A Christmas Drama

Who says nothing ever happens over Christmas? Almost within hours of ADL sniffing around Optare with its bag of magic beans came the rebuff. Ashok Leyland was having none of it. Ashok, currently holding a 26 per cent share and the fairy godmother to Optare’s Cinderella, was enough to send ADL packing, with a cuff on the nose. Ashok’s refusal to sell to anyone at any price should be viewed as a highly positive vote in Optare’s future. Current and prospective customers should take comfort from this swift reaction. The signal it sends is clear. Optare has a future thanks to a nine-figure cash injection (we’re talking rupees, not Sterling). Every economic commentator is suggesting that the emerging economies will help us out of recessions and here seems some proof of that, considering Optare’s teetering business (until now). India never did Jaguar any harm and I speak as someone whose near neighbour has recently taken delivery of a brand new XF. “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it”, as General Electric himself said but you only get just over two to the Optare Solo. And so the Christmas drama concludes without ADL getting its hands on a competitor and without getting its winter mittens on commercially sensitive information. We’ve now just got to hope that Ashok Leyland doesn’t send too much work abroad.

Fares Unfair?

Said a midlands-based public transport campaign group,

“We welcome the fares increases announced for January 2012 by National Express West Midlands. We know & appreciate that conditions are tough for bus operators at the moment, and we believe that the increases will help protect the network, drivers’ jobs and continued fleet investment”

Hmmm. Such a quote would be refreshing, wouldn’t it. Instead, what the midlands-based campaign group actually said was how disappointed they were with an “unwelcome start to 2012”. For, next week, NXWM puts adult singles up from £1.80 to £1.90 and day tickets by 20p to £3.80. Weekly seasons increase by 50p to £15.

If the local Birmingham media are to be believed, this is the first increase in single fares for one year (a 10p rise, back then). And seasons last increased 19 months ago. If so, surely the news is not as bad as the campaign group fears. And is quite reasonable, under the circumstances, provided an operator *is* investing adequately aznd is seen to be doing so.

Bus fares have been a bone of contention for as long as I can remember. That’s hardly surprising, as operators have put them up ahead of inflation in preference to withdrawing mileage. For this is the only other real option. This long-held strategy started in the cossetted years of network subsidy has been with us in the deregulated era.

Except, of course, where there’s direct competition. And where there *is* competition, someone elsewhere is paying for the depressed fares on competitive routes.

2011 in 300 Words (1 of 2)

During a year when an inconsequential corner of England made regional transport headlines, in the first of our retrospectives on 2011, we devote all 300 words to Dorset, today on the Dorset Bus Blog. We could so easily have written More, mentioning ex-Veolia Tempos or brand new Geminis. Meanwhile, stay tuned for 2011 in 300 words for the rest of England.

This Time it’s a Real Shok (sic)

Perhaps ADL has its eye on Optare’s new manufacturing facility. Perhaps it fears the proposed £4mil Ashok Leyland cash injection will pose a significant threat to ADL’s business like never before. Or ADL sees marketplace consolidation as a way of protecting its own business. Maybe ADL feels there’s a one-off chance it can exploit Optare’s current weakness that otherwise leaves Optare totally exposed. It’s possible ADL wants to buy in design flare that it cannot reasonably get from outside consultancies.

Whatever the reasons, in the wake of Ashok Leyland proposing to seek control of Optare, ADL is considering a cash offer for all of Optare’s capital. This doesn’t mean that ADL will necessarily form a bid but it has till 25th January to make its intentions known.

Unlike the Darwen (East Lancs)/Optare merger, in terms of products, there is much overlap between ADL and Optare. The Solo with its forward control is the only unique product. Arguably, the Enviro 200 is a sounder investment, all round, though both have their strengths, their weaknesses, their supporters and detractors. A move by ADL might kill for good the prospect of a lightweight Olympus-based integral double deck.

We felt that the Ashok Leyland threefold stake increase might safeguard homegrown manufacturing capacity and provide choice. Will this continue under any ADL/Optare merger? What will be the operating industry’s reaction? It already has half an eye on eastern imports. Post Malta, Arriva has recently announced a “co-operation agreement” with King Long for UK and European prototypes, for 2012 and 2013. Or may be a stronger ADL can better fend off such developments.

Recognition

2011 wasn’t the best year for new bus designs but was saved at the 11th hour by the Borismaster. Without the first prototype, this post would need to start—and finish—with the uncontroversial Tempo SR, less remarkable Irizar i6 integral and the even less remarkable Bluebird Orion 16-seater.

Spending time this Christmas with my grand-sons, I gave my eldest my copy of Autocar, the one to which I recently referred. You often find the remarkable within and my grand-son likes the notable, particularly cars. He looked down at the cover and said, “It’s got that new bus”. It’s a testament to London politics, the London-centric media and the design house, Heatherwick, that the New Bus for London is now almost as much a landmark in London (and the M1—but that’s another story) as the Routemaster RM. And the BM hasn’t turned heads on London’s 38, yet. That’ll come in February.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said that it’s excellent to see a bus portrayed positively in the national media (and less so, on the M1—but that’s another story). Mind you, looking down at the 4 sq. in. picture on Autocar’s cover, my grand-son did wonder whether the chrome LT roundel was actually a Nissan badge. I can see the similarity. And, these days, Nissans are anything but bread-and-butter, having dumped cars in favour of an assortment of unrelated lifestyle designs.

If the media have gone into a frenzy over the BM, the vehicle is less of significance to the rest of us. Will a dual staircase, 11.2m, three door, 66 62 seater be of any relevance to the provinces? Probably not. We might be able to learn from some of the technology, though, especially as it delivers over 11 mpg—about 30 per cent more than a less powerful Wrightbus Gemini H. And some of the interior RM-inspired retro design may counter recent leather and Café Nero trends. Nice, for example, to see almost “proper” double bus seats, even if passengers may actually prefer the modish individual ones, ones that don’t invade personal space so much.

I remain unconvinced that London ever needed buses of its very own—even in the mid- to late-1950s—when London today is using internally modified provincial designs. What marked the older Routemaster out as particularly different or useful? Wouldn’t a FS or FL Bristol Lodekka (and even the LD before it) be more adequate? Years ahead of its time with a nice flat floor, for example. This would have been the singular most significant step change (excuse the pun) in London bus design and it would’ve done so much more to assist and speed loading.

OK, so the Lodekka was a bit of a pig to drive and handle. But perhaps Bristol might’ve offered power steering and an auto box had it been able to supply the open market at the time. And had LT executives managed to overcome the cultural shift in bringing in such a provincial marque into town—it’d never have happened.

And what of the revolutionary VRL? As conservative in looks as the RM, the offside longitudinal engine was behind the rear axle. Thus, it was possible to fit a dual or rear staircase to what for the 1960s was another totally flat floor Bristol. Indeed, there were a handful of dual-staircase, front-and-rear entrance kit body built VRLs for South Africa. Imagine that concept in London, with a suitably high seating capacity, as well.

