Passenger Transport: August 26, 2022

FO EV RT ER NI Y GH T

ISSUE 271 26 AUGUST 2022

NEWS, VIEWS AND ANALYSIS FOR A SECTOR ON THE MOVE NEWS

Bus Recovery Grant extended until March

04

Government steps in to save ‘vital links’

NEWS

Abellio UK operates four rail companies, including Greater Anglia (pictured)

Deal to sell Abellio UK to management team

Dominic Booth ‘thrilled to have the opportunity to return key public transport services back into UK ownership’ as Dutch owners exit market Dutch national railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen is exiting the UK public transport sector after 20 years.

A management buyout will pave the way for a new UK-based company to take over all Abellio UK’s existing services. The new company will be called Transport UK Group Limited.

The buyout is led by managing director Dominic Booth, who has decades of experience running public transport services in the UK. He expects the business to transfer by the end of the year, subject to approval by the Department for Transport, Transport for London and the Liverpool City Region as well as

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the Office of Rail and Road.

Nederlandse Spoorwegen has been active in the UK market since 2002 but now wants to focus on domestic service provision within, and international railway services to and from, the Netherlands.

The Abellio UK business employs more than 15,000 people. It operates four rail companies - East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and West Midlands Trains - and has around 9% of the

“This deal will put us in a strong position” Dominic Booth

London bus market.

Commenting on the deal, Booth said: “I’ve been a railwayman all my life. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to return key public transport services back into UK ownership at a time when some of our competitors look destined for overseas ownership.”

He added: “This deal will put us in a strong position to continue the smooth operating of our current routes as well as giving us the capability to grow the business and bid for new franchises in the future. Beyond that, we are, and will continue to be, thought leaders in our sector determined to play a long-term and vital role in the future of UK transport.”

Brian Souter’s Istanbul farewell party

10

Stagecoach founder thanks ex-colleagues

COMMENT

Putting the suburbs in the spotlight

18

Jonathan Bray on sustainable suburbs

COMMENT

‘Don’t let fares soar as service sinks’

20

Alex Warner has a warning for railway

SPECIAL REPORT

End of the road for Yellows

24

How Bournemouth bus firm failed

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24/08/2022 17:49

CONTENTS

PASSENGER TRANSPORT PO Box 5496, Westbury BA13 9BX 020 3950 8000 editorial@passengertransport.co.uk

Big changes continue in UK public transport Whatever happened to ‘silly season’, that period of high summer when periodicals are scratching around for something to write about while the world puts its feet up on a beach? It didn’t happen this year for us! This is an action-packed edition Robert Jack of Passenger Transport, with reports on the creation Managing Editor of a new UK passenger transport group via a management buyout of Abellio UK, the demise of Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses and parts of HCT Group - and much, much more.

There are continuing signs that the established order in the UK passenger transport sector is changing, and we don’t yet know what the new one will look like. Two of the ‘Big Five’ groups have been sold off to foreign owners (Stagecoach and G0-Ahead) and another (First) has been sized-up. Great British Railways will take stewardship of the railway while (in England) the National Bus Strategy and its Enhanced Partnerships will soon be expected to bear fruit. And all of this at a time when the passenger transport sector, like everyone else, is trying to emerge from Covid amid spiralling costs and labour shortages.

All of this suggests that there is much more change to come before we enter a new period of relative stability. More changes of ownership. more business failures, more initiatives from government. Everyone seems to agree that public transport is vital and needs to play a greater role, but policy-makers must give the sector the support it requires to achieve its potential and help us get to net zero.

HAVE YOUR SAY Contact us with your news, views and opinion at: editorial@passengertransport.co.uk PASSENGER TRANSPORT editorial@passengertransport.co.uk forename.surname@ passengertransport.co.uk Telephone: 020 3950 8000 Managing Editor & Publisher Robert Jack Deputy Editor Andrew Garnett Contributing Writer Rhodri Clark Directors Chris Cheek, Andrew Garnett, Robert Jack OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS Passenger Transport Publishing Ltd PO Box 5496, Westbury BA13 9BX, UNITED KINGDOM Telephone (all enquiries): 020 3950 8000

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IN THIS ISSUE 09

CHAOS AS AVANTI SLASHES SERVICES

Avanti West Coast made significant cuts to its network from August 14 which left it operating just four trains per hour out of London. It blamed the “current industrial relations climate” and said this, plus sickness had resulted in staff shortages.

ORGANISATION Abellio Avanti West Coast Bucks County Council Carousel Buses ComfortDelGro CPT (UK) CT Plus Yorkshire East Midlands Railway Eurostar FirstGroup FlixBus Go-Ahead Group Go South Coast Greater Anglia HCT Group HS1 Ltd Locomotive Services Merseyrail Merseytravel Midland Classic National Express National Express Group Nottingham City Transport NS ORR Powells Bus Rotala South Yorkshire CA Stagecoach Group Stagecoach London Stagecoach South West Transport for London Transport for Wales Transport UK Group Urban Transport Group West Midlands Trains Xela Group Yellow Buses

PAGE 1 9 6 6 13 4 6 1 9 12 13 6, 12 7 1 6 5 9 1 1 6 7, 12 12, 13 12 1 5 6 6 4 9, 10, 13 6 11 1, 5 8 1 4 1 7 7

14

ARRIVA STRIKE ENDS WITH 11.1% PAY OFFER

22

POOR BUSES - ARE COUNCILS TO BLAME?

28

A MINISTER FOR WHITEHALL REFORM

Arriva has announced it has agreed a one-year pay offer of 11.1% for bus staff in the north west of England. It follows an increasingly acrimonious dispute that had grounded the majority of Arriva’s services in the region as driving staff downed tools.

A failure to control traffic is the root cause for the historic decline in bus patronage but the role of highway authorities in this decline is limited, says Nick Richardson. “The dismal state of highway authority funding is the problem,” he adds.

Great Minster Grumbles: Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the DfT. With Liz Truss expected to become prime minister, it looks like it may be a painful time for those at the Treasury.

REGULARS NEWS ENVIRONMENT INNOVATION & TECH COMMENT GRUMBLES CAREERS DIVERSIONS

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Bus Recovery Grant extended until March Further £130m tranche of pandemic-related support for operators offered as transport secretary acknowledges need to maintain ‘vital bus services’ COVID RECOVERY

The Department for Transport has confirmed an extension to the Bus Recovery Grant for a further six months. Bus services in England (outside London) will benefit from a further £130m of funding, with the end date of the current scheme extended from October 2022 to March 2023.

The latest tranche of funding means almost £2bn has been made available to over 160 bus operators during the pandemic.

When the Bus Recovery Grant was last extended the DfT said it would be the “final tranche of pandemic-related support to operators”. However, the DfT’s announcement last week does not repeat this assertion, a sign perhaps that the government realises recovery will take time.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “This funding will ensure millions across the country can continue to use vital bus services ... At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it’s more important than ever we save these bus routes for the millions who rely on them for work, school and shopping.”

The latest extension of the Bus Recovery Grant was welcomed by bus operators. It will give them more time to recover patronage that was lost during the pandemic and transition back to commercial operations.

Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said: “We welcome the government’s announcement of 04 | 26 August 2022 PT271p04-05 4

recovery funding to support bus services in local communities for a further six months. “[This] announcement will help bus operators and local authority partners to balance a network of reliable and affordable services in the short-term as bus networks adapt to new travel patterns.

“For the longer-term, we will continue to work closely with central government and local authorities to encourage existing and new passengers to get on board the country’s buses, ensuring they are provided the best possible services.”

The Urban Transport Group, which represents city region transport authorities, welcomed the continuation of the Bus

Recovery Grant but said that a long term funding settlement for buses is required.

“Given the funding announcement has been made on deadline day for bus companies registering plans for extensive service cuts it’s too early to know how many bus services this funding will save,” warned Urban Transport Group director Jonathan Bray.

“However, any reprieve will only be temporary unless there is a long term revenue funding settlement for bus services which is capable of meeting the aspirations of the national bus strategy for more, cheaper, better and greener bus services.”

Bray continued: “We also need to move away from bailing out

“At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it’s more important than ever we save these bus routes” Grant Shapps

Grant Shapps: saving ‘vital links’

commercial bus companies, in a way which is difficult to audit, to routing public support for bus services to locally accountable transport authorities who can best ensure that every pound of public support for bus services is spent in the public interest.”

South Yorkshire’s mayor Oliver Coppard expressed fears that the latest tranche of funding could be too little and too late.

“Again and again I have called on the government to urgently work with me to save our bus network,” he said. “So, despite the monumental U-turn, I’m glad they have finally listened to the demands from Northern Mayors and realised extending this financial support is the right thing to do. This support was essential during the worst of the Covid pandemic, and now the cost-ofliving crisis demands a similar level of urgency and support.

Because many people across our community who rely on our bus network are living scared of what the near future will bring.

“My worry is that it is too little and has come too late for South Yorkshire, and the damage is already done. Our community needs a proper rescue plan for a bus system that has been broken long before the pandemic, not another sticking plaster ... The government’s political point scoring - temporarily picking up the tab for bus companies to delay their cuts for a few months while the Tories save face - does not make the crisis facing public transport in South Yorkshire and across the North go away.”

In addition to the extension of the Bus Recovery Grant, the government remains committed to investing £3bn in bus services in England by 2025, including over £1bn to improve fares, services and infrastructure, and £525m for zero emission buses. www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:59

Don’t let fares soar as service sinks. Page 20

Shapps hints on East West Rail’s future Transport secretary says there is a ‘lack of detail’ around project REGULATION

Concerns are mounting about the future of the £5bn East West Rail project that would restore a cross-country passenger rail service between Oxford and Cambridge.

It came after transport secretary Grant Shapps dismissed claims that improvements to the A428 between St Neots and Caxton Gibbet were not needed as East West Rail will run along the same corridor.

Shapps claimed that there was “uncertainty and lack of detail around the East West Rail project” and added that it was unclear whether or not the rail scheme would be fully delivered.

ORR SEEKS HS1 ASSURANCES

Concerns over deferment of some renewal projects REGULATORS

The Office of Rail and Road has raised concerns about HS1 Ltd’s delivery of planned renewals over its current control period.

HS1 Ltd has a 30-year concession to manage the HS1 rail route between London and the Channel Tunnel. Maintenance of the infrastructure is subcontracted to Network Rail (High Speed) Ltd. In a report on the concessionaire’s performance for the year to March 31, 2022, ORR admits that delays due to incidents were “well below minimum standards”, but it says it is concerned that HS1 Ltd has failed to www.passengertransport.co.uk

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Chiltern Railways upgraded the section of route between Bicester and Oxford several years ago as part of its project to run trains from London Marylebone to Oxford.

Work is currently progressing to rebuild the line from Bicester to Bletchley and it is expected the project will be completed in summer 2024. EWR then intends to focus on upgrading the existing passenger service from Bletchley to Bedford before turning its attention to the more complex Bedford to Cambridge section.

