The Journey—and the Wait

Plymouth City Bus passed from arms length municipal control to private ownership exactly one year ago today. In the journey it has now undertaken, what changes have there been?

Citybus has become more commercially minded. This has resulted in:

• A review of its network. Here alongside some fairly minor traffic changes have been other more fundamental & unpopular revisions, including to evening journeys. Citybus has nevertheless beefed up some of its daytime frequencies. There’ve been Sunday evening reductions to resource better Sunday daytime services, something appreciated by passengers.


• A number of early managerial, administrative & engineering redundancies.

Opponents used these changes to launch an “I told you so” attack. Nevertheless, front line driving staff have remained constant, in part owing to the continued competition with First on the 5 corridor (Plymstock), still keeping its head above water.

The engineering department now sees about one bus a week going through refurbishment, to assist the Go Ahead group. These vehicles are largely for London but not exclusively, and include some of Wilts & Dorset’s.

From October, the website’s been given a major makeover, under a new domain name and the buses themselves, of course, carry the obligatory nearside Go Ahead logo. The website itself features a new less homespun Citybus logo.

Otherwise, not much else to report, on the surface. What we eagerly await is Citybus’ new livery and brand, care of The Be-kilted One. We know that he will shortly reveal all. This will be in the form of a revision in red, and a stronger local brand. You either love or you hate Marmite. You either love or you hate school chemistry. But with the man with the kilt, it’s never so black & white. Regular readers will also recall that we included the original 1982 Citybus livery in our Top 7+1.

It’s taken far longer for Citybus to rebrand than it did Yellow Buses. Transdev Yellow Buses rebranded, purchased (second hand) SLFs and rewrote the network, all in seven months. At Plymouth, there’s already been the network changes without the major wholesale surgery of Bournemouth. Why so long for the rest?

The answer probably lies in just one word. First. At about the time of the changeover, Citybus has had to contend with a major onslaught from its once joint services partner. This resulted, for example, in Citybus taking the initiative in running to Plymstock for the first time, in the face of Ugobus impinging upon Citybus’ traditional areas of operation. The results, however, have been somewhat one-sided, with some retrenchment on the part of the new, competitive Ugobus services. Nothing ventured from First’s perspective but incredibly cheap season ticket prices and fares may have resulted in costs not being met. One example of the change is the withdrawing the 7s from Woolwell and sensible diversion of the Tavistock 84/6s within, but which has proven highly controversial.

Aside from taking the flack at service change time, passenger reaction and perceptions remain largely positive. Moving the new designer enquiry office from the Royal Parade into Debenham’s has proven particularly welcomed. With the prospect of 100 per cent low floor operation in the near future and a new brand for 2011, Citybus under Go Ahead can be confident of its future.