out and decorate it like no other. The great challenge is to keep growing passenger numbers. It’s more difficult to attract each extra car driver to use our buses and that’s a real challenge.

In many ways it’s a relief to have reached this stage, the point at which we can start to do the smart innovative, even crazy things.

Just over a week ago we won the Green Transport Award 2009 for Innovation, for 'The Really Green Car Scrappage Scheme'. To be able to develop these sort of things is what we’ve aspired to... lets hope we’ve got many more successes to come!

This year we are about 2.6 per cent ahead in difficult conditions. There’s no target, just a passion to do all we can to maximise growth. I’d try anything, so keep your eyes peeled.

OB: Of all the innovations you and your team has introduced on the IoW, which are you most proud off, and why?

MMH: I’m most proud not of any individual innovation, but of the overall product. Success in our industry doesn’t come from any individual element, but from the comprehensive package of initiatives.

At the moment, we’re really smarting about 'The Really Green Car Scrappage Scheme'. It was another of those leaps of faith. People told me I was bonkers (genius and lunacy sit next to each other on the spectrum!).

Since we launched we have consistently taken in around three cars every week. We have people using our buses who we can now keep in touch with, people to help us understand how to appeal to car drivers to make them switch. And yes, we’ve gained great PR for the role of the bus!

OB: The industry often has a very piecemeal approach to marketing and ridership growth. Your approach might be described as a tool kit. Do you foresee its use at other companies?

MMH: I don’t think we do anything unique. We try to do everything well. It’s back to the idea of the package delivering more than the sum of the parts. What we do is to try hard to understand our market, the products required, and them market them as comprehensively as we can. Most of the things we do have been lifted from other bus, transport or service industry companies. I’m always looking for that idea, or a twist on it. Bluestar is one of my favourite hunting grounds. Alex Hornby is a great original thinker, and I regularly nick his new ideas, either as they are, or in an amended form. To use SVOC as a 'toolkit' alone would miss out on great ideas elsewhere. I’d say aspiring bus bosses should never stop looking all around them for original ideas.

OB: The Isle of Wight is a honey pot for free travel and we hear all sorts of honeypot “scare stories”. How is the free travel scheme affecting your business, positively & negatively? What needs to change?

MMH: We love the idea of getting people onto buses, and cars off the road. We know that people have abandoned their cars because of this scheme. The principle is great.

The payment method is appalling, though, and is a serious problem for the industry, and even more so for operators like us, where around 50% of our customers are travelling on concessionary passes. Too many of our decisions have to be tempered and skewed by the payment implications arising from the free travel scheme.

It’s such a shame that with Wales and Scotland working so well, the government had to do something at odds with that for England.

OB: What one thing could the (central or local) government do to make it easier for you to operate more successfully?

MMH: Give the IoW council the proper amount of money, and the method to pay us properly, for concessionary travel.

OB: What’s the most enjoyable thing about working for Southern Vectis?

MMH: The sheer variety of things we do: buses, coaches, open Tops, dotto trains; Festival, Bestival, Christmas lights, Walk the Wight, Cowes Week. We have a huge variety of products anyway, but on top of that we never get time to sit on our haunches. There’s always another event too close for comfort. The level of planning for IoW Festival and Bestival is incredible. I have a fantastic management team around me. They always rise to every challenge, and together we get massive amounts of enjoyment out of our combined effort and results.

OB: What’s would your dream job be?

MMH: From about 9 years of age I just wanted to run Southern Vectis. Enough said!

OB: In deference to Gordon Brown, What sort of biscuit do you prefer?

MMH: McVities Milk Chocolate Hob-Nobs dunked in tepid strong white tea with no sugar (not that I’m a biscuit addict you understand!).

i From the Driving Seat

Comes with a Health Warning

When comments come in late in the day, well after the original post, readers will be forgiven for missing them. Occasionally, where there is a particular benefit or something of interest, I like to draw readers’ attention to these late arrivals.

So it is that I would point out the post of 14 August 2009 entitled “Bumpy Ride for Monkey’s Hump”, in which we reported the demise of Dorset independent Roadliner. Well, this post has been busy attracting additional comments from 4th December 2009, including *four* from the former Roadliner managing director, Mark Self.

Self is robust in his views. His comments are somewhat accusatory and I have to warn readers that the opinions therein are entirely his alone. Once a comment is received, I cannot edit it. If anyone is able to offer any balance, especially from Excelsior (itself involved in an alleged bit of conspiracy regarding the former Yellow Buses), please use Comments. Image courtesy Countrybus, used with permission.

i Bumpy Ride for Monkey’s Hump and comments

Update: following a couple of emails from respected & trusted industry sources, I have decided to delete the Mark Self comments to which reference is made above, this being the only course open as I cannot amend or edit them. I have had to balance free speech with issues of possible defamation. Never fear, you can see a slightly edited version at the bottom of this page.