The VRL didn’t last long, though, Bristol preferring the more conventional VRT. One issue with the VR was the rushed design to production. It resulted in the Scottish Bus Group disowning the VR and swapping it in large number for an English fleet of FLF Lodekkas.

And that’s a potential problem with the NBfL, the quick gestation period, presumably to fulfil political ambitions. This is especially relevant with it having such a high media profile. Just recall that infamous breakdown on the M1, owing to human error—but that’s another story.

i Monotral Viberti CV61

Merry Christmas

Thank you for your support this year in continuing to make Omnibuses probably the most widely read bus blog on the net. We're now taking a short seasonal break for a couple of days. I trust regular readers won't mind. In wishing all our contributors, commenters, the professional commentariat, those who kindly link here and especially readers every blessing of the season, remember that by clicking top left you can re-read previous posts randomly. Thank you, too, for your Christmas wishes via email. As an aside, have you noticed that 2011 has seen a phenomenal growth in business e-cards? The Royal Mail must be gutted. Still, it does mean fewer bits of glitter spilling off cards onto my dark suits : ) And talking of glitter, the above bus is from Newport Bus. It might look spectacular from the outside but what about from within? We hope, though, that Omnibuses has given clarity throughout the year.

Boxed In

An acquaintance of mine gets up at 0300 on Boxing Day and ventures out early, passes the nearest Next store and travels by car to a larger one where she joins the sizeable queue for the 0500 opening. Having over-spent on her card, she then returns home to bed. I hope that buyer’s remorse won’t stop her sleeping.

It may seem strange to refer to Boxing Day on Christmas Eve but the two now have so much in common in terms of retail demand. When I first referred to Boxing Day (somewhat loosely) in 2005, the Boxing Day madness was still developing. Six years later, it’s grown into the biggest single shopping day of the year.

In 2006, I confessed I hated the sales. But there were calls from Passenger Focus for limited Boxing Day bus and rail services—for longer distance travellers. OK, fine, but the market for local buses is there for retail. Back in 2006, there was little from which to choose. Buses were largely extinct on that day. I did ponder, however, whether the following 2007 might be a breakthrough year in terms of serving the high street sales. “Will the bus come to the fore during Boxing Day 2007?” I asked. The answer came as a resounding “No!”

Things began to change in 2008. Not only were Southern Vectis to provide a usable Boxing Day network, they decided to run services on Christmas Day, too. And it worked. Break even on Christmas Day and standing loads on Boxing Day. They’ve repeated it ever since. Yet still I asked whether others might be tempted. Why would the Isle of Wight be any different to elsewhere? A good question. It seemed that it was poles apart. Still there was little Boxing Day interest for 2009.

There came a watershed in 2010. SVOC maintained and extended its service and they were joined more or less locally by new entrants Transdev Yellow Buses, Wilts & Dorset and W&D Bluestar, all attacking key routes, sometimes with vigour. They weren’t the only operators providing a service but “patchy” was the watchword.

And what of this year? Well, there’s to be Boxing Day disruption on the London Underground. Some replacement bus services will operate. Most London bus routes will also operate a Sunday service. Elsewhere, things are still patchy, very patchy. Special services now run on selected routes in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and many other city regions, but nothing approaches the universal, even in metropolitan England.

So, we continue to ask, as we have for more or less the life of this blog, when will we see the sort of service that passengers might expect on Boxing Day? And I don’t just mean park & ride. For commercial operators, it’s a gamble… but surely not that much of one. The bus industry’s adapted well to Sunday trading. Why then should the motor car have Boxing Day all on its own, every year?

And don’t even mention Good Friday...

Here is a quick comparison between 2010 and 2011. Spot the differences (or similarities):

OPERATOR	BOXING DAY OFFER
Abellio Surrey	2010 & 2011: no service save 441 (Heathrow)
Brighton & Hove	2010 & 2011: special timetables on 19 routes
First Berkshire & Thames Valley	2010 & 2011: no service save for 71 & 78 (Heathrow)
First Devon & Cornwall	2010 & 2011: no buses
First Dorset & Hampshire	2010 & 2011: no Service
First West	2010 & 2011: no Service save for A1/A2 Bristol Airport
Metrobus (provincial)	2010 & 2011: special timetables
Oxford Bus Co	2010: no service. 2011: special timetables on 11 services
Plymouth Citybus	2010 & 2011: no service
Reading Transport	2010 & 2011: special timetables
Southern Vectis	2010 & 2011: full Sunday service
Stagecoach Oxford	2010 & 2011: special timetables (city and country)
Stagecoach South East	2010: no service. 2011: no service except for D-Line and Gold 1
Stagecoach South West	2010 & 2011: no service
TfL	2010 & 2011: Sunday service
Thamesdown Transport	2010 & 2011: no service
Transdev Yellow Buses	2010 & 2011: special service
W&D Bluestar	2010 & 2011: special service
Wilts & Dorset	2010 & 2011: special service

Satisfaction Guaranteed?

I opened the Competition Commission’s final Market Investigation report online and scrolled to the very end to get a feel for the size of it. Only 134 pages, eh? That’s most unexpected, I thought. Strangely thin. Double sided with two pages on a side and that meant only 34 sheets of A4. So I decided to print four copies for colleagues as well as one for me… only to find I was deluded and that it was section 15 with 134 pages and not the entire 500-plus page document. Which meant I had about six inches of A5 and I jammed the printer/copier in the process.

Still, there’s some rather pretty maps within.

It wasn’t just operators who had to submit evidence: local transport authorities did, too. It seemed that there was no compulsion on their part... white indicates no data received

I suppose I need to mention the Competition Commission’s report. I don’t really want to but for the fact that I feel I need to. There was little of surprise because it hasn’t really changed since the interim report. It’s fleshed out, of course, as I found to my cost for being so unobservant with the pagination. And had it not been for the excitement of managers in the north east caught with their metaphorical trousers down, then the whole process has been singularly dull.

To think of the time I have personally spent on this project and the time of my colleagues. May be the industry should be grateful there’s nothing too sinister within in terms of change but it does seem like it’s taken a lot of time and effort to get to that point.

Aside from some single fares issues (as opposed to seasons), does the travelling public really perceive their bus service lets them down? There are vocal people who comment on web-based newspaper articles but they must be a minority because survey after survey demonstrates that most bus services, in most of England, most of the time are well received. And I’m not just talking about surveys undertaken independently by Passenger Focus. Every large operator will be engaging with its passenger base by interviewing and surveying and the cross-tabulated results are always on the optimistic side. Yes, they point to improvements but there’s nothing startlingly bad that’s within an operator’s direct control. Satisfaction guaranteed. Usually.

