Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services

[robertclark125]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Out of curiosity, what sort of PVR reductions will take place at both Stagecoach and Preston Bus?

[mbonwick]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Lancaster will lose 2/3 Solos worth of work - most of the other reductions are off peak/evenings and weekends so won't result in vehicle reductions.

Fleetwood is to lose all it's work - 9 Solos worth. There's possibly a couple of buses change at Preston itself, depending on how all the timetable changes fit together.

[Valandil]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
It tells you something that across the country it seems to be Solos that are no longer required by companies.
(And bendies!)

[SF07]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Preston Bus have listed their changes for 4 April. In regards to LCC-funded services, Preston Bus will no longer operate journeys on services 13/13A, 68, 75, 80, 112, 113 and 114.

Services 86 and 88A/88C will be withdrawn and partly replaced by services 6/6A, 14/14A, 43, 88 and 89. Service 44 (which is re-numbered 43) will be re-routed to partly replace service 80.

http://www.prestonbus.co.uk/news/Service...h_443.html

[B10B6514]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
I like the bit on the link where Rotala recommend contacting LCC for further advise re the withdrawal of the tendered services. they are quite right in passing the buck but one has to feel for Lancashire because it is on course to become the first bankrupt county council in the next 2 or 3 years. These cuts in their budget are both senseless and needless from central government considering the amount of money it haemorrhages to senseless causes. And we're all in ths together?? Yeah right Dave!

[robertclark125]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Out of interest, how much will the PVR increase or decrease at Preston Bus, as a result of these changes?

I also wonder what the knock on effect will be for smaller operators, in the next two to three years, as well as Stagecoach, Preston Bus, and Blackpool Transport. For a small firm, with maybe a few coaches, there may not be the incentive to go in for bus work, given that there is no tendered bus work available. Will more firms decide to close down, and maybe sell out to Rotala or Stagecoach? Fine for those who have a lot of contract work, such as Jacksons of Blackpool. Not fine for a very small firm.

Then look at the effect on Stagecoach, Preston, and Blackpool. Preston had done well in gaining some LCC tenders to places like Wigan, Chorley, Blackpool, and Fleetwood. But that work is all gone, so Preston Bus vehicles will now only be seen on the Fylde coast on the schools work it picked up in 2014. Plans by Rotala to expand the Preston Bus business within Lancashire are now, for the time being, over, and it must be said, a situation could occur where Preston Bus operates all the city services, and Stagecoach all the country services, with no competition between them. I know it's not what the Competition Commissioned envisaged when it approved the sale to Rotala by Stagecoach in January 2011, with one firm being dominant again, but the cuts by LCC mean any new starts wanting into the bus market haven't exactly got the safety net of a five year tender, and both Rotala and Stagecoach are concentrating as much of the cut resources as they have in their existing or altered services. So, once again, a monopoly is a likely situation, ironically, not through a takeover, but by budget cuts, meaning other firms haven't got work to go for.

The situation on the fylde coast is slightly different, in that, in recent years, BTS has done tendered work, but hasn't tended to stray off the fylde coast much. The other thing is, there are firms running commercial services already, so there is a bit more potential for competition, namely Catch 22 bus and Coastal coaches. There, two firms have the incentive to build up routes, and launch new ones.

Going back to Preston, one end result of these budget cuts, which should be considered, could result in both Stagecoach MSL and Rotala Preston possibly working together on joint initiatives, through ticketing etc. Again, it wasn't what was envisaged by the Competition Commission with the 2011 sale, but it may be what ends up happening. The phrase "we're all in this together" could well have a different meaning.

[M60lad]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Considering Prestonbus won't be operating 113 anymore what's going to happen to 17:25 Preston-Wigan service which Stagecoach currently operate to Leyland Tescos and Prestonbus take over from Leyland Tescos-Wigan?

[Barney]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services

(24/02/2016 06:28)M60lad Wrote:  Considering Prestonbus won't be operating 113 anymore what's going to happen to 17:25 Preston-Wigan service which Stagecoach currently operate to Leyland Tescos and Prestonbus take over from Leyland Tescos-Wigan?

I suspect that it won't run and passengers - or is that customers? - will be left stranded. My understanding is that commercial services are not allowed to run at a loss and, anyway, why would Stagecoach or any other operator, be expected to run at a loss?

This latest round of cuts to tendered bus services is exactly what was predicted in 1985. It's taken a long time to get here, but that is where we are now.

[SF07]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services

(24/02/2016 06:28)M60lad Wrote:  Considering Prestonbus won't be operating 113 anymore what's going to happen to 17:25 Preston-Wigan service which Stagecoach currently operate to Leyland Tescos and Prestonbus take over from Leyland Tescos-Wigan?

Stagecoach have uploaded some timetables onto their website, including the 113.

The 1725 journey will run at 1730 and run to Standish, terminating at the Aldi supermarket. The last journey from Preston will be at 1815 to Heskin. The last journey from Wigan will also be at 1815, running through to Preston.

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.ama...202016.pdf

[Mayneway]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services

(23/02/2016 22:34)robertclark125 Wrote:  Out of interest, how much will the PVR increase or decrease at Preston Bus, as a result of these changes?

I also wonder what the knock on effect will be for smaller operators, in the next two to three years, as well as Stagecoach, Preston Bus, and Blackpool Transport. For a small firm, with maybe a few coaches, there may not be the incentive to go in for bus work, given that there is no tendered bus work available. Will more firms decide to close down, and maybe sell out to Rotala or Stagecoach? Fine for those who have a lot of contract work, such as Jacksons of Blackpool. Not fine for a very small firm.

I think there will always be a place for smaller operators but they have to think outside the box and take a gamble. It loathes me to say it as I'm not there biggest fan but you have to admire what Oakwood/Catch 22 have done and are linking several sections of different subsidised services together to run one commercial service - whether it works and they run it properly is yet to be seen but there having a go and that's how it has to be 'sink or swim'.

Far to many operators rely on tenders as it's guarenteed work/income which in volitile times is all good and well but there's potentially lots of opportunities, whether the big boys just come along and register against them is another issue.