On this final section the line was closed and the track lifted in the late 1960s. East West Rail has identified a new alignment that would approach Cambridge from the south, but this has proved to be particularly controversial amongst local residents.

provide enough evidence that it has undertaken adequate assurance on operator Network Rail (High Speed) Ltd’s decision to defer some renewals.

“In addition, ORR has not been provided with clear evidence to assure it of the capability of Network Rail (High Speed) Ltd to accurately assess the current condition of its asset portfolio and to deliver the asset renewal programme,” added the regulator.

The ORR wants HS1 Ltd to seek to set out its minimum asset data requirements and report on data quality annually. It has agreed to do this by the end of 2022. The regulator also expects HS1 Ltd to undertake a more rigorous assurance regime on Network Rail (High Speed) Ltd’s project delivery until the renewal shortfall is recovered.

The Cabinet Office’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority also recently suggested these final sections of the project appeared to be “unachievable” and suggested it does not believe the project will meet its objectives on time and within budget unless risks are addressed. In response East West Rail said it was refreshing its business case.

Shapps floated axing the final phases of the project in a recent interview with LBC during his failed run for the Conservative Party leadership last month.

Asked how he would trim the transport budget, Shapps said: “I would take East West Rail and remove the second and third phases… we have to get to net zero but we don’t need to be hair-shirt about it, there are benefits in technology such as electric cars.”

CROSSRAIL’S NEXT PHASE

Through services to commence on November 6 NETWORKS

Transport for London has confirmed that from November 6 services from Reading, Heathrow Airport and Shenfield will start using the Elizabeth line’s central core. Services from the west will operate through to Abbey Wood with Shenfield trains terminating at Paddington. TfL has also confirmed a Sunday service will commence through the central core on the same date with Bond Street station finally opening in November. The next and final phase of the project will see frequencies increase to 24 trains per hour during the peak by May 2023.

GOVERNMENT DELAYS RAIL FARE ANNOUNCEMENT Fare rise decision on hold as inflation hits 12.3% RAIL FARES

Inflation hit 12.3% in July which is traditionally the month used to set the annual rise for regulated rail fares the following January using a formula based on RPI+1%.

However, the government has confirmed it will not be increasing fares by as much as July’s RPI figure, but it remains unclear as to what the actual figure will be.

“The government is taking decisive action to reduce the impact inflation will have on rail fares during the cost of living crisis and will not be increasing fares as much as the July RPI figure,” said a DfT spokesperson.

“We are also again delaying the increase to March 2023, temporarily freezing fares for passengers to travel at a lower price for the entirety of January and February as we continue to take steps to help struggling households.”

The Campaign for Better Transport has called for the government to freeze fares next year.

“Even a minus RPI rail fare rise next year will hit passengers hard and could mean people stay away from the trains altogether,” said chief executive Paul Tuohy. “The government must go further and commit to a fare freeze for 2023 now so that commuters are not left with the uncertainly of whether they’ll be able to afford to get to work next year.”

Meanwhile, as negotiations continue over a funding settlement for Transport for London, London mayor Sadiq Khan said he will resist attempts to raise fares as part of the conditions of a deal. “That could see Londoners paying fare increases of 13 or 14% in January,” he said. “That’s not on, not fair, and I will resist that.”

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NEWS ROUND-UP

HCT to exit London as Yorkshire ops collapse CT Plus Yorkshire and Powells Bus enter administration ACQUISITIONS

After weeks of industry rumours, HCT Group has confirmed its plans to pull out of the London bus market and has announced it is in advanced talks with Stagecoach about the sale of the business.

The move followed the collapse of two of the social enterprise’s bus operations in Yorkshire on August 5. Administrators were appointed at both CT Plus Yorkshire and Powells Bus which operated a combined fleet of 150-vehicles.

CT Plus Yorkshire had been established in 2006 and operated from depots in Leeds and Wakefield. It operated a mix of

ROTALA SNAPS UP MIDLAND CLASSIC Burton firm will be spring board for further growth ACQUISITIONS

AIM-listed bus group Rotala has broken into the East Midlands bus market with the purchase of Burton-on-Trent-based independent operator Midland Classic.

The purchase follows on from the acquisition of West Midlands bus operator Claribels and the local bus services of Henley-in-Arden coach operator Johnsons earlier this year.

Rotala says the deal expands its operations into the East Midlands from which further growth will be targeted. Midland Classic will become Diamond Bus East Midlands and form part of Rotala’s Midlands 06 | 26 August 2022 PT271p06-07 6

Lynn McLelland

followed immediately by the current surge in fuel prices and the cost-of-living crisis”.

“This has led to unsustainable commercial losses and we see no alternative other than immediate closure,” HCT Group added.

Group chief executive Lynn McLelland said the closure of the businesses was “a very sad day for us all”. She added that HCT Group had worked tirelessly to put the operations in Yorkshire on a sustainable footing, “but there is nothing further to be done”.

“I am deeply sorry that this is the outcome we face,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, HCT Group is in advanced talks with Stagecoach about its London bus operations.

In a letter to staff seen by Passenger Transport, operations and engineering director Mark

division which is controlled from the group’s headquarters at Tividale in the West Midlands. Integration of the operations is expected to be completed by November 30.

“Midland Classic is a sizeable wellestablished business in an attractive bus territory,” said Simon Dunn, Rotala chief executive. It represents the entry by Rotala into the East Midlands which is a new market for the group. However, at the same time, geographically it is adjacent to our existing operations in the West Midlands and so easily managed from there.”

The 60-vehicle Midland Classic operation was formed by James Boddice in 2005 with a pair of Routemaster buses operating on private hire. The company later expanded into local bus service

operation but in 2016 it acquired Arriva’s depot and local bus network in Burton, a move that doubled the size of the operation.

Boddice owned 69% of the company with bus industry entrepreneur Julian Peddle and Clare-Anne Reeves, the wife of the late Dave Reeves, owner of Staffordshire independent operator D&G, each holding 13%. Midland Classic commercial director John Mitcheson had a 5% shareholding.

“After much consideration we have decided to accept an offer from Rotala Plc,” said Boddice. “I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of the company, especially our employees, and wish everyone well for the future.”

Rotala says Boddice will leave the business after a handover period.

supported local bus and schools services, plus the AccessBus dial-a-ride services for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

HCT Group expanded its operations in the area in 2018 when it acquired Rotherhambased independent operator Powells Bus, which ran services across South Yorkshire.

The parent company said the collapse of the businesses followed a period “where we have been rocked by multiple challenges - difficult trading prior to the pandemic, the financial impact of the pandemic itself,

“I am deeply sorry this is the outcome we face”

Owen confirmed discussions were taking place and reiterated that the business was facing “multiple challenges”.

“We have come to the decision that the best way to protect the jobs of our front-line staff in London is to sell this business to another operator,” he said. “Talks with Stagecoach have yet to be concluded, but are at an advanced stage.

“HCT Group has been operating red buses in London since 2001, running services to a high standard. We believe that our red bus team will continue to prosper under Stagecoach’s potential ownership.”

The social enterprise operated 14 bus routes and three night bus routes on behalf of Transport for London with a fleet of around 150 buses based at two garages.

As Passenger Transport closed for press HCT Group announced its community transport operations in Bristol would cease this week. It has made no comment about the future of its local bus operations.

GROUP REVIVES PICKMEUP BRAND

Pioneer DRT brand reappears following Bucks contract win DRT

Go-Ahead is reviving its PickMeUp, demand responsive transport brand after subsidiary company Carousel Buses won a contract from Buckinghamshire County Council to operate a weekday DRT network around High Wycombe.

The original PickMeUp pilot was launched in Oxford in June 2018 to improve connectivity in the eastern arc of Oxford by complementing traditional bus routes. However, GoAhead admitted the service needed third party support and withdrew it in June 2020 as a result of the pandemic. www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:59

The end of the road for Yellows. Page 24

More Bus benefits as Yellow Buses collapses Bournemouth-based Yellow Buses ceased operations on August 4 with local rival Go-Ahead-owned More Bus quickly working to plug the gaps NETWORKS

Bournemouth-based Yellow Buses ceased operations on August 4 after administrator Milsted Langdon admitted it had been unable to find a buyer for the beleaguered former municipal bus operator as a going concern.

The operator went into administration on July 29 citing challenges surrounding the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and cost inflation. The operator had celebrated its 120th anniversary just days earlier.

The closure of Yellow Buses saw local rival and long-time competitor More Bus, which forms part of Go-Ahead’s Poolebased Go South Coast subsidiary, mounting an almost military-style operation to plug the gaps in Bournemouth’s bus network.

Managing director Andrew Wickham told Passenger Transport his company had created a

recruitment production line at a local hotel on the morning of August 5 to process Yellow Buses staff looking to join More Bus. Those able to start immediately were offered a £3,000 welcome bonus and by the end of the day more than 100 Yellow Buses staff had agreed to join More Bus. A replacement network commenced

Wickham: ‘We’re looking to bed things in now’

NatEx buys assets as XelaBus gets coaches School transport and tenders continues after collapse The collapse of Bournemouthbased Yellow Buses has seen National Express acquire the coach and engineering operations of the business with sister company Yellow Coaches Ltd, which had not entered administration, passing to Eastleigh-based Xela Group.

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the following morning with printed timetables available on all buses and at all bus stops.

Meanwhile, the operator also convened a fleet of vehicles, assisted by the early delivery of 15 new buses for the Unibus network operated on behalf of the University of Bournemouth.

Go South Coast’s recently

Xela Group’s acquisition includes the contract to operate the M3 Megabus service between London, Bournemouth and Poole, plus the private hire book and Yellow Coaches brand. The company was also subsequently awarded emergency contracts to operate three former Yellow Buses

supported services by BCP Council.

“It is fantastic that the Xela Group team has agreed to keep Yellow Coaches going in Bournemouth,” said Simon Newport, one of the managers that owned Yellow Buses and Yellow Coaches. “I am confident that the business will continue to provide school contracts and tenders across the conurbation to a high level. The future looks bright for Yellow Coaches.”

redeveloped Bournemouth depot also offered enough space to host the expanded network.

Wickham paid tribute to the Go South Coast team for rising to the challenge of implementing the new network and recruiting a significant number of new staff all within a 48-hour period. He also thanked BCP Council and West of England traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney for their assistance throughout the process.

“We’re looking to bed things in now,” explained Wickham. “We want to make sure the running times are adequate and we’re already inserting an extra two buses into the schedules for the new services to get that right.”

He said his priority was to ensure there was enough capacity when the schools return next month and he was also concerned about ensuring that no passengers were left behind. More Bus has not replicated the former Yellow Buses services that duplicated More Bus services and it was these corridors, in particular the flagship M1 and M2 services, that were coming under pressure.

“They were not quite back at old pre-Covid frequencies,” Wickham explained. “They were every eight minutes rather than at every seven and a half minutes each so they will now revert to their old preCovid frequency of eight buses an hour from September.”