It’s now all down to how you want to interpret the report. We knew that franchising was out of the equation. I suppose the CC’s final response to franchising was a little unexpected when it stated that it wasn’t opposed in principle “if others such as local transport authorities decide to introduce [them] for their own good reasons”. So, the CC isn’t preventing the use of franchising. But this is no ringing endorsement of QCs either. Nexus PTE appears keen to press ahead, following the above mentioned north east excitement. For the Competition Commissions, though, more on-street competition is the answer.

But who will come forward? Where are these larger or smaller competitors likely to come from? Is competition in the average English bus market really sustainable? Isn’t the car the main competitor and why didn’t the CC recognise this? And why cannot an established business do what it needs to, to protect itself from “me too” copycats?

Unprecedented?

Newport Bus has had its problems over the last couple of years. A change of managing director following a bust up with service 30 Newport-Cardiff partners Cardiff Bus, a new image and marketing campaign have seen an additional 80,000 passengers on board in 2011—and this in spite of a somewhat recession-hit town centre. Mind you, I calculate this to be just a one per cent increase which, if true, is less of a headline than 80,000, especially given the low base of 2010.

As a way of thanking its passengers, Newport Bus will operate completely free of charge on Christmas Eve, sacrificing up to £20,000 in revenue. This year, everyone’s predicting a more lively than usual 24th December, as shoppers play chicken with larger stores awaiting real last minute bargains. It’s a brave operator that can afford such a luxury. It’s produced a promotional video featuring a contravision ALX400 in something of an On the Buses style, but without the innuendo or shouting. One of the girls even looks a little like Olive—but with an engaging smile.

Is Newport’s an unprecedented move? Not exactly, because it also operated free of charge on Christmas and New Year’s Eve in 2009 (but not during 2010). Like Saturday’s free buses, the 2009 campaign was to offer a thank you to customers and, in 2009, to encourage responsible drinking.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, among other positive changes, Newport Bus launched the new X25 between Monmouth and Newport, the first limited stop service between the two. Prior to that, services had been (and continue to be) stoppers. This is quite a commitment, requiring a vehicle across the peak for fairly well-off parts of south Wales (Monmouth, Raglan, Usk).

Newport Bus is also joining other operators in featuring the cost of fuelling your car. No gimmicks such as calculators featuring insurance costs and parking here, though, but a straightforward web page showing savings on fuel over small, medium and large cars travelling daily to Cardiff.

Optare: Ever-changing

We need strong indigenous bus manufacturers and bodybuilders. A sector that offers quality and choice. One that meets our needs today and can innovate for tomorrow.

Yet, the sector has been shrinking in recent years, both through pre-deregulation structural changes and post-deregulation market fragmentation. Just recall some of the erstwhile builders who are no longer with us: Leyland, Bristol, Bedford, Ford, Northern Counties, ECW, Park Royal, Willowbrook, Duple… even East Lancs, which brings us to the point of today’s post.

Yesterday came the news that Ashok Leyland will almost triple its stake in Optare. This will give it control of the company. This was not altogether unexpected. It’s also subject to the agreement of Optare’s shareholders. In all honesty, they can’t refuse. If they do, in Optare’s words, “the company does not have, at this stage, alternative means with which to finance its on-going operations and thus will not be able to continue to trade”.

That’s quite a frightening prospect for existing (after-market), current (in-build) and prospective customers. And for the operating industry as a whole. Optare may be a (significant) minority builder but it has more manufacturing capacity now than it ever had in the past and it certainly has allusions (rather than delusions) of grandeur.

Optare’s history has been somewhat turbulent. Remember United Bus? North American Bus Industries? Jamesstan Investments? The reverse takeover by Darwen (formerly East Lancs)? And the Rapta and Solo+ debacles?

Some of its history is best left unsaid. On the positive side, Optare once formed close working relationships with operators (e.g. Wilts & Dorset) and still has the ability to do so (e.g. with Trent Barton over the new Tempo). What Optare really needs is some stability. We’ve been promised that at every significant regime change or restructure. This ltest via the huge Ashok Leyland brings very significant investment potential.

When referring to the NBfL, we felt that the Autocar vehicle testers where somewhat harsh when they felt that there was no design flair in bus manufacturing. There is and this has largely been the result of Optare. Take the Versa. It’s shown itself to be a well-respected bus that stands out from the crowd. The Solo may have its critics but, for those who operate it, Solo is a known product and one that doesn’t seem to age. Buy a new Solo today and you can line it up against an original 1998 model and passengers wouldn’t know the difference. That’s important if you agree that design is a major factor in tempting and retaining passengers. Tempo performs well, has manful acceleration and now seems to be getting the facelift it deserves.

Above all, we need choice in as vibrant a market as possible. Operators are still investing in spite of tough trading conditions and the uncertainty this brings—not to mention any uncertainties of yesterday’s Competition Commission report. Optare sales are marginally down this year, even though single deck buses in particular, especially from ADL and Volvo, have done well. Renewed interest via the Green Bus Fund might stimulate the market further, in 2012. Operators need to be in the mix to keep the bigger boys on its toes and to offer real alternatives to mainstream products. Long may it continue to do so.

Manchester photo: Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent. With greener technology now firmly on the agenda, does Optare compare well to Wrightbus, ADL and Volvo?

The Latest Twist

What was it that challenger Roger French of Brighton & Hove said about The Big Lemon? “Another copycat competitor”? Well, not for much longer, it seems. This particular slice of Brighton bus actuality will shortly sour. In spite of French’s statements about competition and his welcoming of Lemon, he will no doubt be relieved to see the latest opposition pipped. Not that it was anything more than a minor irritant, really. Some would argue it creamed off term-time student business, and only when the going was good—avoiding holidays.

Indeed, the Lemon 42 was squarely aimed at students who have more of an affinity with price rather than quality. B&H, on the other hand, continues with a consistent quality across its entire operation. As French has stated on many occasions, you should never give quality away too cheaply. But that’s assuming everyone wants to pay for such a high-end service. Others may welcome something a little lower down the scale, hence Lemon and students.

But the problem for low-cost operators come when the quality service continues while matching the low-cost operator’s price. That’s what B&H started to do earlier this year on B&H’s parallel 25.

It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that Lemon squarely blames the opposition. Lemon feels that it has been “squeezed out” by lower fares and more frequent services. As is usual, the newcomer seems to think that it has more of a right than the incumbent. I just wonder what Lemon expected. But we’re about to enter the slightly braver (or slightly impotent?) new post-Competition Commission world. It’s hard to say what the Competition Commission will make of Lemon’s deregistration and the reasons given by the hi-vis operator.

It was in 2007 that it all started. Then, the Lemon 42 was a limited stop service from Brighton Station to Falmer Station. Lemon had high-minded hopes of using the 42 as a springboard for expansion as a community interest company across more of Brighton.

