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What does a bus operator, whose parent company is based in Hackney, London, want with a lone contract to operate a park & ride service in Hull? The answer to this question was potentially made a lot clearer last autumn, when CT Plus was awarded the contract to operate the park & ride service linking Hull city centre with Pride Park, starting one month ago today.
CT Plus has introduced a fleet of six BMC Condors to its Pride Park service in Hull. Seen here is FJ59 UYE
The Pride Park route in Hull is the first stage-carriage service the company operates outside London and is seen as being a potential foothold into the East Riding of Yorkshire. The company’s bread-and-butter concerns community transport services, dial-a-rides and home-to-school contracts for local authorities, many of which fall under Section 19 of the Transport Act, governing the operation of community transport providers and affording them leeway in terms of the level of training and regulation to which they are subjected. Should operators in Hull—and indeed the whole of the rural East Riding of Yorkshire—be unduly concerned as CT Plus’ emergence here?
Hull is increasingly being recognised as a vibrant and progressive city and dwarfs many of its contemporaries in terms of its sheer urban sprawl. To the south is the Humber and the Hull Dockland area continues to flourish through significant investment by Associated British Ports and the diversification policies the city council has been pushing for the past decade. On all other sides, Hull is encompassed by the largest rural unitary authority in the country and the mix of dense-urban and sparsely-populated operations in what was known as North Humberside may tick many of CT Plus’ boxes, since plentiful school contract services operate here, especially to convey school pupils in rural areas, with operators tending to be urban-based.
The Pride Park service was one of the city’s first park and ride routes, opening in 2003, and being operated by East Yorkshire Motors Services (EYMS). The company operated the service without fault until it fell foul of Hull city council’s decision to award the service to CT Plus last September. The plot thickened when it was revealed that EYMS placed the lowest tender and was able to provide brand new vehicles (a requirement) immediately. CT Plus’ tender was for more money and even their commitment for new vehicles was shaky—they couldn’t guarantee they’d be in service by 1 February. EYMS went so far as to consulted its lawyers, though the city council’s decision had been ratified and no further action was taken.
FJ59 UYK heads into Hull city centre. With CT Plus planning to expand its business by 25% each year, could further routes in the city follow? Photo: Stephen Whiteley
Operators see the potential for CT Plus to expand once a foothold in the area has been gained as significant. Their Wakefield-based ‘My Bus’ school contracts grew in number from eight to 40 in just four years; the company has grown its portfolio of TfL routes steadily; their Priory Park livery has been designed by Best Impressions—they are very keen to ensure their image is developed in the ‘big bus’ market; and they have openly admitted to wanting to expand their business by 25% year-on-year.
While CT Plus needs to operate its Priory Park service in the same way EYMS would, the company benefits from lower overheads through the bulk of the remainder of its business—Section 19 operators have no requirement to ensure their drivers attain the CPC qualification, and do not conform to regulations concerning drivers’ hours, for example. It is with this significant advantage that regular bus and coach operators are very wary of CT Plus and its sisters. And with Hull City Council’s willingness to award a Section 19 operator a contract to run ‘big buses’ when they posed a worse deal for the city’s tax payers, the potential for upset is seen as fairly high. Time will tell whether this is a one-off or not.
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9 comments:
What an ugly bus... says something when even Best Impressions can't rescue it, as hard as they've obviously tried!
"What an ugly bus..."
So people go go for looks and say when it comes along in the pouring rain, "I'm not getting on that. I'll wait for a ggof looking one, or walk home."? Really?
Th e whole premise of HCT is that it is a Community Interest Company and that any profits are ploughed back into worthy projects for the communities. A look at the companies accounts, {It is very open. No hiding anything here!} shows that the bulk of its revenue is now from bus services. Very little seems to come from the section 19 area. I am inclined to think that this is the way of the future. It has obvious appeal to local authorities of certain persuasions.
The dreadful financial plight of this country will soon impact on lots of areas and all kinds of buses plus community buses are going to get whacked.
Anything which impacts on the patchy stock market lovers of the large five can be good. They have been living on borrowed time. Dinosaurs. Arriva's appalling admission that they did not bother with their stakeholders (Local Authorities) is an example of their arrogance.
Small operator. The Beautiful North East Economic Wastelands of England.
Presumably Hull City Council had a reason for not awarding the contract to the lowest tenderer - particularly given the additional issue regarding new vehicles? It would certainly be interesting to know. Given that there are two major operators in Hull, the City Council are not facing a monopoly, or near-monopoly, situation - so there does not seem to be any immediately obvious reason for bringing in an additional competitor at a cost to themselves (or the council tax payers of Hull).
As for the bus being ugly, it is - but then so are a lot of other ones these days as well! You'll wait a long time for a good looking bus today!
@RC169:
Presumably Hull City Council had a reason for not awarding the contract to the lowest tenderer - particularly given the additional issue regarding new vehicles? It would certainly be interesting to know. Given that there are two major operators in Hull, the City Council are not facing a monopoly, or near-monopoly, situation
Exactly my thoughts. EYMS submitted the better bid by objective standards, and have a deservedly strong reputation (winning the RouteOne award for best large bus company in 2009) - awarding the contract to a less competitive tender by a complete outsider with no other interests in the area just reeks of dodgy dealings. I hope the people of Hull will be asking some tough questions to their council about fiduciary misconduct.
Stevei D and RC169, I reckon there must have been a quality element to the awards process (not just on price alone). It may seem hard to imagine but perhaps CT PLus scored higher than EYMS?
@Anonymous 2010-03-05 23:05
I reckon there must have been a quality element to the awards process (not just on price alone). It may seem hard to imagine but perhaps CT PLus scored higher than EYMS?
It is pretty hard to believe. EYMS are a very reputable company, and they have a strong track record in Hull and the surrounding areas. There is every reason to believe that the contract would be delivered, and if for any reason it wasn't, HullCC have a strong hold over EYMS given the number of subsidised services they run. Compare that with CTPlus, who are a completely unknown quantity. Why would you gamble something that you know is going to be good against something that might be, or might not be - and which is far more likely to go belly-up or have the company renege on the deal.
(That's not passing comment on CTPlus as an operator, but purely a reflection on the fact that they are a London-based concern, so they are going to have limited resources to spare to a small operation in Hull - they won't be able to offer the reliability that EYMS can offer because they don't have the same economies of scale. And if it does all go wrong, it's much easier for them just to walk away with little harm done to their reputation in their core market)
Not sure that the bland livery is going to create the best impression either. Is black a colour,or the absence of colour ?
Anonymous said...
"Is black a colour,or the absence of colour ?"
Given that its hexadecimal notation for computer systems is #000000, you could well argue that it is the absence of colour!
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