He also revealed that next year Go South Coast would start thinking about how the existing More Bus network and the emergency network created following the failure of Yellow Buses could be brought together.

“We don’t want to do that before then as we want to get some decent data in,” Wickham said. “It might be we don’t change much, it might be we change a lot - but we don’t know until we have the solid data to hand.”

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NEWS ROUND-UP

TfW explores coach option to relieve rail Team is considering whether coaches should be deployed alongside trains on busy routes while rolling stock is in short supply. Rhodri Clark reports PATRONAGE

A team at Transport for Wales is considering whether coaches should be deployed alongside trains on its busiest routes, in an attempt to sustain revenue growth while rolling stock remains in short supply.

As Passenger Transport reported on July 29, TfW Rail’s interurban revenue had recovered to 99% of pre-Covid levels in the first period of 2022/23. Now the minutes of the TfW board’s June meeting have been published, confirming that footfall was then above 80% of pre-Covid figures and rail revenue overall, including short-distance services, at around 93%. Business travel was below the 2019 levels but leisure travel higher.

“The board discussed the need to provide additional capacity for events and increase train time flexibility. A team has been tasked with investigating the merits of piloting a separate coach service for the busiest days and routes,” the minutes record.

When TfW officers first mooted the idea a few months ago, discounted fares were suggested as a way of encouraging some passengers to take the coach, which would be slower than the train.

The minutes also reveal that the board gave consideration in June to the concept of setting a “no seat unfilled” target, which could drive innovative approaches to attracting customers. “However, concerns remain around the 08 | 26 August 2022 PT271p08-09 8

ability to meet demand on the highest yielding routes which will impact revenue growth.”

Earlier this year, TfW said it expected the first of its 77 new Class 197 trains to enter passenger service this summer but this is now postponed again, with TfW aiming for a launch in North Wales later this year. The Class 197s will be the mainstay of interurban services and feature wide doorways, positioned one-third and two-thirds along the vehicles.

TfW’s usual two-car or

three-car trains have often been unable to meet demand on inter-urban routes this summer.

Many passengers have been unable to board the first service, often leaving them with an hour’s wait for the next. The increase in leisure travel is accompanied by an increase in the proportion of passengers carrying luggage, some of which is placed on seats and in aisles and vestibules on the busiest services.

The combination of crowding, luggage and trains with doors at

“A team has been tasked with investigating the merits of piloting a separate coach service” Minutes of the TfW Board meeting in June

Passengers alight at Shrewsbury from an interurban service which had arrived with standees in the vestibules and aisles

the vehicle ends affects TfW’s performance through the cumulative effect of excess dwell times at successive stations.

The Passenger Time Lost metric, which gives greater weighting to locations with higher footfall, recorded 71.1% of services arriving within three minutes of scheduled time in Period 4 of this financial year, compared with a Moving Annual Average of 74.8%.

TfW’s board discussed concerns around daily rail performance delivery in June. “Concerns are centred around cancellations and pre-cancellations, short forming, staff availability, staff checking tickets in saloons, and Passenger Time Lost (PTL).

The board were informed that the PTL metric is under review to determine where improvements to services are needed through improved management data and stripping out events that skew the figures and hence disguise underlying trends.”

TfW has also shed light on the costs of recovering from the worst of the pandemic. Its annual report for 2021/22 reveals that grant funding for rail services was £281m, a significant reduction from the £356m grant in 2020/21 but much higher than the £173m in 2019/20.

The £281m subsidy was required because total rail revenue was £110m while total operating expenditure was £382m, of which the largest elements were staff costs (£162m) and rolling stock charges (£120m).

TfW spent £167m of capital funding on design and build works for the Core Valley Lines transformation, which includes electrification and additional infrastructure for higher service frequencies. It also spent £108m of capital grant on other aspects of the rail network, including new rolling stock and improvements to depots and stations. www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 18:00

“The secret was keeping the establishment under review and having a recruitment plan”

Chaos as Avanti slashes West Coast services Cuts see just four departures from London each hour INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Avanti West Coast made significant cuts to its network from August 14 which left it operating just four trains per hour out of London Euston.

The operator blamed the “current industrial relations climate” and said this, plus high sickness levels, had resulted in severe staff shortages.

Avanti also claimed that the “majority of drivers [are] making themselves unavailable for overtime in a co-ordinated fashion, and at short notice”.

But train drivers’ union ASLEF scotched the assertion. General secretary Mick Whelan said there has been no unofficial action at the train operator. “The truth is that the company does not employ enough drivers to deliver the services it has promised passengers it will run,” he said.

Whelan added that Avanti had admitted that 400 trains each week were dependent on drivers working their rest day.

He continued: “Avanti was already running a truncated timetable. Now it has doubled down by cutting even more services. It would have no need to do this if it had enough drivers!

“The company should stop lying and start recruiting.”

However, transport secretary Grant Shapps rejected the assertion in a letter to the mayors of London, Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region on August 13 after they had called for Avanti to be stripped of its www.passengertransport.co.uk

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400 Avanti services each week depend on drivers working their rest day

contract.

He claimed the number of ASLEF drivers who volunteered to work overtime fell by almost 90% just days after they voted for action short of a strike.

“Given the union mandate, given the numbers involved, given the suddeness, and given the fact that it only happened at one operator, it simply stretches credibility to suggest this can be anything other than unofficial industrial action,” Shapps said.

It is understood Avanti has a backlog of training as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is also a backlog of drivers awaiting return to work assessments following a period of sickness and newly qualified drivers who need to build their supervised driving hours before they can be released from training.

“The company should stop lying and start recruiting”

Mick Whelan, ASLEF

However, Graham Eccles, Stagecoach’s former rail chief operating officer claimed the issues Avanti found itself in were as a result of management and the Department for Transport “not heeding the lessons of history”.

In a series of posts on Twitter he said in British Rail days driver establishments had been kept low to save on costs. It mean that BR required goodwill from drivers to ensure there was enough of them working overtime in order to cover the service. If there was an industrial relations spat, staff simply stopped working overtime.

Eccles said that while some post-privatisation operators had modernised terms and conditions others had opted to keep the status quo. “The secret was keeping the establishment under review and having a recruitment plan that kept the establishment full,” he added.

“Since Covid it’s once more a cost-led railway. It would be unfortunate if [Avanti]/DfT had forgotten those lessons of the past and had either neglected to set proper establishments or allowed a driver vacancy gap to arise.”

IN BRIEF EUROSTAR AVOIDS KENT International train operator Eurostar has confirmed that its services will not stop at Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International until 2025 at the earliest. The operator blamed the decision on Brexit and its post-pandemic recovery. Services have not stopped at UK stations with the exception of St Pancras International since March 2020.

INTERCITY TO MANCHESTER Charter train operator Locomotive Services has announced it will run a Fridays only service over the next few weeks between Crewe, London and Manchester. The Intercitybranded all First Class service will include free refreshments and will be priced at a flat fare of £75 single. The service has been introduced after Avanti West Coast severely reduced the number of services due to “severe staff shortages”.

TAKE NOTE ROYAL MAIL STRIKES CWU union members at Royal Mail have regrettably announced strike action on August 26 and September 9 that could delay delivery of Passenger Transport. If you’re keen to ensure you have access to the latest issue in a timely manner, why not join the distribition list for our digital version? If this is of interest, simply send your name, email address and your delivery address postcode to subs@passengertransport.co.uk.

Please note: access to the digital version is restricted to one email address per subscription.

26 August 2022 | 09

24/08/2022 18:00

NEWS ROUND-UP

Souter set for Istanbul retirement party Event will mark the end of an era for Stagecoach co-founder at a time when he sees a reduced role for entreprenuers in the public transport sector STAGECOACH

Sir Brian Souter is thanking his former Stagecoach colleagues by inviting them to Istanbul next month for a three-day retirement party. This event will mark the end of an era for Stagecoach’s co-founder, who also believes that we are witnessing the end of an era for public transport with a reduced role for entrepreneurs.

Souter, 68, and his sister, Ann Gloag, founded Stagecoach in 1980 and built it into one of the largest transport providers in the UK. According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2020, Souter and Gloag are worth £730m.

Souter served as the Perth-based group’s CEO and latterly as chairman before stepping down on January 1, 2020. He remained as a non-executive director of the group until its sale to DWS Infrastructure two months ago.

Souter is now able to devote more time to his family and his other interests. These include Souter Investments and the Souter Charitable Trust, which has awarded more than 15,000 grants totalling over £104m.

The retirement party will take place on September 2-5.

A spokesperson for Souter told Passenger Transport this week: “After the sale of the company [Stagecoach], Sir Brian wanted to say thank you to all key managers and many others who have retired and who all made a contribution to the Stagecoach story. It has been an amazing 42 years and this is his way of saying thank you to 10 | 26 August 2022 PT271p10-11 10

everyone who were part of the Stagecoach phenomenon.”

Istanbul was chosen as the venue for the party because Souter knows it well from his involvement with IDO, one of the world’s largest passenger ferry operators. Souter Investments purchased IDO from the Istanbul Municipality in June 2011 and sold

it in October 2020.

“He wanted a unique place for what will be a special event,” the spokesperson explained.

The city will also host the Souter Investments and Souter Charitable Trust triennial conference a few days afterwards.

Souter and his colleagues built Stagecoach on the back of bus

“This is his way of saying thank you to everyone who were part of the Stagecoach phenomenon” Sir Brian Souter ‘remains passionate about public transport’

Souter knows Istanbul well from his involvement with ferry operator IDO

and rail privatisations in the UK and he has long advocated a lead role of entrepreneurs in the public transport sector. He has vehemently opposed moves that constrained the commercial freedom of bus and rail operators or reversed bus deregulation, but the policy-makers have been moving in that direction. For example, the Bus Services Act 2017 made it easier to introduce bus franchising in England and the 2021 National Bus Strategy for England, Bus Back Better, compels bus operators to enter Enhanced Partnerships with local authorities.

The pandemic, which struck soon after Souter stepped down as Stagecoach chairman, has meanwhile left public transport dependent on additional government funding while passenger numbers recover.

Commenting on what retirement would mean for Souter, the spokesperson said: “Sir Brian believes that we are witnessing an end of an era in public transport that will be difficult but not impossible to sustain a commercial model in the future. He believes the age of the entrepreneur is coming to an end and whilst he believes the industry will have a good future in the long term, as we move towards net zero this will probably need significant changes to existing models to deliver outcomes. He believes this is the right time for him and his family to exit the industry.”

Reflecting on Souter’s long career, the spokesperson added: “He has enjoyed every minute of what has been a 50-year journey starting as a bus conducor in 1972.

It is impossible in this short space to pick a few highlights but it has been very rewarding and great fun. He remains passionate about public transport and will follow future events with great interest.” www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 18:00

“They have been less helpful than they could have been”

TC blasts Stagecoach for ‘dangerous service’ Kevin Rooney brands operator as ‘unhelpful’ following crash inquiry LEGAL

West of England traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney has blasted Stagecoach for tendering no witnesses at a public inquiry who were in post at the time of an October 2019 bus crash that left 37 people injured.