Launched by none other than a Green Party MEP, Lemon displayed its green credentials by using biodiesel that included refined, locally sourced kitchen oil waste. But its much older vehicles couldn’t match the Euro III, IV or V of its competitor fleet.

The former care home manager soon realised that operating an half-hourly commercial bus service was no easy way of printing money. Demand wasn’t as high as expected and by November 2007 Lemon was in trouble. Caught in the trap of not having sufficient resources to operate, yet facing a fine or loss of its O licence for willfully circumventing the 56-day notice period, Lemon actually asked its passengers to appeal directly to the traffic commissioner. About 150 responded. To many in the industry, this sounded a little naïf, unprofessional, if not down right brass necked. To its passengers, it seemed sensible and rational. Why should passengers understand the rules by which operators run their services?

Part of Lemon’s 2007 problems resulted from it being perhaps a little too candid with its drivers. Keeping them on board is one thing but once they caught a whiff of financial problems and a consequent major restructure, Lemon found that it had to add deserting staff to its list of problems.

To the end of January 2008, Lemon did cut its service but not without the attention of the traffic commissioner. It then paused and relaunched in February 2008 as a student-orientated service during university term times only.

Lemon introduced a number of gimmicks and unorthodox approaches, including appeals, to try to galvanise support

To its credit, Lemon had built up the 42 again to half hourly, to 0400, though still during term times. This, of course, is no match for the established B&H 25 (every 10 minutes, including night buses at this frequency during term times).

The next installment came in April 2008, when Lemon proved it was no less dependent on commodity prices than anyone else. It announced a nine per cent hike in the cost of the waste cooking oil it used.

In July 2008, Lemon stated it was suspending operations over the summer, to coincide with the universities’ term dates. It became clear that students were the main beneficiary of a cheaper, no-frills service, where cost was more important, to them, than quality. Lemon had also announced the launch of a membership scheme where you could join the Lemon and get free travel as your reward.

Fast forward to March 2011 and the rot really began after B&H announced lower fares on the 25. It had already begun to provide artics on the route, to cope with peak student flows. There was a bit of a backlash from either Lemon supporters or from those who distrusted B&H. And then last week, Lemon announced the cancellation if its 42. The 44 between hall and Brighton University (and city centre in the evenings) continues, as does its private hires.

Were I to take any lessons from this adventure, I’d say that you should never under-estimate the costs of entering bus service operation and over-estimate the likely revenue. Like a lot of competition in England, much’s relatively short-term in nature and unsustainable. And for a community interest company to rely on goodwill, students, gimmicks, unorthodox approaches and contributions such as membership is probably meringue pie in the sky. Some things are just best left to commercial operators.

Tester’s Dream

I’ve said before that I see no problem with people owning cars. It’s their inappropriate use that concerns me. To this statement, I feel I should add that, sometimes, owing inappropriate cars is unacceptable, too—gas guzzlers at the extreme end. And that’s why I’ve never felt comfortable with Autocar magazine. Though far more sane, balanced and reasoned than Clarkson ever will or could be, Autocar tends to feature the aspirational end of the car market—the Fast, the Fussy, the Fantasmagorical (sic) and the inFlated. All for the Few. The unattainable, really.

Autocar road test no. 5,042 was no different. Here, Autocar dedicates no fewer than eight pages to no less than a £330,000 hybrid machine for which there’s virtually no widespread market, certainly not in provincial England. Yes, Autocar has tested the Wrightbus New Bus for London. It gets the Autocar five star verdict. Not even the Toyota Prius+ hybrid or the Audi A5 Sportback 2.0TDi, also tested in the same issue, got that.

It’s gratifying that the mainstream media, for a change, has picked up on something positive as regards buses. Last week, the NB4L was all over the newspapers like a red rash.

Here, though, we road-test Autocar’s own road-test to examine their inspection of NBfL. What did they think and are they right?

It’s a “product that’s almost as much about design flair as it is about transport”. Are they saying that it’s style over substance?

This design theme seems to run through the Autocar test. Its testers are self-evidently more used to Jaguars & Bentleys and they don’t realise that bus design has moved on from the Portakabin slabbiness of the Dart to the more sublime lines—within and outside—of the Wrightbus Eclipse. Rounded is good. These days, not all buses imitate a brick-on-wheels.

“We don’t think it’s particularly controversial to suggest that, in general, bus interiors are ugly”. Those of us who work with buses day-in-day-out know that an attractively styled bus inside & out plays its part in the mix that appeals to passengers and promotes growth. So, we’d take issue that modern buses all have cheap, squared off, plain rooflining. Just venture inside any Wrightbus product these days, particularly in the Lothian fleet in Edinburgh, Scotland or try any Café Nero interior. The testers are right in that the asymmetric front has “overly blinged-up headlights”, though.

The real shocker came when I learnt, from Autocar, that the NB4L seated 40 passengers in the saloon and 22 passengers upstairs (sic). Now, 40 downstairs *would* be something. Surely this is the other way around!? A pretty basic error from a set of people who calibrate to several decimal places.

The testers clearly understood that “performance” wasn’t anywhere near the same league as an Aston Martin (though may be the AM Cygnet?) but it stated that acceleration from rest was “decent enough”. Average speeds on NBfL are unlikely to get much into double figures so performance, other than acceleration from standing, is a little academic. But it was good to see changes of direction were “fuss free”.

“Performance”, to me, is more measured in terms of mpg. Autocar glosses over this point. I’m sure most of its readers would be shocked at the quoted 11.2 mpg and even more so if they realised conventional double decks are far more thirsty still. Consumption’s aligned to the 53 seat Bristol RELL single deck of the 1970s, a vehicle of broadly the same length, bar an inch or two. Whether NB4L achieves more than other hybrids, Autocar made a passing reference to the Wrightbus Gemini2H at 8.6 mpg.

Autocar’s testers felt a “real pleasure” in driving the NBfL, in placing it accurately on the road (or test track). The mirrors were “superbly effective” at allowing drivers to judge clipping points. Here, I have to say, I see no real difference between the NB4L and any modern bus. In spite of popular myth, most bus drivers take a pleasure in placing their buses accurately on the road and expertly guiding them through tight urban squeezes. It’s a skill that the public will never appreciate till (if) they try it. And so it seems that this is the same for Autocar testers, too.

One thing I’d’ve liked to see was an appreciation of whole life costs over a typical 15-year cycle. Is the premium of £30,000 over a “standard” hybrid worthwhile? Does the considerably better fuel consumption of the NBfL—double a conventional double deck—help to pay for itself over the life of the bus?