Talking of sublime former Dorset independents, may I mention an attempt to establish a Bere Regis Association to help support the preservation of a Bristol LH owned by John Hembry, Hazelbury. The 80th anniversary run was held around Dorset on 1st November, commemorating Reg Toop founding the business in 1929. Further details here.

Simply Driver Error?

How the driver of the East Lancs bodied Scania managed to deroof his double deck in Leicester yesterday without causing anything more than minor injuries is quite astounding. Even so, it made the national news. Then again, deroofings rarely result in tragedy. Had there been passengers killed or seriously injured, matters in the media would’ve been far more acute.

The operator is believed to be a small family firm form Nottingham. Just how would they have dealt with such a major tragedy? Here’s how they might try.

The local media carried quotes from the school, the emergency services, parents and witnesses. It’s rare indeed not to find a reporter calling the operator. Larger operators know how to deal with the media but smaller ones shy away. Too often, they force the media to print a lame “no one was available for comment” or “the proprietor declined to comment”. Just not good enough, this sends the wrong signals.

Already, people are questioning whether double decks should be used for such trips and why they haven’t seatbelts. They half remember occasional media reports of crashes and fuzzily think this sort of thing is on the increase (when it is not). And, inevitably, they are questioning whether the Nottingham firm is up to the job in terms of customer service, punctuality and maintenance. Meanwhile, till we find out what really happened, we can only expect knee jerk reactions. This incident is probably simply down to driver error.

An exemplary industry record can so easily be damaged by something like this. It may not last in people’s minds but when you add this to hazy memories of other incidents, it can leave an uneasy feeling in people's minds.

Thank you to those who’ve engaged following yesterday’s post on reversing. See the comments, here. First Group’s Leon Daniels picks up the debate about reversing with passengers aboard. Worth a look.

When the Axe Falls...

... as it surely must. For, no matter the party winning May’s general election, the public investment good times seem over.

Some may feel that they’ve never begun but that would be an injustice. There’s been an unprecedented spending spree around the country on stops, shelters, raised kerbs, real time bus information and bus stations. Then there’s Traveline. There’s been Kickstart, urban bus challenge, rural bus subsidy grant and rural bus challenge. Some local transport authorities have provided significant grants for or towards new buses. In many parts of England, spending on subsidised local bus services has risen ahead of inflation. In quite some areas, there’ve been no real cuts. The investment in London has been remarkable. And there’s the latest (and last?) in the green bus fund.

We now know the acute scale of the national economic problem. Education, health and the police are safe from cuts; transport is not.

Whether or not quality contracts survive the next election, doubt must now be cast upon the ability of a local transport authority to deliver them. Looking at the risks involved with its own potential QCs, West Yorkshire ITA has already warned that if its politicians effectively take control of the Leeds city region’s bus network through their PTE, they ought to be prepared to make difficult decisions.

It’s at times like this we should be grateful that over 80 per cent of the bus network outside London operates commercially. Of course, that is under strain, with negative growth and poor reimbursement. When and if the axe falls on subsidy, it will have an obvious impact on those businesses relying on it. Often, these are smaller, niche operators. And it will have an impact on larger operator garages reliant on the guarantee of subsidised mileage to keep in the black. Reductions in tendered services will affect viability and therefore marginal commercial services.

When and if the axe falls, there’s likely to be a pecking order that might, for example, protect school, work & hospital journeys first, then shopping services after that. The chances of evening and Sunday mileage surviving unscathed must be low as this will be seen as discretionary & marginal mileage that are easy and quick wins—even though Sunday revenue 1000-1600 is buoyant.

Yet, as we’ve said before, take away the Sunday service and the alternative people find will result in their using that option at other times—further weakening the commercial network. Catch 22.

The Christmas Trivia Quiz appears to have gone down well. Thanks again to all who suggested answers. Someone, somewhere made a guess for every question and most were correct. After clicking here, scroll down to reveal the answers.

Backing Up

“I ran into a driver the other day…” probably isn’t the best start to an article on the reversing of coaches. It was in A recent edition of Coach & Bus Week.