The June inquiry heard that the driver of the bus, 19-year old Kameron Allen, had just 25 hours’ bus driving experience and there had been shortcomings in the training and mentorship offered to him by the company after he had passed his PCV driving test.

Allen worked as a commercial assistant at the company.

Following a conversation with Richard Scant, Stagecoach South West’s Torquay depot manager, he was allocated to drive the Stagecoach Gold service between Torquay and Plymouth.

Rooney said it was established company - and industry - practice to draw upon a pool of nonregular drivers comprising inspectors and managers to cover shortages. At the time there was a driver shortage at the depot as a result of industrial action.

Allen’s vehicle crashed after he had been distracted when his high-viz jacket, which was hanging behind him, started to blow out of the window. “In turning to secure the garment, Mr Allan lost control of the vehicle which then overturned into a field,” Rooney concluded in his written verdict.

“I make a finding that, more likely than not, Stagecoach Devon Ltd ran a service that was dangerous to the public. I make that finding because it failed to comply with its own driver training procedures and Kameron Allan was not provided with the follow-up support... He was allocated a duty for which he had not been trained.”

Council makes claims over events business Devon claims Stagecoach is prioritising large events A Devon councillor has claimed that Stagecoach is prioritising the supply of bus drivers for contracts won as part of its events business over local bus service commitments.

The issue came to light in the written verdict of West of England traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney after Stagecoach South West was called to attend

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a public inquiry in June to answer allegations of poor reliability of its registered bus services.

Rooney said he was contacted two days before the hearing by Cllr Andrea Davis who raised fresh concerns in relation to the operator’s service reliability.

He sent a copy of this letter to James Backhouse, the operator’s solicitor, but Rooney indicated

Rooney was critical of Stagecoach for not supplying witnesses who were in post at the time of the accident. He highlighted that he had been told two of the three statutory directors of the company were not “operational directors”.

“They were and are statutory directors and were and are accountable for what happened,” he said, adding that unlike current Stagecoach South West managing director Mike Watson, they were in post at the time of the crash.

He continued: “I was told that another Stagecoach managing director, from a Welsh operation, had conducted an investigation into the use of non-regular drivers.

That individual was not tendered as a witness. Richard Scant, the depot manager who made the decision for Mr Allan to drive... was not tendered as a witness.”

Rooney said it had emerged two separate internal investigations had been undertaken, but he had

not been allowed access to them as he had been told the documents were “legally privileged”.

“I find that difficult to understand as they are internal documents,” he added. “I think what was meant was that the company had been advised by solicitors acting in relation to civil claims arising from the crash not to make the reports public.

“It was indicated during the hearing that Mr Watson wished to share the reports and I was hoping that they would be in the operator’s supplementary information. They are not. Whilst I fall significantly short of finding that the operator has failed to cooperate with the public inquiry process, I do find that they have been less helpful than they could have been.”

A Stagecoach spokesperson said the company sincerely regretted the individual actions which led to the accident.

“Senior past and present company executives have assisted extensively the inquiry’s consideration of the issues involved, and we will continue to follow that constructive approach,” they added.

he would take no account of it and not deal with it until he had produced his decision.

“On July 14, during a 28-day period available to the operator to produce further submissions, I received another letter from Cllr Davis,” said Rooney. “The second letter alleges that claims of improvement made by the operator’s managing director at public inquiry have not been evidenced. The letter makes further complaints in relation to the detrimental effect on local services caused by Stagecoach

providing drivers for large events. The council also copied me into a letter to Stagecoach UK Bus making similar complaints.”

Rooney said he would allow the operator to respond to these allegations and that it would also be wrong to make a decision on a historical report “when the situation is seemingly still live”.

“I am therefore adjourning my decision on bus service reliability matters pending a further hearing,” he added.

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24/08/2022 18:00

NEWS ROUND-UP

Overseas operations lift NEG interims Group considers bid for Manchester bus franchising contracts FINANCIALS

The highest revenue in over a decade, new contract wins in North America and continential Europe and a growing pipeline of contracts to bid for have helped National Express Group return a strong set of results for the first half of this year.

Group operating profits were £90.5m for the half-year to June 30. Although this reflects the impact Covid-19 was still having on the business at that time, this figure is up a staggering 295.3% on the same period a year earlier. Turnover edged up 33.6% to £1.32bn. The operating margin increased to 7%.

The improved performance was largely due to strong revenue and profit growth at the Spanish ALSA operation where revenue grew by 59.8% to €527.5m.

GO-AHEAD SOLD AS FIRST BIDDER QUITS I Squared Capital walks away from purchase ACQUISITIONS

Go-Ahead Group was last week sold to the joint venture of Australian transport group Kinetic and Spanish infrastructure operator Globalvia, both of which are backed

by OPTrust, a Canadian pension fund. Completion of the deal is subject to court sanctioning likely to take place in October.

Earlier this month the group backed a slightly improved takeover offer from the two partners that 12 | 26 August 2022 PT271p12-13 12

Underlying operating profit at ALSA of €59.7m represents a €39.9m improvement versus the same period last year.

The North American yellow school bus and transit operations also delivered growth in both revenue and operating profit.

Revenue grew by 7.5% to $673.5m.

Operating profit rose by 29.8% to $74.6m.

The German rail operations returned to profit during the first half of the year. Revenue in Germany is up 59.0% to €147.3m, largely reflecting the emergency

ALSA reported strong growth

increased the price per share to 1,550 pence, comprising of 1,450 pence in cash, plus a 100 pence special dividend. The improved bid valued Go-Ahead at £669m.

A total of 78.6% of Go-Ahead shareholders backed the deal, just ahead of the 75% threshold required for the acquisition to proceed. The consortium had already received support from major investors.

Meanwhile, private equity player I Squared Capital has walked away from its bid for FirstGroup. In June, the Aberdeen-based transport group had rejected a possible takeover offer at 118 pence per share in cash, plus 45.6 pence more contingent on

contract awards of two services at the start of the year. Operating profit of €3.5m in the period, compares with an operating loss of €8.8m in the prior year.

However, despite growth overseas, the UK business still struggled. Revenue grew by 37.3% to £237.3m, driven predominantly by the express coach operations.

The operating loss of £12.8m represents a £7.1m improvement on a year earlier.

The group notes it expected the UK operations to return to profit this year and it plans to bid for further UK contracts, including for ‘asset-light’ bus contracts in Manchester, as Transport for Greater Manchester looks to franchise bus services.

“Our Evolve strategy is delivering results and we are increasingly demonstrating our ability to rapidly mobilise safe, high quality operations on which our customers can rely,” said group chief executive Ignacio Garat.

the proceeds of FirstGroup’s recent disposals of its operations in the North America. Earlier this month I Squared made a final proposal of 135 pence per share, with further contingent value from the North American sale. This was also rejected.

“FirstGroup is a cash generative, well capitalised business with a significantly de-risked balance sheet and strong positions in the UK bus and rail markets,” said a spokesperson. “With new CEO Graham Sutherland in place, [it] has a resilient and robust platform from which to develop and maximise both organic and inorganic opportunities that exist for growth.”

NATEX DUBLIN TO GO ZERO EMISSION Operator working to develop hydrogen coach OVERSEAS

National Express Ireland has announced plans to invest around €30m in a fleet of up to 50 new vehicles over the next five years and it is exploring options for introducing hydrogen-powered coaches.

The company has already invested over €5m in Dublin Express, its express coach operation between Dublin Airport and the city centre.

The existing operation of 14 coaches is projected to increase to 20 by the end of year. It now aims to operate the first fully zero emissions coach fleet in Dublin in line with its fleet zero emission target of 2030.

IN BRIEF NOTTINGHAM FARE RISES Nottingham City Transport is to increase fares by as much as 15% from August 28. The councilowned operator said that fuel and staffing costs were increasing, with diesel costing up to 50% more and natural gas prices almost doubling. The operator says it has absorbed many of these increases and the main fare rises are well below the current rate of inflation.

DIGITAL SMARTZONE OPTIONS The Oxford SmartZone multioperator ticketing scheme involving Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach, Thames Travel and Arriva will expand ticketing options on August 28 when SmartZone tickets will be available for purchase on the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach Bus m-ticketing apps. The move has been made in response to passenger feedback.

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This is the sound of the suburbs. Page 18

Singaporean JV gains control of Megabus End of an era as Scottish Citylink acquires ownership ACQUISITIONS

Stagecoach has ended speculation about the future of its coach operations following its purchase by German asset manager DWS Infrastructure.

The Perth-based group had already agreed to sell certain assets to Singaporean transport group ComfortDelGro as part of its abortive deal to merge with National Express Group, presumably in a bid to head off potential competition concerns.

That deal has now been revived following Stagecoach’s sale to DWS. It will see the Megabus retail platform and customerservice business in England and Wales, plus the retail operations of the Falcon South West coach route between Plymouth and Bristol Airport pass to Scottish Citylink, a company controlled by

ComfortDelGro. While these operations are 100% owned by Stagecoach at present, in Scotland Stagecoach has a joint venture - Scottish Citylink - with ComfortDelGro, which is responsible for the long established Scottish Citylink express coach network and Megabus branded services to, from and within Scotland.

As a result of the deal, Stagecoach’s shareholding in the Scottish Citylink joint venture will increase from 35% to 37.5%.

Ownership passes to a company controlled

by ComfortDelGro

ComfortDelGro snaps up Ireland’s GoBus Coach purchase aims to build on patronage growth Singaporean transport group ComfortDelGro has broadened its footprint in the Republic of Ireland with the £10m acquisition of express coach operator GoBus. The deal makes it the third largest express coach operator in Ireland.

Established in 2009, GoBus operates a fleet of 31 vehicles and has three routes connecting

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Dublin with Galway and Cork as well as a route between Galway and Ballina. The acquisition builds on ComfortDelGro’s presence in Ireland where it already owns Irish Citylink which has several routes linking Galway as well as the ‘Eireagle’ route between Limerick and Dublin Airport.

Cheng Siak Kian, ComfortDelGro’s deputy chief

Around 30 Stagecoach staff are also expected to transfer to Scottish Citylink.

Stagecoach has said there will be no change to the operation of the inter-city coach services themselves, which are operated by a mixture of Stagecoach subsidiaries and third-party contractors.

“Inter-city coach has a positive future,” said Stagecoach chief executive Martin Griffiths. “The agreement we have reached with ComfortDelGro will provide certainty for employees in these businesses, and ensure we can continue to benefit from future growth in the inter-city coach market through our increased share in the Scottish Citylink joint venture.”

Stagecoach sold its Megabus operation in Europe to rival FlixBus in 2016. The North American operations passed Variant Equity Advisors as part of its 2019 purchase of Coach USA.

