JPT Bus Company

[james]

RE: JPT Bus Company
seen this on another forum dont know how accurate this is any input please guys

JPT Buses Slash Fares in Manchester!
JPT Buses of Middleton who currently Operate Services in the Manchester, North Manchester General Hospital and Middleton areas have slashed prices on their services.
JPT's Day Saver that allows unlimited travel on JPT Buses for One Day has been reduced from £2.50 to just £2!
JPT Also have a Special offer on their Weekly Ticket's. If you Buy it on a Friday it will only cost you £5!

[Mayneway]

RE: JPT Bus Company

(07/04/2014 14:57)james Wrote:  seen this on another forum dont know how accurate this is any input please guys

JPT Buses Slash Fares in Manchester!
JPT Buses of Middleton who currently Operate Services in the Manchester, North Manchester General Hospital and Middleton areas have slashed prices on their services.
JPT's Day Saver that allows unlimited travel on JPT Buses for One Day has been reduced from £2.50 to just £2!
JPT Also have a Special offer on their Weekly Ticket's. If you Buy it on a Friday it will only cost you £5!

It's like de ja vue with JPT. They did this a couple of years ago and although it was great value the big window stickers quietly disappeared and tickets slowly shot up. Too me it looks like desperation. The big boys can afford to offer great ticket deals can JPT afford too long term??

You only have to look at the condition of some of thier vehicles to realise how bad things just be. They should take out shares in gaffa tape

[jimbo]

RE: JPT Bus Company
It is desperation, they lose a tender in 3 weeks to MCT, First and Stagecoach are killing them in commercial work, not looking good :-(

[Polo Mint]

RE: JPT Bus Company
Could be provoked by competition from First and Stagecoach along route 118 and First's 42 competing indirectly against service 118.

[jimbo]

RE: JPT Bus Company
Nah it is defo desperation, they have been on their ar** for years, they need to either sell out to a big boy ir they will go bankrupt, Stagecoach won't buy cause it'd be cheaper to bully them off the road, First is the same, MCT failed in their lasy takeover attempt, snd Arriva haven't showed interest afaik

[M60lad]

RE: JPT Bus Company
Not sure how true this is but I did hear that one of the big 3 did offer to buy them out a while back (cant remember which of them it was off hand) and at the time JPT turned them down, so I'm not sure whether JPT could sell to anybody now what with Stagecoach only being down the road.

[jimbo]

RE: JPT Bus Company
It was Stagecoach who offered them a buyout iirc

[Mayneway]

RE: JPT Bus Company
I have it on good aurthority that it was actually Arriva that made them an offer to buy them out and they flatly refused claiming the price they offered was an insult. This was just before they hit the headlines announcing their expansion with a second depot and lots of new routes - non of which has happened lol.

As for MCT. MCT didn't offer to buy them out but there was actually talk of a 'partnership' in a similar way to the MCT Maytree partnership but it never happened.

I think it's inevitable they will go at some point this year. Sad for the drivers and staff but over the last few years they have been very greedy and were probably one of the main reasons Bluebird have gone - but I'm sure the former bluebird owner is laughing now

[Polo Mint]

RE: JPT Bus Company
What went wrong?

The constant competition on route 17 surely must have hit them very hard, also route 112 vs Bluebird/Stagecoach as well. To fund loss making routes did they then sell their decent vehicles? I have noticed their fleet has got progressively worse over the past couple of years.

[Owl]

RE: JPT Bus Company

(09/04/2014 13:26)Polo Mint Wrote:  What went wrong?

The constant competition on route 17 surely must have hit them very hard, also route 112 vs Bluebird/Stagecoach as well. To fund loss making routes did they then sell their decent vehicles? I have noticed their fleet has got progressively worse over the past couple of years.

It's poetic justice in one sense, as they started the strong arm tactics with Bluebird on the 77, then had several nibbles at First on the 17, before returning to Bluebird on the 112. Their business model has changed from one of having a reasonably up to date fleet and providing a good service, to one that is starting to look like the one that UK Buses North used, where they flood routes with old buses, and try to price their competition out. We all know where that ended up, and we don't want to see it repeated on the streets of North Manchester.