So that’s 1,244 bus operators in Britain, then. The passing of Wallingford-based Thames Travel to Go Ahead reduces by one the number of operators quoted as 1,245 by the Competition Commission. Except it doesn’t, of course, because the 1,245 refers to licensed operators, not actual owners; and because Go Ahead has pledged to keep the Thames Travel name and operation intact.
There’s no doubting that the Go Ahead takeover is a good fit. It extends Go Ahead’s Oxford presence south and south east, on routes picked up either at tender or as commercial hand-ins that others have dropped. The key is that Thames Travel has been very successful at growing itself and its business. It lands Go Ahead a ready-made, steady network.
Indeed, Thames Travel has proven that rural inter-urban buses in an area of relative prosperity (i.e. high car ownership) need not be dead ducks. It’s fleet in modern and Thames Travel is one of the UK’s first smaller operators of hybrid technology.
The old Thames Travel website design
Thames Travel is therefore one of our best examples of a niche operator whose base has developed on services others either do not want or can’t operate economically or sustainably.It wasn’t always thus for the managing director who, during the early days of deregulation, took on the might of Crosville Wales near the Cheshire border. He was one of a select few independents who waded in, throwing his all against an incumbent. It seemed at one point that his blue Wright buses were poised to see dramatic change in the northern Marches. But head-to-head competition can be cruel. Perhaps that’s why Thames Travel is where it is today: developing a niche largely away from existing operators, competing not on-street but for tenders and building otherwise marginal or forgotten routes.
The takeover might cause some competition issues because Go Ahead owns the Oxford Bus Company. Fewer if any issues in the rural swathe through which most of Thames Travel operates. Nor in the Bracknell or Wokingham areas where, to the consternation of some, Thames Travel has gained a tender foothold (if you see what I mean).So, what’s likely to be in store? Expect
- A Stenning makeover, though not immediately. Thames Travel’s image is modern, with the nowadays obligatory swooshes but does it cut the mustard among such good company as the other Go Ahead subsidiaries?
- The possibility if expansion. Reading Buses and First might now be looking over their shoulders a little. Check out Southampton, as an example. Reading Buses may be the a little more vulnerable in parts.
- In time, management changes. I know Go Ahead’s policy is to manage locally and this is their promise (at least initially) but there’s a difference between a strong local identity and two managements geographically close to each other, especially since one is small and the other not huge. Check out Go South Coast.
- Vehicle changes. Modern the fleet is but it’s also somewhat non-standard. It’s believed that much of Thames Travel’s vehicles are under lease and this is probably not the way Go Ahead would wish to take things.
11 comments:
As with the loss of Verwood Transport in today's Dorset Bus Blog, the loss of another independent Thames Travel will be regretted by many. Is this then the future of the bus industry, the big companies absorbing all the small ones, like Startrek and the Borg (-:
As i have said before ,if things carry on evolving as they are now we will finish up with a private monopoly instead of the public monopoly we had before.At worst it will become a cartel of three or four companies working hand in hand against the public interest no matter what the competition law is.What does the industry wish for?.Just the money?!!
There are lots of good quality small operators out there. They build themselves up gradually and eventually sell out. That will continue. No doubt crumbs will be thrown out from the TT operation in time as Go-Ahead get their feet under the table. Another operator will come along to start the process again, as has been going on ever since deregulation. Might be harder to get that foothold if every council starts offering tenders and school contracts to the big boys a la Dorset CC but I can't see too much changing TBH. The advantage the small operators have is the ability to micro-manage routes on the spot to get the very best out of them, something the big-boys just don't have the resources to do 24/7 whereas the small operators have no choice, it's their bread and butter.
History often goes in cycles. In the twenties and thirties Tilling and BAT companies bought up smaller companies, and the situation is largely similar today.
Go-Ahead's two recent purchases are of companies that do not, in general, overlap with their existing operations. Looking at the Thames Travel website it would seem that they are already being hit by cutbacks from Oxford CC. Many smaller operators will be in the same situation if they rely on tendered services. Go-Ahead's policy, at least on the outside, of maintaining operations on a local basis will allow Thames Travel to retain the value of local goodwill and support.
Perhaps we shall see other larger groups following a similar path by making investments in smaller operators, rather than outright purchases, and the retention of local identity.
I do not think there will be any trend towards monopoly or even just a few big groups. Look at First selling Kings Lynn.
People used to think there would be just 2 or 3 'big oil' groups and car groups, but now both sectors are crowded with new companies. IBM used to the only computer company and now there are thousands. There will be constant change and that is a good thing as society constantly changes. The heyday of the bus is somewhere in the future!
The heyday of the bus is somewhere in the future
Well said RW!
Effectively we already have a monopoly by a handful of large companies who as soon as a small company expands they take them out. About 90% of the UK bus market is in the hands of a few companies. That can hardly be a healthy situation
"take them out"? That's a little bit one-sided. For some of these small companies, that is the aim, surely? They aren't intending to be around for ever and the owners will no doubt have an exit plan. If they can make some money and then receive an offer and retire (or start again), that's ideal. For the owner, anyway.
Anonymous @1408
"About 90% of the UK bus market is in the hands of a few companies".
It's 69% according to the Competition Commission.
And it's also noticeable how the big groups are losing marginal work. There are quite a few places where they really only provide trunk and town services, Arriva The Shires being one such example. These are the gaps that the Thames Travels of the world feel, until they sell out.
Which, if I was proprietor of one, would be exactly my aim - to sell the business after building it up.
Much depends upon the local circumstances - the Council's view of future spending, thei procurement strategies, and how proactive the local or regional management is. Even across the big goups, the local management (and especially in Go Ahead where they are very much devolved enough to set their own strategies) have different approaches to business development. Rumour is that Go South Coast is one to watch - very imminent announcements that suggest the management has a very different strategy to that a year or so ago, and that they are delivering big style.
Reading might do to be worried, but then again so might Thamesdown. Give GA the foothold there and they'd have a contiguous set of operations running all the way from Dorset to Berkshire.
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