Autocar concludes that NB4L is a “triumph of product design in an otherwise utterly unengaging and unromantic market”. It’s apparently more pleasant to ride in than “any other modern bus we’ve encountered”. Not sure how many of them they have actually met up with. “Advanced and interesting” it is but the real test will come in service as the bus struggles through stop-start conditions, pausing at each stop en route and brakes & accelerates its way through typically congested London. That particular road test will come in February. And the real testers will be the public.

i Read the Autocar test online
i Leon Daniels on NBfL

North of the Border

This is a guest post by Dangermouse. Omnibuses welcomes contributions

As most of us know First UK Bus is going through a number of high profile changes that, hopefully, will improve the company’s profile. But certain subsidiaries within the group may need much more work than others. One of these is likely to be First Edinburgh, Scotland, which requires major surgery to get the operations back into a healthy and profitable state. And not just there, in Glasgow and Aberdeen, too.

First Edinburgh already has some great people within the company, including some new young managers, one of whom is now actually traveling on the buses.

Unfortunately, there is no magic wand that can fix the issues that have plagued the company over the past decade. Some of the problems are also linked to decisions taken by its head office. First Edinburgh will need to consider:

• Fleet investment


• Size of the company. It has been suggested that it could be spilt (i.e. Borders and Edinburgh area, with Livingston, Linlithgow, Larbert and Stirling being the other area)


• The biggest problem of them all: the fares, which really are at the top level of the scale; and it’s not just the singles either, the day and weekly tickets along with zonal fares all need a close examination if not a complete overhaul.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, those who use First blame high fares for recently announced significant negative changes to the local network. Patronage there is said to be “plunging”. In Aberdeen, it was recently reported that First’s fares were 45 per cent higher than those charged by National Express in Dundee. Nestrans, a transport partnership of local authorities in and around Aberdeen, blamed high car usage & congestion and the effect this has on operational costs. But this might also be as much as result of the fares-inflamed downward spiral.

This list seems an insurmountable one. On the plus side, because of the enthusiasm inside the Larbert head office, they’ve already made a good start in considering a number of ideas and the recent absorption of the Nordi Travel in West Lothian has taken First into new operational areas.

Of all the First subsidiaries to consider, First Edinburgh will be the most important benchmark. It will be interesting to take a look periodically over the coming year to see whether First is able to Transform its Edinburgh operations.

As for fares, First in its recent drive to improve matters had promised to consider these carefully. In recessionary Britain, it’s now between a rock and a hard place: cutting fares may seem appealing to those who use the service but is it a gamble too far, at the moment?

300

At the end of every year since 2005 we’ve written a piece that summarises the 12 months’ of changes or milestones in exactly 300 words. 2011 will be no exception but this time we’re inviting readers to share their most memorable moments, thoughts or what they consider to have been important. What would you include? After all, there are somewhat more readers of this blog than there are 300 words! If you wish to participate, do leave a comment. Meanwhile, view previous posts by picking your favourite or least favourite year:

2005 ~ 2006 ~ 2007 ~ 2008 ~ 2009 ~ 2010

Of Arriva & the High Street

It still seems odd to me. Our high streets have existed for centuries with businesses competing among themselves. Suddenly, in the last 20 years, they’ve an assailant in out-of-town retail parks, threatening them all. Odd because, as a family when I was younger, the town centre was the *only* place to shop and was the centre of our lives. Chains stores, some, but also many independent traders. Grocers, butchers and general stores were all we had for food. You had to wander round town to get variety. At each, you waited at a counter, reading your list to a nimble-footed assistant who scurried round on the opposite side picking off your items for you. Ah, progress.

The Marty Portas vision for our high street: is that a London or Oxford Bus Dart but in LHD form? And a NSU Ro80 car, or something from Joe 90?

Not every high street’s in a mess but the three assaults of (a) out-of-town shopping, (b) the recession and (c) internet shopping mean that unless something happens there’ll soon enough be a dying breed. Mary Portas wants to invigorate them and we should all say “hear hear” to that.

Because, between 70 and 75 per cent of all bus trips are for shopping. And most of these are to high streets. Though bus operators resolutely serve out-of-town centres, they cannot do so easily. Not in the way they can the high street. Neither can they complete with out-of-town free parking.

What does that mean to you & me? Next time you get on a bus, divide it up first into near side & offside and then again front & rear. That gives four quarters. Now imagine the bus with passengers in just one of those quarters. If the high street dies, so do our businesses.

I find myself agreeing with much of what Mary Portas said yesterday in her rejuvenatory report. Some ideas fill me with dread, such as any threat to conservation areas such as towns like Wimborne Minster or Blandford Forum.

And I am decidedly lukewarm about making town centre parking free. It will clog the space and do nothing to encourage passengers onto my buses. In fact, it will do the opposite. Better to charge for out-of-town retailing parking spaces to level the playing field, pumping the revenue into essential services. Everyone then wins.

What little Portas’ report has to say about buses was usually in the negative.

Last night, the McGill website, above, seemed to have collapsed in a heap

In an interesting move that seems to buck the trend at both Arriva and the other Big Five, one set of high streets is due for significant change. These are in the Paisley & Renfrewshire, Scotland, areas. Arriva Scotland West, inheritors of Clydeside Buses that was once part of the great Western SMT, is set to sell lock stock and barrel to McGill’s, seeing Arriva depart Scotland altogether. To think it once traded as “Arriva serving Scotland” which, to the casual observer, implies something grander than it actually was.

The string of smaller towns served by Arriva Scotland is a case study in the decline of the high street. Arriva blames recession for the sale. It’s also somewhat isolated from other Arriva operations, something that cannot help (though others manage distance well: Go Ahead for example but this is never easy). And it’s been under pressure from McGill’s, to whom it’s selling. I wonder what the competition authorities will make of it.

Elsewhere, Arriva of late has been buying local independents and is it interested in expanding further, into the school and paratransit-type markets? Back in Renfrewshire, the Scottish operation actually once purchased McGill’s of Barrhead but this pre-deregulation independent is, I think, a different operation to the McGill’s of today. Unless you know differently.

The New Black?

Have you noticed how many white cars there are at the moment? After years in the wilderness, white seems to be having a bit of a renaissance. Indeed, in 2007, you’d be hard pressed to see any white cars on the road at all. In 2011, there are eight times the number. Some commentators feel that this is because of the “Apple effect”—gleaming white iPads and iPods. White is now beginning to outshine silver in the car popularity stakes in the same way that silver began to put paid to dull colours and reds, 25 years ago.

Don’t forget that “white van man’s” been around the block a few times, a phrase first coined 15 years ago (and the colour long beforehand). And, in PSV circles, dealer stock white is more or less ubiquitous at the family coaching end of the market, as it enables an easy transfer of stock and can act as a ready-made blank canvas for vinyls.

As the automotive world has begun to fall in love with white again, it’s interesting that First has chosen silver (and pink, of course) as the base coat for its new hybrid vehicles. Just as white is challenging the ascendancy of silver in car paint technology, First has abandoned white on its most prestigious fleet for a colour whose popularity can only go down. They’re now appearing in Strathclyde, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. They stand out in metallic silver but not in the same way as do Stagecoach’s hybrids, with their green rather than blue standard fleet livery. In fact, in strong sunlight, First’s silver buses still look white.

