A recent change of chief and a more recent new managing director for First UK Bus and these days First is really motoring. How many more positive developments can we expect?
Yesterday, there came news of a mammoth order of no fewer than 955 new vehicles. What better news to demonstrate a confidence in the UK bus market.
Similar to these, 460 of the First order will be bodied by Wrightbus, mainly on Volvo chassis. There is an option for up to 46 Streetlites
Orders of this magnitude are uncommon and certainly point to a new departure for First where there’s been paucity of late. There were hints from the management of a considerable order to cement the new emphasis on growth and here it is. The scale is almost unprecedented.The downside, if there’s one at all, is that the order is for two years. This gives some manufacturing certainly but it does dilute the impact a little. It’s still nevertheless welcome and represents about 10 per cent of First’s declared current fleet. First has always stated that it was on target to meet the 2016/2017 requirement for low floor buses. This £160mil order will not hinder that plan.
Something equally important was the parallel announcement that First expects to a two-year refurbishment programme for the resultant newly cascaded buses, equivalent to £4mil. Not only will there be new buses but those displaced will see an improvement in quality. Good news all round for passengers. Such refurbishment programmes currently are significant business as is often the case when times are hard.
Meanwhile, in something of a coincidence, as things look up at First, highly regarded Leon Daniels leaves today and will join TfL tomorrow in the important role of managing director surface transport. Daniels was instrumental in getting the prestigious olympic contract and can proudly point to the 200 of the 955 order required for the event purchased specifically for this task. These olympic double decks will not, of course, be Olympians. Nor Olympuses. The 200 are about a quarter of the total requirement. 200 vehicles with 15,000 seats sounds a lot and will no doubt cope well with incoming spectators who will shuttle between venue & parking when arrivals will be staggered. Imagine the queue after each major event!
From tomorrow, Daniels shifts seats and as poacher turned gamekeeper will have even more of a responsibility for the olympic traffic jam than his role within First UK Bus. We wish him well.
6 comments:
So, like other big companies, they are back to replacing about 5-6% of their fleet per year. Welcome news of course, with their recent investment record, and the PR people are bound to make the most of it, but we should not get carried away.
The same goes for the refurbishment. £4m spread over, say, the oldest 1000 buses is not very much.
I have known Giles Fearnley since he was 12, see:-
http://publictransportexperience.blogspot.com/2011/02/buses-in-blood.html
He is not a "fireworks" person - just good, resolute and realistic management.
First still needs to make profits for its shareholders!
perhaps with this intake first should now change their national livery un-liked by so many.image is still everything.
Anon at 07:54 is spot-on. This is nothing more than the bare minimum that they should be doing just to maintain the average fleet age (which will no doubt have slipped in the last few years). Of curse, it's welcome, but I'm really not sure it actually moves them forward as opposed to keeping them where they are. The amount set aside for refurbishments sounds particularly paltry to me, one would hope it is *additional* to the usual spend, given that all buses coming out of London already get a thorough refurbishment (as indeed do those retained in London for 'existing vehicle' tender wins). To be fair to First, buses in the provinces do sometimes get a mid-life refurb but IMX it's nothing like the volumes that Stagecoach or Go-Ahead deal with.
Presumably they are also taking into account the number of vehicles that they will no longer need as a result of reduced services because of L.A. cuts and reduced penioners fares - so replacement is probably higher than 5-6% of fleet.
IMO First should use the "ftr" livery on all buses. It's used on normal Wright vehicles at Luton Airport and suits them well.
Adopting the railway interior colours (but not the horrid lighting!) for buses would also be good.
Neil
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