DAVIES QUITS NATIONAL EXPRESS CFO departure follows doomed Stagecoach bid PERSONNEL

National Express Group has announced that chief finance officer Chris Davies is to step down to take up a new role at specialist services supplier Diploma Plc. Davies joined NEG in May 2017 and the group says he played a key role in setting the NEG’s ‘Evolve’ strategy, its strong recovery post pandemic and the ongoing transition of its fleet to zero emission vehicles. He is subject to a six-month notice period and the group says it has launched a hunt to find his successor.

The departure of Davies follows the group’s unsuccessful attempt to merge with Perth-based rival Stagecoach. After initially agreeing to a deal, Stagecoach ultimately accepted a rival offer from German investment company DWS Infrastructure. NEG’s £445m bid was trumped by the £600m offered to shareholders by DWS.

FLIXBUS LAUNCH SCOTS ROUTES McGill’s operates first Scottish internal route

executive, said patronage on Irish intercity coach services was increasing rapidly as car drivers switched to express coach services as a result of record fuel prices. GoBus has already reported that patronage on its Dublin to Cork route has returned to pre-Covid levels.

He continued: “The addition of the GoBus network therefore comes at an opportune time and will enable us to provide significantly more options to both Citylink and GoBus customers.”

NETWORKS

FlixBus has entered the Scottish internal coach market with the launch of a new route connecting Glasgow and Aberdeen via Stirling and Perth four times a day.

The service is operated by McGills. The Scottish independent already operates several cross-border FlixBus routes.

“We have made no secret that we want to be the biggest coach brand in the whole of the UK, and our launch in Scotland is a cornerstone of our growth strategy,” said Andreas Schorling, FlixBus UK managing director.

26 August 2022 | 13

24/08/2022 16:00

NEWS ROUND-UP

Bus staff on the picket line at Arriva’s Speke depot

Arriva strike ends with 11.1% pay offer

Arriva driving staff in the north west of England are back at work after the company agreed to a fresh pay offer to end month-long strike INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Arriva has announced it has agreed a one-year pay offer of 11.1% for bus staff in the north west of England. It follows an increasingly acrimonious dispute that had grounded the majority of Arriva’s services in the region as driving staff downed tools.

The award will send shockwaves across the bus industry where many operators are locked in pay talks. The size of the increase, plus forecasts by investment bank Citi this week that suggest inflation could hit 18% or more next year, only hints at what future pay deals could look like.

The all-out continuous strike at Arriva North West began on July 20 and hit depots in Birkenhead, Bolton, Bootle, Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester, 14 | 26 August 2022 PT271p14-15 14

Runcorn, Southport, Speke, St Helens, and Winsford.

The Unite union, which was in dispute with the company along with the GMB union, said 1,800 members had returned a 96% yes vote in favour of continuous strike action on a turnout of 72%.

It followed an initial pay offer of just 3% with no strings attached, or 6% which included reductions in sick pay and loss of Saturday enhanced pay. Unite had repeatedly rejected what it labelled as “insulting” pay deals from Arriva North West.

Meanwhile, earlier this month

GMB members rejected an improved offer of 9.6%, an increase on the previous offer of 8.5%. GMB regional organiser George Patterson said union members had wanted £15 an hour across the board in a move that would end differing pay rates between the depots. Unite claimed drivers at Winsford were paid £11.08 an hour.

An Arriva spokesperson said: “All parties have come to an agreement on an unprecedented pay deal. Following a meeting today, in which the agreement was reached, unions will now take

“Were this dispute taking place in London we have little doubt it would be receiving much greater attention”

this recommended offer to our colleagues.”

GMB organiser George Patterson, said: “After weeks of unnecessary industrial action Arriva bosses have finally come back with an offer that meets GMB members’ expectations.”

Unite regional officer Dave Roberts said Arriva had “seen sense” by offering the more generous deal. “Unite’s negotiating team is recommending the offer be accepted and it is being put to members in a vote,” he said.

The effects of the continuous action had led local political leaders to wade into the dispute.

In a joint letter to Paul O’Neil, Arriva’s UK bus managing director, Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram and members of the combined authority said the dispute was having a “significant impact” on the lives of residents, adding they were “deeply concerned” about the effect the continuous strike may have had if it had continued when schools and colleges returned next month.

“During an escalating cost of living crisis, this prolonged lack of services is hitting our residents hard,” they said. “People are missing appointments, struggling to get to work, to see loved ones and choosing to not visit some of our great attractions that our visitor economy has to offer.”

They called on the highest levels of Arriva management to step in to help reach an agreement.

“Were this dispute taking place in London we have little doubt it would be receiving much greater attention not only in the national press but within your organisation too,” the leaders added.

“A major British city region has been without two-thirds of its bus network for almost a month while there seems to be a lack of urgency to bring it to a resolution.” www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 15:58

Watson quits Stagecoach South West. Page 30

Restructure leaves two managers without roles Paul Matthews and Marc Reddy consider new opportunities RESTRUCTURING

FirstGroup’s decision to streamline its senior management team by slimming down the current 10 operating companies to just six has left two senior respected managers “considering other opportunities within First Bus” and seen the confirmed departure of a further three.

The group last week suggested the restructuring exercise was an “an evolution of its regional organisational structure” that was “designed to position the company for growth and enable it to more quickly capture post Covid market changes and deliver innovative solutions”.

“Based upon the principles of customer-centricity and operational excellence, First Bus is evolving its leadership team for agility, alignment and growth,” a

COUNCIL OFFERS EMERGENCY FUNDS Diamond Bus pulls back from planned cuts NETWORKS

Worcestershire County Council has announced a package of measures and funding that will head off the bulk of the bus service cuts planned by Rotala subsidiary Diamond Bus in the area until at least March 2023.

After Diamond’s announcement of the cuts, the council convened a ‘Bus Travel Task Force’ to review current bus provision and “to ensure bus travel is able to meet residents’ www.passengertransport.co.uk

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“First Bus is evolving its leadership team”

director, a business unit that will comprise the Eastern Counties and Essex businesses.

First has also confirmed Dervla McKay, Andrew Scholey and Simon Cursio will continue in their roles at Aircoach, First Travel Solutions and Somerset Passenger Solutions respectively.

Meanwhile, First Manchester boss Ian Humphreys has announced he will retire at the end of August 2023. Until then he expands his role as MD for the new Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire business unit.

However, First has confirmed First Cymru MD Jane ReakesDavies will leave the group on September 30. She joined the business in 2013 and was latterly in charge of the human resources function before stepping up as managing director in 2020.

Also stepping down is Steve Wickers, managing director of Eastern Counties. He will depart on October 15 after 25 years with

needs across the county” (PT268).

Diamond Bus said it has worked extensively with the council to find a solution to enable vital bus services to continue with support from local funding. However, it has announced that some services with minimal patronage will be withdrawn and there will be a review of bus fares.

“There has been widespread coverage in the national news recently regarding the need to cap fares to ease the impact of cost of living increases on bus passengers,” said the operator. “Diamond Bus has aways been committed to providing affordable fares and currently many of our Worcestershire fares are

amongst the lowest in the country, and, even with the increases planned for September, we believe our fares will still fall below the recommended [£2] national capped fare rate.”

Bob Baker, Diamond Bus managing director, added: “We are hugely grateful for the additional funding that the council has been able to offer as an emergency measure.

“We are committed to providing Worcestershire with the robust bus network it needs to support a growing community, but services need to become viable commercially in the long term and to do this we need a significant growth in passengers travelling by bus.”

spokesperson added.

The group has confirmed Duncan Cameron will remain as managing director for the Scottish operations, a role he took on earlier this year following a reorganisation there.

First West of England managing director Doug Claringbold expands his remit by taking on oversight of the group’s bus operation in Wales.

First South West managing director Simon Goff takes charge of the South and South West business unit which includes the business in Devon and Cornwall as well as operations in Dorset, Hampshire and Berkshire.

First Essex managing director Piers Marlow has been appointed East of England managing

First and its predecessors. First Bus has also confirmed to Passenger Transport that Nigel Eggleton left his role as MD of South Yorkshire and Midlands two weeks ago.

The two managers left without roles are experienced staffers Paul Matthews at West Yorkshire and Marc Reddy at Dorset, Hampshire and Berkshire.

Matthews will continue as MD of West Yorkshire into 2023, which becomes the expanded North and West Yorkshire business unit on October 1. Reddy will remain in post until his business is merged with First South West on the same date. First says both are currently considering other opportunities within First Bus. Commenting on the changes, First Bus managing director Janette Bell said First was facing a new world “where customers, partnerships and data-led decisions are at the fore of our business”. She continued: “I’m really pleased that we’re appointing such a strong group of talented people as managing directors of our Local Business Units and look forward to sharing more detail as we grow our teams across the wider business.”

MINOR CHANGES TO NATEX OPS

West Midlands operations aims to match patronage NETWORKS

National Express has announced network changes at its bus operations in the West Midlands and Coventry from September 4. It will see a number of minor adjustments made to the networks which largely aim to meet an anticipated increase in patronage from September.

“A small number of services are changing to better serve the travel patterns of our customers,” said commercial director Chris Gibbens.

26 August 2022 | 15

24/08/2022 15:58

ENVIRONMENT

Inverness and Perth will go all-electric first Stagecoach to deliver UK’s first all-electric city bus fleets ELECTRIC BUSES

Stagecoach has announced that it will be introducing the UK’s first all-electric city bus networks as part of its drive to deliver a net zero UK bus fleet by 2035.

Plans are well underway to see Britain’s biggest bus operator make its city bus networks in Inverness and Perth all-electric from the end of 2022 and early 2023 respectively. They look set to go all-electric ahead of Coventry, which was selected in March 2021 to become the UK’s first all-electric bus city by the Department for Transport.

Stagecoach’s £13.9m fleet of 38 new e-buses for Perth and Inverness has been partly funded by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB), which supports the transition to zero-emission technologies.

‘CLIMATE STRIPES’ BUS FOR READING Specially-liveried bus is climate change reminder PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

A bio-methane-powered single deck bus has been transformed into a ‘climate stripes’ bus.

For several months Reading Buses has been working closely with the University of Reading whose Professor Ed Hawkins, a worldleading climate scientist, created ‘warming stripes’.

The ‘warming stripes’ are a means 16 | 26 August 2022 PT271p16-17 16

The new electric buses in Perth, which will be introduced in early 2023, will be made up of a £4.8m fleet of 13 buses, comprising seven single deck, five midibuses and one double-decker. They will join nine zero emission buses introduced in the city last December.

The £9.1m investment in Inverness will see a fleet of 25 new electric midibuses introduced from late 2022 across routes 1-9, replacing the city’s diesel bus fleet.

A Stagecoach electric bus in Perth

of visually communicating rising temperatures and the threat of global warming for all of our futures and have already been displayed nationally and internationally.

Reading Buses CEO Robert Williams said that the ‘climate stripes’ bus was “a reminder to people that using public transport is one of the easiest ways that they can help to cut emissions”.

He added: “We have even worked with our suppliers to source a new recyclable vinyl to keep the carbon impact of this project as low as possible for as long as possible.”