I don’t drive buses or coaches very often so perhaps that’s why, when the need to reverse arises, I always feel slightly uncomfortable. It’s one thing when you can take a full visual sweep of the area. But anything can happen in a moment’s hesitation before reversing commences, in that blind spot associated with a 40-ft long vehicle. Hit an unobserved pedestrian and you’re looking at rather tough police action, and rightly so.

The CBW article considered a number of angles on reversing and concluded:

• It’s always safer with a banksman.


• You could be fined for an unnecessary long reversing manoeuvre (though this is unlikely).


• Reversing from a minor to a major road is against the Highway Code and obviously not good practice.


• So far as the author could tell, it’s neither unlawful nor illegal to reverse with passengers on board, as is oft believed to be the case.

The CBW article was really talking about unplanned or emergency instances of reversing. What about those on scheduled bus services, whether local or long-distance? Here, we’re talking about arrangements when technically out of service at termini though, in many cases, terminal loops, pan handles and turning circles are increasingly the norm. Then, on some rural services, there’s the possibility of a mid-route reversing manoeuvre, for example to serve an otherwise isolated village. Are there still widespread examples of such manoeuvres?

It’s very difficult to know what to say about these. My own views, rightly or wrongly, are that where there are no means of turning a bus without reversing then:

• It would probably increase passenger risks if the bus no longer served the village, owing to the walk for the passenger this might entail.


• Risk assessments should come to the fore (e.g. it’s good practice to pick up before and drop off after reversing).


• There should be a constant review of alternatives.


• Consideration should be given to the retro-fitting of reversing cameras.


• While it might be acceptable to contain reversing in these established situations only, no new instances should be entertained, for any reason.


• The environment needs to be as controlled as possible (e.g. barriers to pedestrian entry in a bus station).

Adding a Fruity bit of Fun

St Helens (or should that be St Helen’s?) is a fascinating place within Merseyside, yet local accents suggest Lancashire, not Liverpool. And then there are those interesting local bus termini that add character, some of which illustrate this post, the most notable on the front of a bus being Clockface. Then there is the possibly confusingly crosses St Helens 33, from Sutton Heath to Sutton Manor.

The fascination at St Helens continues with the arrival last month of a new operator, Strawberry Bus. Odd title for a bus company. First there was The Big Lemon*, now Strawberry. Whatever next? Strawberry adds to the flavour of the place. Think St Helens of old and you think of the corporation’s (strawberry?) red and cream (that made a brief comeback as a low cost operator in 1993). Strawberry buses are actually largely lime.

Proving that you can’t keep another good man down, former Blackpool Transport operations director Oliver Howarth has launched his own hourly bus service, Strawberry Line 1 from Skelmersdale to Warrington via St Helens. As befits a strawberry, Line 1 seems to spread rhizomatously out from St Helens. It’s a handy cross-St Helens service and he’s managed to come up with something unique though, of course, he’s treading on local frequent movements in the process.

What’s even more unique about Strawberry is the free travel promotion, available till mid-December. Anyone with red hair—natural or dyed—may travel on Strawberry free of charge. A bit of a gimmick? May be, but it draws attention to and gets people talking about the new service in a way that discount fares cannot, especially in age of free travel. Except, Strawberry’s offering discounts, too.

But is Howarth wise to propose this discriminatory offer? It’s only available to white, Caucasians and may therefore be considered discriminatory. We’ve thought about this and we suspect that other groups may just see the promotion for what it is—a bit of colour. In spite of what our politically correct masters may think, adherents to faiths other than Christianity, for example, tend to accept our national Christmas celebration and nor are they particularly bothered about hot cross buns. So it just may be that segments of the population without ginger hair might be relaxed about the promotion. And then there are older people who tend to have grey, not red, hair. But they get free travel in any case.

Red heads appear an endangered minority group, in any case. It’s felt that the hair colour might be extinct within 100 years. To think when I studied Biology at school, they told me red hair was a the result of a dominant gene.

Alternatively, Strawberry could offer free strawberries in the way Wilts & Dorset once offered oranges. But have you ever really enjoyed an imported strawberry out of season?

i Strawberry Bus

*—The Big Lemon has seen more than its fair share of controversy & change. Its 42 twixt town & universities has morphed into an every 20-minute Monday to Friday service with a timetable that’s over-complicated by changes of city centre termini. Its website clearly states, “Daytime services drop off at Churchill Square until 1502 but do not lick up there until 2130. Strange but true”. Indeed. If you read the timetable literally, the N42 night bus operates *Monday* morning and not on Saturdays. Lemon is also introducing four evening services on Christmas & News Year's Eves after 2130, after Brighton & Hove has gone to bed.

Illustrations and further information on St Helens from Omnibuses Northern Correspondent