First propose closing three depots

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: First propose closing three depots

(30/06/2015 19:39)Dentonian Wrote:  Admittedly, I am not as closely involved in the operating industry as in past decades, but history suggests that only Hereford is likely to see net job losses, other than possibly a few on the engineering side. Transferring Newcastle ops to Adderley Green will no doubt achieve economies of scale, thus a schedules re-write will slightly reduce the number of drivers (and possibly buses) required, but as the industry has had a chronic driver shortage since Adam were a trainee conductor on TD1s, these would possibly go through natural wasteage or even just a reduction in Overtime because there are less lines on crew rosters unfilled. Similarly, in Reading, the 90 will still need drivers even if the buses are a different colour or shape, and from what I've read about Reading Buses over the years, cost cutting is not their number one obsession.

It's a shame that people could be losing their jobs but I suppose on the other hand it's positive that it would be a smaller number rather than a larger number. There may well be opportunities for those at Hereford depot with the other companies operating in the city as there's Stagecoach and quite a few independent operators too

It's a shame that First have proposed to close Hereford depot rather than sell it to another operator in the area - however I don't think it would be economically viable for an operator of any size to take on a depot that only carries 3,500 passengers a day. That might sound like a reasonable number when you first look at it considering it's a fairly small city in comparison to others - but it works out at just 5.9% of Hereford's population which isn't a lot at all