New zero emission buses are also being introduced over the coming months on Stagecoach networks across other areas in Scotland, including Aberdeen, Ayr, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Kilmarnock as part of the ScotZEB plans.

Scotland’s transport minister, Jenny Gilruth, said: “This latest announcement from Stagecoach is welcome, and is fantastic news for everyone who lives in, works and visits Inverness and Perth.”

ADL’S IN-HOUSE INTEGRATED ELECTRIC BUSES New products added to manufacturer’s portfolio ZERO EMISSION BUSES

Bus builder Alexander Dennis Limited has announced that it is expanding its zero-emission bus portfolio with the addition of new electric bus products, fully designed and integrated in-house using its own expertise. Available for delivery from late 2023, a new small bus and a new electric double decker will complement products of the BYD ADL partnership, which will continue to be sold and supported.

The move brings the company’s range of battery electric buses in line with the company’s long-established strategy of offering its own, integrated vehicles alongside buses built on selected partners’ chassis.

A new design language, developed in house with input from students of Coventry University’s sector-leading Automotive and Transport Design course, will give the new models unmistakable kerb appeal. Buses for the UK and Ireland will be fully built in Britain. Details and technical specifications will be released over the coming months.

The ‘climate stripes’ bus

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24/08/2022 17:29

“We are impressed by the founders, the team culture, and the company’s achievements”

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

Volvo makes strategic investment in Optibus Investment supports key software infrastructure Volvo Group Venture Capital has announced a strategic investment in Optibus, a cloudnative, end-to-end software platform for public transportation planning and operations, to advance bus electrification and the digitalisation of the public transportation industry.

The investment is said to highlight the companies’ shared commitment to sustainable bus fleets and more efficient transport operations, and reinforces the scalability of Optibus.

Optibus believes that high

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quality, sustainable public transportation can only be achieved through industrywide digitalisation and vehicle electrification. Yet manual and legacy planning tools are still commonplace worldwide, and electric buses have only captured about 20% of the city bus market in Europe and 2% in the US. Volvo Group Venture Capital investment director Christina Brinck said: “Optibus offers a scalable SaaS solution and has doubled its revenue year over year. We are impressed by the founders, the team culture, and the company’s achievements. We believe the Volvo Group can add considerable strategic value to the

continued development of the business.”

Optibus and Volvo Group will share strategic learnings and create growth opportunities.

“The collaboration with Optibus will contribute to our efforts to support customers with more efficient and sustainable transport solutions,” said Volvo Buses president Anna Westerberg.

Amos Haggiag, CEO and co-founder of Optibus, said: “Between Volvo, as a global OEM with decades of auto industry expertise, and Optibus, as an agile, quickly scaling SaaS company, this relationship spurs the synergy needed to advance digitalisation and more sustainable fleets.”

IN BRIEF TRANSDEV AND OMNIBUS Transdev Blazefield is using Omnibus to revolutionise operations at its Team Pennine subsidiary and streamline work processes and collaborative working across locations.

The operator bought the former Yorkshire Tiger business from Arriva in July 2021 and took the decision to move the team onto OmniDAS, the new cloud-native complete depot allocation system.

TRAFFIC LIGHT PRIORITY Bristol City Council has successfully rolled out Ticketer Traffic Light Priority (TLP) across Bristol’s congested roads, reducing overall operational costs and saving bus waiting time at traffic lights.

26 August 2022 | 17

24/08/2022 17:29

COMMENT

JONATHAN BRAY

This is the sound of the suburbs

When we talk about transport policy we are usually talking about cities, but we need to decarbonise transport in the suburbs too “Child of the First War. Forgotten by the Second.

We called you Metro-Land. We laid our schemes.

Lured by the lush brochure, down byways beckoned.

To build at last the cottage of our dreams, A City clerk turned countryman again. And linked to the Metropolis by train.”

Sir John Betjeman It was the train that allowed the escape from the city to suburbs along its linear lines. Then the rise of the car allowed the suburbs to spread everywhere and the cities hollowed out because traditionally, for the British, a city was always a necessary evil. But over time those for whom the ubiquity of the suburban dream was a nightmare started to recolonise cities that in turn came back to life and tried to emulate urban living elsewhere in the world. British cities became fashionable and investable. And then as many of the suburbs started to fray at the edges as their infrastructure aged, the young and the wealthy moved into city centres and the poor moved to the suburbs (most people in poverty now live in suburban areas).

But, arguably, suburbs are now having their moment. Covid confined many people to their homes which became places where they both lived and worked. And even when restrictions were eased or ended, the working from home carried on. And if you are spending more time at home then why wouldn’t you want more space... and whilst we are it, a garden would be nice. Interesting too to see the hipsterisation of selected suburbs. Key elements of city living 18 | 26 August 2022 PT271p18-19 18

are there (the cafes and bars) without the need to live in city centres, spiked with innumerable anonymous speculative residential towers, and where you are never far from a bar but always a long way from a place to buy a pint of milk.

Suburbs. Most of us live in them. Most transport policy isn’t about them. It’s time more of it was. What approaches could we take to achieve this?

The ‘trains first, suburbs second’ rule that was the original model for suburban development is still true for some cities.

Copenhagen’s ‘finger plan’ was developed in 1947 and visualises the city as the palm of a hand with the city developing along the five fingers. Each of the five fingers has its own rail line connecting it to the city. Between each finger are ‘wedges’ for recreation and agriculture. Later, a sixth finger was added to connect the city to Malmo, over the Oresund Bridge. Residential areas near stations in the core urban areas are built at densities of at least 40 residences per hectare. For the remaining stations, densities of at least 25 residences per hectare are required - which ensures that public transport services are viable.

“Suburbs. Most of us live in them. Most transport policy isn’t about them.

It’s time more of it was”

I checked out the sixth finger when I was last in Copenhagen which does indeed organise itself along a driverless extension of the city’s metro system, with easy access to a nature reserve. You can see similar transitbased approaches for new suburbs in places like IJburg, Amsterdam (which I wrote about in PT202) and Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. With a mass transit system in place these new developments allow for a ‘gentle density’ of residential homes where common services like refuse, car and bike parking, heating and cooling are collectively organised and, as far as possible, concealed .This leaves more of the streets available for people, including small people. On one residential street in Copenhagen the only car I saw was a pretend plastic one being peddled around by a child.

Meanwhile, in Britain, too many dull ‘cow pat’, car-dependent housing estates are sprawling all over. Research by Transport for New Homes of over 100 urban and greenfield housing estates of up to 10 years old showed that transport infrastructure investment added road capacity. Bus infrastructure was rarely given significant funding and only one new rail station was delivered.

We do have examples here in the UK of new transit-based suburbs. Most recently the Barking Riverside extension of the London Overground, without which the new mixed development which includes 10,800 homes couldn’t have gone ahead. Other relatively recent examples include Kirkstall Forge in West Yorkshire which opened up the development of a former industrial site to support a mixed development that includes over 1,000 homes. And there’s Maghull North on the Merseyrail Electrics network which opened in 2018 to serve adjacent housing development of 370 homes. Things get even better when the transport operator is the housing developer. When RATP redeveloped the Montrouge bus station in the south of Paris it rebuilt it as an underground vehicle maintenance facility for 183 vehicles with a new development overhead which included retail units, office space, 660 new flats and a nursery. The development also has green roofs creating 7,300 square metres of rooftop garden. Win-wins are a beautiful thing.

So much for new suburbs, what about the ones we have already built? There’s no one www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:16

“If the car is king of trip share in the country as a whole then it is emperor in many suburbs” A Jelbi mobility hub in Berlin

Maghull North, Merseyside

Kirkstall Forge, West Yorkshire

A car dependent housing development in the UK

type of suburb and there’s no magic transport bullet that works for everything from areas of Victorian terraces to neighbourhoods of 1930s semis. Instead it’s more about drawing on a variety of initiatives that could lead to fewer suburban gardens being turned into climate un-resilient hard standing for a jigsaw puzzle of parked cars.

For example, in Berlin, the city has got a grip on what, up until now, what has mostly been nothing more than an increasingly tiresome Powerpoint pitch (Mobility as a Service).

They have been installing mobility hubs across the city (suburbs included), complemented by the city’s mobility app ‘Jelbi’. Jelbi allows users to buy public transport tickets as well as access over 40,000 shared vehicles including bikes, cars and e-scooters. Large Jelbi stations are located at S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations and offer hire, return and charging of cars, bikes and scooters and are also stops for taxis and on-demand shuttles.

Other policy clubs in the golf bag include those households that can own their own push bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters which, alongside public transport and mobility hubs, start to provide a viable alternative to multiple car ownership and a way of reducing car use.

But let’s not kid ourselves. If the car is www.passengertransport.co.uk

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king of trip share in the country as a whole then it is emperor in many suburbs. In these circumstances even a doubling of public transport use isn’t going to make much of a dent. So, we are also going to need to transition to both zero emission cars and to improve the low levels of car occupancy that we have in the UK. Pre-pandemic there were 36 million empty seats travelling during the morning commute every day - an average of just 1.2 occupied seats per car. The average car or van in England is only driven 4% of the time. Large public and private sector employers are probably the easiest place to start in getting serious about lift sharing, car clubs, car pooling and peer-to-peer sharing.

Meanwhile, all those electric vehicles are going to need a power supply whilst the housing stock itself also needs to be decarbonised. There are some opportunities here to look at these twin challenges more holistically - including community microgrids where local generation of energy (from heat pumps, solar and turbines) and management by sophisticated technologies allows you to play tunes with energy generation and storage.

This includes powering a household’s electric vehicles and mobility devices (as well as using them as battery storage).

And then there’s climate resilience. Is it any wonder our cities get so hot and flood so easily with all that concrete for roads and hard standing for vehicles?

When we talk about transport policy we are usually talking about cities but if we are serious about decarbonising transport we need to decarbonise transport in the suburbs too.

The suburbs were made by transport in the first place and with the right transport policies we can remake them for a world that needs to decarbonise - fast.

The Good Life: The role of transport in shaping a new and sustainable era for suburbs can be downloaded at: www.urbantransportgroup.org/resources/ types/reports/good-life-role-transportshaping-new-and-sustainable-era-suburbs

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jonathan Bray is the director of the Urban Transport Group. Throughout his career in policy and lobbying roles he has been at the frontline in bringing about more effective, sustainable and equitable transport policies.

26 August 2022 | 19

24/08/2022 17:16

COMMENT

ALEX WARNER

Don’t let fares soar as service sinks

Rail users will face eye-watering fare increases next March. The risk is that the price is becoming divorced from the proposition Last week, my designer clothes mad, 17-year old son, got me traipsing round London’s West End. We visited a Louis Vuitton store and he was fawning over a white baseball cap.

He asked the shop assistant the price and she replied “£680”, to which he looked unfazed, whilst I went white, stuttered and stumbled and, in a mad panic, sped out the store before he could try and grind me down. It was a baseball hat, for goodness sake! Surely, he could have bought something just as good in Primark or Marks and Spencer? I might have spent £6.80 on one of these, but £680, you’re having a laugh. Besides, someone could just take it off his head in the street and run off with it!