It’s actually quite interesting that there have never been more silver buses or, indeed, metallic paintwork in other shades, given their popularity on cars. I reckon that the first metallic silver buses were on the Metro brand introduced in 1986 by a newly privatised Cheltenham & Gloucester, just at the time of the rise of silver on cars. Unless, of course, you know differently. C&G’s were Gen 1 Ford Transit minibuses and they looked very distinctive and individual, the silver & Metro brand working well in its (successful) quest for ridership increases.

Wallace Arnold started using metallic gold about 10 years ago for its Grand Tourer high-end coach holidays. Metallic paint is still uncommon on larger vehicles, perhaps because it is less easy to match. Shearings has nevertheless perpetuated the gold effect, albeit replacing the contrasting black.

Back to silver, I wonder why parts of the industry seem to have taken a shine to metallic silver 25 years too late?

And, talking of First, there’ nothing official yet about its new livery but the shots at this website seem to suggest that at least one of the three options under consideration is something ultra-conservative and even 1980s. Plenty of white, it seems. But no silver.

Photos above by Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent

And finally, here is a long-standing grey and metallic silver operator from Dorset:

Grannies’ Buses

Words and Arriva images by Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent

So, Brian Souter’s suggesting dedicated services for older people in order to cut the expenditure on free travel. The idea is that there’d be a lower frequency variant of existing routes that would be exclusively open to older and disabled people, free of charge. Souter suggests that these might actually travel more slowly than ordinary services—to accommodate older people’s needs (even though time rather than quality is the key determinant). Such an offer would leave ordinary services where fares would apply.

If Souter thinks that this is a new concept, he may be surprised to learn it’s been tried before.

Souter cited Worthing as an area already providing “granny buses”, where some services are 70 per cent occupied by free travellers

Up to the mid-1990s, at least two district councils offered such a free solution. One, I recall, was probably somewhere in Berkshire. Wherever it was, it was way down south and off my radar. The other, though, was in Rhyl, Wales and this on the north Wales coast was somewhat nearer to home. Here, instead of a fixed amount of travel tokens or half-fare travel, popular elsewhere at the time, Rhyl district council offered dedicated free services.

Arriva Buses Wales service 12 from Rhyl has grown spectacularly since the introduction of free travel, operating at every 12 minutes (it was every 30 beforehand). It now also sees double decks. It has Coastliner sub-branding (below)

Rhyl’s example was a rather infrequent pattern of routes that served the more urban areas including neighbouring small towns such as Prestatyn, Rhuddlan and St Asaph. The “frequency” between the two main settlements of Rhyl & Prestatyn was never more than about three or four buses each weekday. Outlying areas had one return trip and there was even a rural service that operated on selected days of the week.

The “territorial” operator of the time was pre-Arriva Crosville Wales. Although Crosville Wales won the annual tender for a year (it usually fell to one of two independents, one of whom famously started competitive services some miles away on the Wirral), it always argued that the free network was duplicative and offered next to no real choice for pensioners (who were unable to travel on ordinary services either free, at half fare or for any kind of discount). In Crosville Wales’ view, eligibles would be far better off on its local bus services, as presumably would Crosville Wales itself. And, so would everyone else: pump in concessionary fares revenue and it would support & develop the network in general.

The free network used few resources, with two or perhaps at most three double decks. The beauty was that the council ensured that the services didn’t operate at school times, so the nothing cost a peak vehicle.

Transferring this concept 15 years later to 2011 free travel England and with schemes that start at 0930 you can see the obvious benefits of a school bus bolt-on. Since older people prefer to travel outside the afternoon school peak, the benefit extends further.

Another advantage (to commercial operators) is that should passengers wish to travel at other times, they would need to pay full fare. This, at a stroke, begins to tackle some of the problems that operators face on services that carry high volumes of older people.

There was no doubting the popularity of the Rhyl services. Free travel concentrated into a few journeys resulted in good loadings. It was interesting that in winter passengers would simply go out for the ride in a big loop. Better than being in the cold, no doubt, and in a strange sort of way it provided a mobile community centre.

One obvious challenge would be to rural bus services. A free alternative might actually wipe out any chance of a local bus service open to all. In Rhyl’s case, there was such a provision, on a couple of days a week alongside and paralleling an equally irregular twice-weekly “ordinary” service.

What better place for the redundant ex-London articulated stock, though: they have a large low floor area without stairs to climb. Perfect.

i Telegraph report on dedicated granny services

From the Birmingham Mail

“Meanwhile, National Express has said its ten bendy buses were safe—despite the mayor of London fulfilling his pledge to banish bendy buses from the streets of London.

“A spokeswoman for National Express, which has ten bendy buses on the 67 Birmingham to Castle Vale route*, said there were no plans to scrap them and they would run as usual.”

*—I thought the artics were the preserve of Coventry…

Landscape

Today sees a different landscape in London: one (virtually) devoid of articulated buses… and the continued storage off-lease of unwanted bendies, as someone tries to figure out exactly what to do with the surplus. After all, there’s only so many that Brighton & Hove or Konectbus or Arriva Malta can take. I think Boris Johnson suggested that they be sent to some Scandinavian airport or other.

Yesterday, the media were full of this story. It was an outright political decision to rid London streets of articulated buses. But people say that as if it were a bad thing. Politics is about setting out your programme before the electorate and being judged on it. Before and since Mayor Johnson’s victory, there’s been a lot said on both sides of the argument but, ultimately, Johnson’s mandate was clear, based if nothing else on the withdrawal of the Mercedes Citaro artics. It’s a pledge he’s kept, in spite of the current economic crisis. And he’s done so several months early… coincidentally, on the very day of the last RM Routemaster (in proper service)—9th December.

Yes, it’s costing TfL significant additional PVR. Yes, boarding times are slower. Yes, the 507 & 521 rigid single decker replacements allow boarding at both front and centre, just like the artics. But, transport in London is Johnson’s responsibility, simple as. And TfL has finally had to admit that many people were treating bendies as a free ride.

So, today sees new double decks on the 207, the last bendy route which, incidentally, was also the first: it was 10 years ago that TfL began the 207 bendy trial.

For me, what this decision does is place in very sharp focus the difference between transport policy in London and provincial England. Artic views may be polarised in Brighton, Norwich, Liverpool or elsewhere and there may be that ill-at-ease feeling that London’s cast-offs are being foisted on reluctant locals but this is an operator and not a political decision.

And there’ also been much said about bendies and bikes. There was an interesting view on yesterday’s PM programme on Radio 4. One London cyclist said how he feared overtaking artics. Then, after a bad back, he actually had to travel on them and he suddenly appreciated the way in which an artic could soak up passengers, far quicker than the replacement double decks.

