There are some new developments in the twisted and often bitter tale of Brighton’s Big Lemon, if you’ll excuse the puns.
Brighton & Hove already offers better buses and higher frequencies than its Big L competitor. B&H’s output is consistent across its entire network, irrespective of competition. Big L cannot match any of this on its meagre offering with its relatively impoverished fleet—but it can compete on price. Not to mention intangibles, such as customer focus.
Now, though, B&H has lowered its fares on routes parallel to Big L. Carefully, B&H hasn’t undercut. But is this still predatory behaviour? The Big L thinks it is. It has—again—mobilised support in defending its corner. This time, it’s letters to the local paper, the local MP, the local council and a Facebook campaign with over 1,500 “likes” (not that “like” is a noun in this context but, hey ho, this 21st century English).
It sometimes astounds me that the residents of Brighton don’t recognise what the industry sees. B&H is consistently award winning, as judged by its peers. It’s the current city operator of the year. Either the people of Brighton don’t realise a good thing when they ride one or B&H is all about smoke & mirrors, an elaborate hoax that conceals nothing but an ordinary operation.
The key to B&H’s homeland unpopularity is its fares. Forget the fact that weekly and longer seasons offer good value for money across a frequent, penetrative, 24-hour network. They’re really no different, for example, to Bournemouth’s. But they seem to anger residents.
B&H, of course, must think of its margins in order to survive and invest. More than that, B&H takes the view that you should not (or need not) give away a good product. People will pay for quality. But this presupposes that people actually *want* quality. The answer is, of course, that they *do* but that they often aren’t willing to pay for it. Or they don’t see why they should.
Enter Big L. Its K-, L-, M-, N- and P-reg Mercedes minibuses, B10Ms and Darts, all step entrance, is a motley assortment. They will no doubt be past their best. But, provided they are roadworthy, who should judge what’s best for the public, when the fare’s right? This gives choice. The dominant market for which Big L caters is for students, hardly a sector of the population flush with money. Why would a student want to pay more than he had to?
Now that B&H has matched its fares, there seems little reason why passengers should wait for Big L. And that appears to be the crux of the problem. B&H lowered its fares in January. It was this week that Big L voiced its concerns. Can we therefore assume takings are down and that the business is starting to struggle?
Meanwhile, Roger French stated in the local newspaper that he welcomes competition… and, in somewhat misunderstanding deregulation, Big L is petitioning the council.
Friday, 18 March 2011
Lemon Squeezed
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18 comments:
I'm not surprised at all. What Big L is doing lines up perfectly with the zeitgeist - never mind that investing in good service makes sense, let's cut every cost we can, regardless of how much it hurts most people long term. After all, it ensures the bankers in the City get richer...
Big Lemon has been whinging for a few weeks now, it's not just happened this week. Tom Druitt seems to live a bubble which allows him to think that he should be entitled to be left alone to run where and when he sees fit and thus to compete with B&H but B&H should not be allowed to compete with him.
'City bankers' are more likely to invest in Go-Ahead shares than in Big Lemon. They don't always like competion either, like Go-Ahead and the other big companies, so they try to wipe it out.
I wonder why Go are so bothered a very small operator, albeit one with some smart marketing.
It's easy to recognise a good quality bus company from a distance - but when you're a daily traveller, there's more chance for things to go wrong and you're there to spot them!
'a Facebook campaign with over 1,500 “likes” (not that “like” is a noun in this context but, hey ho, this 21st century English).'
Sorry to go off-topic, but actually 'like' is a noun in this context, even if you don't like it used in this way. The English language was deregulated long ago - maybe we need some Language Commissioners to sort it out.
Re: the local perception of B&H, I think it's partly a case of not realising what you have until its gone and partly a belief that because it's doing well it should be able to afford to reduce fares. If only life were that simple! In addition, a lot of the anti-bus propaganda is stirred up by the local taxi drivers who don't like the competition particularly on the 24hr routes.
Although B and H are city operators of the year they were not voted that by their impoverished customers.its perception again,the french illusionist trick!
B&H is a quality outfit, but £2 for a single fare is very expensive by European standards, although pretty average by UK standards. Transfers are not included either, as is the British tradition, meaning that a day ticket is required for changing buses.
If the Lemon operation is proving there is a market in the city for cheaper fares with old buses, perhaps Mr French is missing the obvious ?
In general, students everywhere will go for the cheapest bus fares - they need to keep as much as possible for alcohol. Big Lemon provides a very basic service for them, particularly through the early hours each morning when they need to get drunk bodies back 'home' before sleeping through the next day of tuition.
Brighton & Hove residents appreciate B & H and I doubt that many would suggest that the fares are notably high (tourist areas always are). The ones that may not fully appreciate B & H are those same students who are only 'passing through'.
About time that Big Lemon tried somewhere else - few other places would give him such high quality competition.
About time that Big Lemon tried somewhere else
The Big Lemon does (or did - not been to the website for ages) have grand plans for links across Sussex, many not directly offered by other operators. It has, however, chosen to start operations elsewhere, on Brighton's most lucrative route.
In due course, they will be able to claim that they were "run off the road" before these other routes could start.
I wonder if routes 42/43/44 will feature in the Summer 'Bus Times' due out next month? It was only a few weeks ago that Omnibuses drew attention to the differing attitudes that the public have to competition between buses and supermarkets. Tesco do not, so far as I know, include details of corner shops in their own advertising material, but timetables for the Big Lemon routes are listed in B&H's comprehensive book.
Local people generally do not show much affection for the dominant bus operator in their area because the dominant operator is expected to be all things to all people including delivering quality and value. Those who are contented with the service rarely shout their contentment from the rooftops.
Us Brits have a strange affliction for vocally supporting the plucky small guy who may well be doomed to fail but rarely do we support the small guy in sufficient numbers by buying their product/service.
I expect one problem that Roger French has is that his local residents honestly have no idea just how good Brighton & Hove is. I daresay that a good many don't venture much further afield to realise just how poor many other operators still are.
The Big Lemon plan to create a network of routes across Sussex was never going to work.
Hmm. not sure if I'm missing something here, but surely a company having financial problems offering "free bus" days is a bit like a shop having "free stuff" days. Nice idea, but...
One problem that Roger French has is that many locals do compare his services. They compare them to London's, but don't realise the vast discrepancy in the subsidy available.
Is B&H really that unpopular locally? I'm not so convinced about that.
(1,500 likes of "Save the Big Lemon" on Facebook doesn't really mean anything.)
I hope the author isn't using The Argus as a barometer of public opinion. Brighton & Hove Buses are very highly regarded, but the people who comment on The Argus are the most bitter, negative people I have ever seen online.
Read the comments in reply to every story on The Argus and you will see they don't see the good in anything.
Why start a new service on a route which is already very well served by buses running every 5 minutes? I work at Falmer and most of the time when I see the buses going up there they are at least half empty. How does this help the planet? If Big Lemon really want to help and to get customers, there are plenty of routes which are not well served by the B&H bus company which would be more usefully served by a new service. I don't see how they can complain about B&H bus company matching their fares. What do they expect? They are not going to roll over and say 'hey ok you take over our bus route then'. As far as I'm concerned B&H fares are too expensive for a relatively small city (it is actually cheaper and much quicker for me to get the train!), but the Big Lemon is a big joke!
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