The Louis Vuitton experience made me reflect on the value for money conundrum, particularly during this cost of living crisis.

Whilst I had a choice on whether to waste my money on a stupid cap, rail customers have less choice, when it comes to its equivalent of eyebrow-raising prices, most notably peak time fares.

The Department for Transport has committed that fares will not be pegged to inflation but an increase is still likely. As my mate, the longstanding rail industry commercial guru Paul Cooper explained to me last week: “This challenge can also offer some opportunity. With fares increases moving to March (hopefully permanently), now is the time to move to CPI (RPI now largely discredited).

There have been calls to use CPI as it is a more accurate way of calculating inflation. Had CPI 20 | 26 August 2022 PT271p20-21 20

been used to calculate the March 2022 increase, fares would have gone up by 2.1% rather than 3.8%. CPI is still likely to be 9% or so, but then if we really wish to make progress on fares and ticketing transformation, we know some fares will need to go up more than others and some may need to go down. Having 9% as a ‘base’ fare increase is a rare opportunity (once in 30 years) to do something within the context of high inflation to flex the ticket prices we have to move fares around the way we need to deliver the transformation so many desire.”

Cooper’s on the money there, but, even the concept of any increase feels like a hammer blow to customers at a time when the quality of service seems worse than in living memory and we’re paying the second highest fares in

The concept of any increase feels a hammer blow to customers at a time when the service is poor

Europe according to research by the Campaign for Better Transport. Folk are incurring cost of living related increases across pretty well all aspects of life, but most of them relate to services that haven’t deteriorated. Supermarket produce, restaurant meals, entry at tourist attractions, sporting events and so on - by and large the quality has remained the same or in some cases improved, but rail is the exception.

For all the interminable talk around fares reform in recent years, as a customer I don’t think that my rail retailing experience has changed. I had got into the habit of purchasing long distance tickets online and collecting the ticket at the station, though at my local station, Shepperton, the ability to collect a pre-paid ticket from the sole remaining machine hasn’t worked for ages. More recently, I just purchase the ticket outright at machines because many of the discounted advance tickets have disappeared, probably due to the depletion and unreliability of services following train crew and other industrial action.

Smart ticketing is a concept that has been the subject of endless talk and PowerPoint presentations and there are some excellent solutions, including that which has been recently introduced by GWR - one of the more trailblazing of operators. However, unless these schemes are approved, rolled out and marketed (in a high profile way) nationally on a single supplier basis, their impact will be stymied and we’ll never truly get off the starting blocks.

Flexi season tickets too - for all the positive vibes about these being the solution to changes in working patterns, customer awareness is low and there have been flaws, such as customers having to use or lose the quota of tickets they purchase for a month and it being cheaper to buy a traditional season ticket than a flexi if they are travelling more than three days a week.

In fact, the retailing proposition hasn’t really moved forward much in, dare I say it, at least two decades. As indicated, yield management appears to have dried up, whilst affordable first class fares are almost obsolete - and where they are available, confidence around the ability of the product to deliver as per the marketing promise is variable. Would I confidently spend over £100 of my own money extra to travel first not knowing if the meal service will be served and even if it is, I could probably buy for under a tenner an equivalent quality and amount of nosh for my journey at one of the many www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:24

“It’s not just for the ability to get from A to B but the whole experience” station outlets before boarding? Recently, when I’ve travelled, disruption has occurred such that First Class has been declassified and my carriage has been overrun.

Most of all, the railway and government shouldn’t arrogantly and complacently assume it is palatable to increase fares each year without serious reflection on whether the hike is justifiable from the perspective of product quality and the customer’s ability to pay.

That’s what normal businesses do. Customers genuinely have more of a choice now, as transport secretary Grant Shapps keeps telling us in his statements to the media about the debilitating effects of strike action. The gap between the marketing promise and the reality is as great as that between the trade unions and the government around the current issues at play in the strike.

I’ve not long returned from a family holiday in Monte Carlo and whilst I fell off my seat at lunchtime meals for five of us habitually costing £300 and a can of coke over a tenner, after a while I tried to convince myself that we were getting quality in return - portions were small but the scran was fresh and elegantly turned out and by hospitable staff in restaurants with lavish décor and great ambience. The Coca Cola had ice and a slice and a smattering of crisps on the side and you pay for the setting. The problem with rail is that, in the main, you’re not even getting that. For your fare, you are paying for the benefit of travelling (unreliably so in many cases), but the surroundings aren’t great and the staff are hit and miss.

In most cases, I’m lucky in that when I travel, predominantly it’s for business and my company pays and have a reasonable level of discretionary spend. If it is for leisure, I’ve a Network Railcard and the kids have the excellent 16-17 or 16-25 cards (the former being poorly advertised). However, I don’t know how I’d feel if I had to routinely part with the £250-plus peak time fares that are necessary just to connect from one city to another across the country - journeys that are integral for people to be able to facilitate their lives. These fares - and that’s just for one person - are a big wedge of the average weekly household budget and I don’t think railway officials (insulated from the pain because of their free travel) or those in government really get it. TOC MDs will no doubt contact me to tell me my anecdotal observations are not backed up by www.passengertransport.co.uk

PT271p20-21 21

the figures, but outside of those travelling to popular staycation locations, such as Devon and Cornwall, for instance, passenger numbers on traditionally busy flows from London, for instance, appear to be a shadow of their former selves - to Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool, Leicester, Preston, Leicester, Norwich and many more. I fear that unless a location is worth visiting from a holiday/tourism perspective, it might never generate the demand it did pre-Covid.

Don’t also underestimate the social mobility imperative. If we price folk out of travelling, society will be like it was before the mid 20th century where countless folk went their whole lives never travelling more than 10 miles from their home. It’s potentially worse nowadays with the internet giving ample excuse to stay in one room endlessly gawping at a screen. It’s so sad that the railway, like the theatre or a trip to the Test Match, is, with every passing year, becoming more the preserve of the wealthy.

The press statements from Whitehall and the rail industry are that their stance in relation to the strike is driven by a determination not to pass on the increasingly unsustainable cost of running the railway onto customers. It will be interesting to see if, and once the strike is over and the ‘workplace reform’ initiative to drive down industry costs has been completed, if fares either don’t rise or reduce.

I don’t recall this happening when the industry has previously made structural changes, such as station de-staffing or driver only operation across large swathes of the network.

I call it the marketing promise, yet in truth promotional campaigns themselves have diminished so it’s difficult to even determine what is on offer. The demise of TOC marketing teams has been a factor, so too the sheer paucity of budget they’ve been bequeathed by the pursestring-holding DfT, alongside a reticence to promote a railway that is now operationally so fragile, it would be better off asking customers to stay at home.

As the chosen few congratulate themselves on LinkedIn for their secondment to GBR, the less affordable, but arguably more experienced commercial and customer innovators left behind in TOC-land get more disillusioned.

Hopefully by March 2023, when the fares have gone up, the cost of living crisis will have lessened and rail strikes will be a distant memory. It’s optimistic to think this will be the case, but we can hope. A fanfare around fare

hikes couldn’t be worse right now and for those of you who haven’t been on the network lately, you’d be crestfallen at how bad it has become in places. Some of the most experienced leaders in rail have texted me this week saying the service is now so bad it is showcasing all the ills of ‘third world Britain’. For every well run exercise of which the Commonwealth Games was one (though it was very much a case of pulling through in adversity), service reductions, short notice cancellations, websites crashing, reservation systems failing, unstaffed gates, on-board catering ‘suspended’, call centre phones and emails unanswered, spectators at major events across the UK left stranded because their trains have been cancelled without notice, are now more routinely at the heart of the experience for the majority of customers than they have been in my lifetime. Across all corners of the nation, the service has sunk to subterranean levels and yet still there will be senior leaders who will heap opprobrium on me when reading this article by defensively suggesting all in their own back garden is rosy.

3.6% of trains were cancelled in the 12 months to July 2022 - the worst since 2015. We don’t even have a robust, consistent nationwide customer satisfaction survey that is well regarded and agreed by all parts of the industry to tell us how customers are feeling right now.

Before the railway increases its fares it needs to ditch all of its Louis Vuitton astronomical prices, get the service back on track so there are enough trains and confidence in its ability to run such that it can reinstate the mix of ‘bargain’ advance fares and also across the entire network, ditch the peak time travel restrictions until further notice. Customers need to feel that they are paying not just for the ability to get from A to B, but for the whole experience - the equivalent of a view from the table in the plush restaurant or atmospheric surroundings and luxury table and chairs, where the staff exist just to delight customers. Once that’s in place, then it’s more tactful and appropriate to start talking fares increases. To do that now is just brazen cheek.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Warner has over 29 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector

26 August 2022 | 21

24/08/2022 17:24

COMMENT

NICK RICHARDSON

Poor buses - are local authorities to blame?

A failure to control traffic is the root cause for the historic decline in bus patronage but the role of highway authorities is limited In England, we are now in the throes of Enhanced Partnerships, or in a few cases, working towards franchising as proposed by the current government. In Wales and Scotland, the situation is similar but being addressed differently. Robert Montgomery, the former head of Stagecoach’s UK bus services, claims that there has been widespread failure by local authorities to manage urban roads (PT269). I don’t agree for the reasons I set out below.

I do agree with Robert on a number of points, in particular his advocacy of restraints on car use with measures such as workplace parking levies and congestion charging.

However, I don’t go along with the idea that the commercial bus model remains a sensible proposition. Rising costs, along with a series of other difficulties, mean that the commercial model is broken and there needs to be a way out. Many services are disappearing because of funding issues which is evidence that providing bus services is not a sound business proposition.

Now we can consider the role of local authorities. By this, we mean highway authorities rather than local planning authorities, although some authorities are both. We can put the local planning authorities to one side in this context although their role of determining the location and type of development is relevant. It’s easy to blame highway authorities for everything, traffic delays being a regular example. Essentially, there are probably no areas that are congestion-free. This is a simple case of supply and demand - it’s not that the road capacity is inadequate, it’s because demand is too great in relation to the limited space available. Even where road building was undertaken on a

The role of highway authorities Firstly, the number of bus users has been following a downward trajectory for decades, largely due to widespread car use plus a host of other factors. Much of the bus sector hadn’t adapted through that period and continues to run many services simply because it always has done. With changing demographics and spatial patterns, new ideas are a necessity.

22 | 26 August 2022 PT271p22-23 22

Roadworks can be disruptive

large scale, the problem has multiplied, not declined. Now, some authorities are taking away or re-casting divisive, polluting and congestion-attracting roads where they are now deemed to be inappropriate.

The performance of many highway authorities is not what it should be, a problem generally arising from funding shortages. Road maintenance is determined by a complicated equation based on road type. This funding has been reducing for many years with the result that managing decline has been happening for a very long time but is not due to ineptitude on the part of those authorities. Managing decline in practice means building up problems for the future, for example, bad roads get worse until they need more spending on them when they need to be comprehensively reconstructed.