One question remains: will the London transport museum at Covent Garden have sufficient cheek to house one? Or space. After all, the artic has been as much a part of London as the RM. But not for quite as long (and here we’re talking both size and time).

Better Buses

Amid all the pre- and post-awards drinkies, the soft lighting and chandeliers of the Hilton Hotel, I didn’t spend *all* my time at the Bus Oscars—the UK Bus Awards—socialising with Alex.

Omnibuses Blog's mention of the Bus Oscars makes the pages of today's Passenger Transport—or rather Ray Stenning's comments on the Blog which, with Alex's, are viewable here. Or was it really Ray Stenning? I have my doubts...

It’s customary to mingle and in doing so, I came across a lonely transport authority figure with a guilty conscience. He had this thing about blaming himself for a lack of ridership growth in his urban areas. Or, rather, the collapse in ridership. He felt that in spite of trying very hard, the eyes of the area were on him in an accusatorial manner.

If you’re reading this, Buddy, take it easy on yourself because yesterday the government published two things:

• Vehicle licensing statistics that showed a ½ per cent increase in the number of vehicles licensed on our roads with a six per cent increase in first vehicle registrations—all largely cars, of course. And all largely running in urban areas. The Competition Commission may think otherwise, but this is the real threat to ridership in urban areas, not what you or the operators have done.


• Extra funding to create Better Bus Areas. May be with this you have an opportunity to turn things around because it seems that BBAs will be transport authority led.

No one is precisely sure what a BBA actually is, quite yet. But it certainly looks promising. It’s designed to increase the number of passengers. It’s certain that the measures will include things like the mitigation of car use, reducing congestion or stuff to encourage modal shift. I’ll go for all of that. Actually, I personally have no argument with the total number of cars we own between us. It’s their use and the reliance upon them for journeys that are better by bus that causes concern. And in urban areas, the bus has to be an alternative for many straightforward journeys.
Am I being over-optimistic if I sat that the last government was good to buses and it looks as if the current one is, too? At the awards, for example, the minister announced the third round of the green bus fund. Now there’s 2½ times the cash going into BBAs—£50mil—directly into urban areas.

Can’t be bad. How do we all think it should be spent? And is it enough to make a real difference?

Pay as you Go

We may have forgotten it but this time last year we were shivering our way through an unusually hard November and early December. Indeed, the 2010/11 winter was particularly harsh. But it was worse in Scotland, for it transpires that schools were closed up there on 41 days, according to the BBC. Are Scottish academic years the same as in England? If so, that’s about a fifth of the school year, if all schools were closed all of these days. What I think the BBC means, though, is that snow caused problems in at least part of Scotland for this period.

The BBC has also found that school bus contractors were paid a total of £768,000 for days when buses did not or could not run. Often, contractors received either half or quarter payments (though some got full pay). The BBC makes out that the overall sum was unfair on the taxpayer. On the face of it, the BBC is correct but operators still have fixed and semi-variable costs to cover no matter the weather. Even the variable costs such as drivers’ wages recur, except for fuel itself. And business rates continue, as does insurance and all other overheads. Indeed, variable costs are only variable over a longer period, not at minimal notice.

By their very nature, every school bus is a peak vehicle and management accountants will effectively divide all fixed and semi-variable costs by the number of peak vehicles, allocating all overheads in proportion to the PVR. If critics feel that operators shouldn’t be paid for inclement weather, the only remedy in this situation surely is to increase general contract prices on the assumption that on n days, the contract won’t run and there will be no payment. That way, operators continue to cover overheads even where there is no payment for non-running. The BBC might not understand this but I suspect Scottish councils do.

Let them Eat Cake

Thank you for the good response to my post on almost out-of-date bread (aka A Dying Breed (not bread!) with apologies for the typo). Within the comments, there are operators of whom I’ve never heard plus many I have. Do we think we’ve reached a definitive list of pre- and post-deregulation operators?

Back-track and Back-lash

“Pensioners’ benefits under threat” screamed the front page of Monday’s Telegraph, with the subtitle “Free bus passes among perks that should be means-tested…”

I don’t think many recipients of a free bus pass would regard them as a “perk”. A few may. Since their introduction, they’ve been elevated from “perk” to “entitlement”. People adapt to what they’ve got in the same way that, having started in the bus industry not even on the first ladder rung, I now feel “entitled” to my salary and responsibility—even though, deep down, I know that it can be taken away from me by the double dip recession. Many older people simply feel that they’ve somehow “earned” their bus pass following a lifetime’s hard graft.

Whether free bus travel will be means-tested remains to be seen. It’d say there was more likelihood of Bristol Commercial Vehicles Ltd bringing out an ECW-bodied low floor hybrid version of the VRT (they did, of course, bring out the low floor Lodekka, but that’s another story). I recall stating at the time of universal free travel that politicians might rue the day but and that it would be pretty much impossible to back-track, because of the back-lash.

As the nation speculates as to whether free travel will stay, via means-tested or a charge per pass, it’s interesting that no one has actually asked the operators their views. That’s partly because free travel is a social and not a transport policy but also perhaps because civil servants don’t think to do so. Unlike our Celtic cousins north and west of the Border, where schemes are running quite smoothly thank you very much, the English version is a little more problematic if you view it through the number of operator appeals. And although no one’s asked the operators, we’re reminded thanks to comments on this Blog, here and elsewhere, that some operators have issues:

• Take rural services (not inter-urban ones). The only passengers that travel tend to be older people with passes. It’s increasingly difficult to turn a penny on such services even at the higher end of the reimbursement spectrum.


• This can and does apply to some suburban services where the passenger base is overwhelmingly 60+.


• And there are inter-urban buses that fill up to bursting during good weather or bad (depending upon the destination and time of year) that require expensive duplication or where “ordinary” passengers simply don’t get a look in.


• Then there the so-called honeypots shouldering a disproportionate burden.

Unlikely as it’s going to be, the big question is, were free travel to have some sort of kerb, what might it be, exactly?

Say a £50 annual payment is cumbersome to administer and who’s to say whether any of it will reach the operator. At £1 a week, it’s not going to slow down usage much as those who need it will still value the utility. Anyone who pays out this sort of sum will ensure that they use it on every possible occasion, to get their money’s worth and this might actually exacerbate matters.

Means-testing is also equally blunt. There’s an arbitrary cut off. I recall my late mother whose meagre savings ensured she had to pay her way without any sort of state benefits yet as a result lived a pretty modest, humble lifestyle. Many older people have fixed incomes, are most at pressure from the cost of living and home fuel increases and struggle to run a car.

Anyway, I personally have no problem at all with a millionaire holding a bus pass: any odd journeys taken by bus keep their gas guzzlers off the road and in any case, they are only a burden under the free travel system when they actually *use* the bus: and I don’t see that many in Sandbanks doing so.

One other “solution” is to levy a small fare each time someone presents their pass. It would be nice to think that this would be the difference between the reimbursement and the actual fare charged but this might (a) be too complicated to administer across boundaries and (b) result in no longer being no better or worse off, as is the legal requirement.

Not that operators are necessarily better off at the moment.

A Dying Bread: Your help needed

The passing of Felix to Trent Barton next month marks the end of another old-establish independent bus service operator.

I’m not referring to the crop of new independents that have thrived under deregulation as niche suppliers (some of whom are also selling up) but to that band of smaller operators who ran under a pre-deregulation road service licence. Some, like Felix, dated back to the 1920s. Indeed, Felix will just about clock up 90 years.

In the mid-1970s, there were about 150 small British independents, usually family firms, who held the rights to at least one stage carriage service. Few were bigger than a handful of vehicles. The biggest independent of them all, Barton Transport, operated some 300 buses. It was in 1989 that the eccentric family sold to Wellglade’s Trent. Lancashire United was larger still, till GMPTE exercised its right to buy, in 1976.

Those early smaller operators have now dwindled to very few.

It wasn’t just the National Bus Company (corporately, if not its managers!), PTEs or municipals that viewed the Transport Act 1985 with dread. The smaller, established independents too felt that their services were under threat. Even in the regulated era, smaller operators had to keep one eye on the larger operators that overshadowed them. Just think what it was like for them as they heard that under the 1985 Act their dominant neighbour would have the power expand, at will.

Pushed out or sold out, in their own way, they’ve become causalities of a system they didn’t want or relish. No one listened to them. All this in spite of the freedoms that were supposed to persuade small independents to expand rather than contract.

Perhaps the most famous among them were such names as A1, AA, Stevenson’s, South Notts (part-owned by Barton), Gash, Brutonian, Hutchings & Cornelius, Grenville, Bere Regis & District and Mayne. There were plenty of other one-route operators.

So, who’s left? I have no definitive list and here I ask the Omnibuses Blog Army for some help. Who’s survived the transition from road service licensing to deregulation by continuing to operate today? Please add your operators via Comments. Please try to make them “proper” bus services rather than those operators who have registered only 38-week school or college services. I guess there needs to be a distinction between largely commerical and largely contract operators.For me, I can think of:

Hedingham & District
Whippet
Delaine
Swanbrook (though this is not a very early operator of stage services)
Safeway
Tally Ho!
Yeoman’s
McGill
Dodd’s of Troon
West Coast Motors
Brown’s of Builth Wells
Silcox Pembroke Dock
Richards Bros
Fishwick’s
Weardale

One other survivor is Pulham’s of Bourton on the Water. The Pulham operation found itself in the constituency of the late Nicholas Ridley MP, if not the architect of deregulation (that was Prof John Hibbs) then certainly its political protagonist. It was on Pulham’s operation in a deep rural area that Ridley modelled much of his principles—that private independent operators were better run and more efficient than larger ones. Was that strictly true?

25 years later, with the new operators on the block selling up, the most important question remains: for how long can the remnant of the old guard of independents now last?

By Way of Explanation

Morning all. Apologies from this end and thank you for your patience. Computer problems are seemingly causing havoc and my machines have largely been out of action since Wednesday owing to internet conflicts. Friday’s posts only made it because it was pre-booked (so to speak) with Blogger. I trust matter will resolve themselves swiftly, for Monday. Yesterday, I spent OVER FOUR HOURS trying to resolve matters, getting a glimpse of the internet during the afternoon (and hence this quick update). Beats Christmas shopping, though.

In the meantime, for those who are wondering what effect Wednesday’s strike had on revenue, peak business was decidedly down but there appeared an increase in off-peak travel, especially among young people. I have to say that in spite of Wednesday’s post being optimistic, I was disappointed by the day, overall.

That said, there were definitely some routes, destinations and shifts that did better than others and were better than anticipated. I couldn’t believe my eyes on some journeys.

Mind you, it could’ve been worse. This time last year, it was also much colder outside.

Smart Move?

Omnibuses’ Norther Correspondent considers an unusual move in Chester

With the contract ending and an opportunity to retender, small independent Aintree Coachline (or its subsidiary Helm’s of Eastham) has registered as commercial the Chester rail link.

Smart move on its part. Especially near Christmas. It’s only odd that someone bigger didn’t think of it.

15 years ago, a partnership comprising Cheshire and what are now four rail operators—Virgin, Arriva Trains Wales, Northern and Merseyrail—started the rail link service from Chester railway station to the city centre. It was free of charge to valid rail ticket holders and overcame the one major barrier to using the train to Chester (apart from the price of a rail ticket!): the distance between the two termini was just that little bit too far to walk. Its success was therefore guaranteed. Indeed, there were occasions when First’s poor Solos simply couldn’t cope. But with frequencies of every six minutes, there was always another coming along. In the good-old-bad-old days, there was a regular though unpredictable double deck in Chester’s maroon & cream, its then depot being opposite the rail station.

The funding partners have retained the service ever since. It acted as a kind of free rail park & ride and offered a competitive alternative to Chester bus-based P&R. Till now. From this month, it went commercial, with a charge.

The former “free” service carried a very creditworthy 450,000 passengers per annum and cost the partnership £38,000 [surely a bargain. There must still have been significant cash fares?—Ed].

Helm’s now charge £1 adult single but accompanied children may travel free of charge. The real bonus for Helm’s, however, is free travel reimbursements that will now cost the taxpayer (and not the rail partnership) an estimated £100,000 per annum. And that’s on top of the £1 cash fares. Helm’s may be quids in but there are other consequences:

• Will the fare reduce demand for the bus or indeed the rail service? £2 is the same as Chester PlusBus add-on so isn’t great till you remember that people are used to getting on free, for many years. Will there be resistance? There was no evidence last week though, in spite of publicity, no passengers knew of the fare.


• And, of course, PlusBus isn’t available on this particular service—which somewhat devalues the idea at Chester. One particular weakness of PlusBus is that it generally applies only to the Big Five rather than smaller operators. It certainly does in Chester.


• The rail link also had a high profile and special livery. Not so at the moment. Will this be watered down?


• Wales is within spitting distance of Chester yet Welsh free travel cards are not valid on this service. Will Welsh pensioners stay on their side of the frontier, in future, rather than use the train?


• What effect might this have long term on Chester? More cars and pollution? A transfer to bus-based P&R? Or just fewer people shopping in a city that is already struggling under the weight of the current Depression?


• And what about the impact that an additional £62,000 (all out of public funds) has on calls for re-regulation? £62,000 is not great sum but it’s an additional sum. People will—and do—think it barmy that a service for which they must now pay actually costs the public purse more.


• Passengers may drop a little and the imposition of a £1 fare may bleed off excess demand that causes queues and standees. But rail growth should still mean a certain buoyancy. In business terms, a small drop is surely justifiable if there is an increased profit.