An ongoing programme of patching is not effective when the sub-surface structure of the road is compromised. Then we have the pothole debate in which there is competition for the worst examples. Essentially, we know how many holes there are in Blackburn, Lancashire (to quote ‘A day in the life’) but there isn’t enough cash to fix them.

The poor state of many roads, including important routes, doesn’t help anyone and in cities such as Manchester, some are dreadful. Their condition is aggravated by extreme weather, ranging from melting to freezing and the number of vehicles using them (including heavy vehicles such as buses).

Rising contractor costs don’t help budgetary pressures either. Now we can consider the thorny issue of roadworks. Most authorities are improving in this respect with better coordination and penalties for contractors who take longer than agreed. Roadworks can be disruptive but let’s consider why they are there in the first place. One reason is road maintenance itself, another is reconfiguration such as new roads to access development sites, but the biggest cause is buried utilities. Most electricity, gas, water and communications infrastructures are under roads. When they go wrong or wear out, they need to be dealt with which means digging up roads. The Victorian infrastructure boom means that many are reaching the end of their useful lives and need to be replaced. There are other phenomena such as sinkholes and exploding footways, all of which are unpredictable, disruptive and potentially dangerous. www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:27

IN ASSOCIATION WITH: www.ciltuk.org.uk Tel: 01536 740100 @ciltuk

Applying initiative The other facet of highway authorities is their role in bus service provision. The years of austerity inflicted by central government continue to bite. Having saved many millions of pounds by cutting services, the demands are still there. Some authorities are required to reduce spend to such an extent that they will no longer be able to fulfil their statutory duties. Not to be over-dramatic, but some authorities will collapse because they cannot do the basics, never mind the add-ons such as revenue support for bus services. It could be part of a plot to do away with local authorities altogether.

Many local authorities have generated some good ideas in their Bus Service Improvement Plans. This demonstrates that they have an understanding of what can be achieved on their roads. However, the big unknown is the extent to which they can be implemented. In the guidance on the national bus strategy for England, much is made of creating bus priority measures; this is laudable but easier said than done. The decisions made by local authorities are by elected representatives. For a long time, Whitehall has pushed the notion that local decisions are best made locally (forgetting the localism concept which was simply hype).

This is true because if the electorate doesn’t like the decisions being made, they have the opportunity to change administration through the ballot box. Sadly the turnout for local elections is consistently poor but many people who express disapproval of councils’ decisions can’t be bothered to vote. These days, democratically elected councils are preoccupied with saving money and cutting services rather than being proactive about anything, least of all bus services over which they have limited influence.

Wider influences The biggest problem of all is that highway authorities have a relatively small impact on travel behaviour. The big influences lie elsewhere, particularly when it comes to levels of car use and the consequent traffic congestion. Covid-19 and Brexit have not helped bus services but unrestrained use of cars is largely a matter for central government.

Highway authorities are bound by rules set from above and have to deal with the consequences. The level of traffic in any www.passengertransport.co.uk

PT271p22-23 23

Portsmouth City Council was awarded £48m to support its ambitious BSIP. Many other areas have gone without

“The dismal state of highway authority funding is the problem” given area is not determined by local politics but some of the solutions are. Various bits of legislation allow authorities to do certain things such as introduce a workplace parking levy but very few do because they haven’t got any funding, limited staff because most have been made redundant and no appetite for pursuing anything that might be construed as unpopular. Government seems intent on helping motorists, but what is currently a huge opportunity presented by high fuel prices should be balanced by massive promotion and investment in passenger transport services. Creating bus priority measures needs changes to the rules if they are to appear on the ground faster.

Where transport powers have been devolved to mayoral combined authorities, changes are more likely to be made. Interestingly, Bristol

recently decided that it no longer wanted an elected mayor which adds further confusion to the possible future scenarios. It is difficult to garner widespread support for bus priority if it means reducing capacity for other vehicle movements; this isn’t a failure of local authorities, it is failure of central government policy across many areas of influence to address the increasing levels of car use. With Enhanced Partnerships being the way forward (for the moment at least), bus operators and local authorities share the same objectives.

The dismal state of highway authority funding is the problem, coupled with a government that can’t make up its mind on transport.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nick Richardson is Technical Principal at transport consultancy Mott MacDonald, chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Policy Group and a former chair of the Transport Planning Society. In addition, he has held a PCV licence for over 30 years.

26 August 2022 | 23

24/08/2022 17:27

SPECIAL REPORT YELLOW BUSES

Out to grass: the Yellow Buses depot last week

The end of the road for Yellows Andrew Garnett chronicles the demise of former council-owned bus operator Yellow Buses

Bournemouth-based Yellow Buses is no more. The company, which had celebrated its 120th anniversary in July, ceased operations on August 4, 2022. Administrators were appointed on July 29 with the business - Bournemouth Transport Ltd - citing the fallout from the pandemic and more recent fuel price inflation for its demise. It is the largest collapse of a UK bus operator since the demise of former National Bus Company subsidiary National Welsh in early 1992.

Administrators Simon Rowe and Rachel Hotham of Milsted Langdon LLP said that Yellow Buses had “suffered from the challenges of the Covid period and the changes in lifestyle habits which have followed, with more people working remotely and 24 | 26 August 2022 PT271p24-27 24

some people still being reluctant to travel on public transport”.

“All of this has severely reduced passenger numbers on all routes,” they added. “This loss of revenue has had a financial impact on the business and additional factors, such as the recent increase in fuel prices and the general rise in inflation, have only made that greater.”

The administrators added that the directors of the business, who had bought Yellow Buses from French Group RATP Dev in the

“The greatest beneficiary from the demise of Yellow Buses has been More Bus”

summer of 2019, had been seeking a buyer for some time. In October 2021 the company heralded a pre-tax profit of £591,000 for the year ending March 31, 2021, after a £2.7m loss in the previous 15-month period. Some commentators suggested at the time that the company’s enthusiastic press release “read less like something for a local paper and more like a sale prospectus”.

The greatest beneficiary from the demise of Yellow Buses has been More Bus Go-Ahead’s Poole-based bus operation.

It and its predecessor Wilts & Dorset had been a thorn in the side of Yellow Buses for many years. Parent company Go South Coast launched a mass recruitment event at a Bournemouth hotel on the morning of August www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 16:16

“Transdev and then RATP seem to have done okay out of the business until about 2014” 5. By that evening it had tempted over 100 Yellow Buses staff to join the local rival, buoyed by bounty payments of £3,000 for those willing to start work immediately. More Bus launched a replacement network on August 6 that utilised a fleet of vehicles drafted in from across the wider Go South Coast business.

Meanwhile, National Express has acquired the express coach and engineering operations of the business in a move that will save around 50 jobs. In a separate deal, Hampshirebased XelaBus has acquired the private hire and school contract operations of Yellow Coaches Ltd which had not been part of the administration process. XelaBus has also been awarded emergency contracts for three subsidised local bus services formerly operated by Yellow Buses for BCP Council, the unitary local authority for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole that came into being in 2019.

The collapse of Yellow Buses follows an eventful 18 years since the former municipal was privatised. Bournemouth Council had made the decision to sell the arms-length company in December 2004, with 90% of the business sold to Transdev a year later. It had followed a tortuous sale process that involved rival bids from Go-Ahead, which had acquired local competitor Wilts & Dorset in 2003, and local coach operator Excelsior as well as the French transport group. That process became even more Kafkaesque when Excelsior’s second attempt to buy the business was thwarted after the council discovered it had the backing of Go-Ahead, whose own bid for Yellow Buses had been unsuccessful the first time round.

The price Transdev paid was never revealed, but a councillor at the time said he was “particularly pleased to have secured such an excellent financial return”. Mirroring the spirit of cooperation that was a cornerstone of the Transdev bid, Bournemouth Council retained a 10% share in the business.

Derek Lott, a highly experienced and respected London bus manager, was parachuted in from Transdev’s London bus business to take charge at Yellow Buses. That summer saw a new network introduced, which only increased head-to-head competition with Go-Ahead-owned Wilts & Dorset on its recently revamped ‘More’ corridor between Poole and Bournemouth. A flotilla of refurbished low-floor buses was also cascaded www.passengertransport.co.uk

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in from Transdev’s London bus business to replace the elderly inherited fleet.

The following years saw mature competition emerge between Yellow Buses and Go-Aheadowned Wilts & Dorset, which rebranded its entire operation in the Poole-BournemouthChristchurch conurbation as More Bus in 2012. Ownership of Yellow Buses, which had also managed to pick up the Shire Operator of the Year Award at the 2009 UK Bus Awards, also passed from Transdev to RATP Dev in early 2011 as part of the fallout from the merger between Transdev and Veolia Transport which saw RATP acquiring certain Transdev operations in lieu of a cash payment.

The stability offered by French ownership saw Yellow Buses’ financial results improve.

After a disastrous £2.7m loss during the final year of full municipal ownership in 2005, losses narrowed to £376,000 in the first year of Transdev ownership before the business began making sustained profits from 2008 onwards.

A dividend was paid to the parent company in 2008 and then annually following the transfer to RATP Dev ownership between 2011 (with a £2.2m dividend) and 2015.

“Transdev and then RATP seem to have

done okay out of the business until about 2014,” industry analyst Chris Cheek told Passenger Transport. “Though I’m sure they’d have preferred the margins they were getting in 2009 and 2010… it then seemed to go south.”

Much of this may have been due to the sustained competition from More Bus. When the original More-branded routes were launched in late 2004 they included a link between Poole, Christchurch and Burton that was cut back to Boscombe before being extended once again several years ago to Southbourne, deep within what was traditional Yellow Buses ‘territory’.

Meanwhile, Andrew Smith, who had joined Yellow Buses in 2006 as finance director, was promoted to managing director in March 2014 after Derek Lott stepped back to take on an executive chairman role at the business before retiring later that year.

Then the problems for Yellow Buses really began. As margins continued to slip the business became barely profitable. Meanwhile, an ill-fated network relaunch, perhaps to counter the intense competition from More Bus, was introduced in January 2017.

David Squire (centre) with service delivery director Phil Pannell (left) and commercial director Simon Newport (right) after the trio purchased the business from RATP in July 2019

26 August 2022 | 25

24/08/2022 16:16

SPECIAL REPORT YELLOW BUSES

At the time the operator claimed the change was “the biggest transformation of its network in a decade” and introduced eight colourcoded lines - Bourne, Priory, Uni, Royal, Village, Coast, Dolphin and Heath - “to reflect its strong local connectivity and sense of community”.

Focussing on key hubs, including the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Bournemouth University, this network also offered new off-peak connections to destinations such as Mudeford, Verwood and Ringwood. The network was also renumbered to reflect these names, with each line denoted by the first letter of the name e.g. ‘R’ (for Royal) followed by the service number such as 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Passenger Transport understands that this network review was driven by senior RATP management based in France. One insider who was involved in the process revealed this micromanagement extended to the production of schedules and timetables, with these tasks being undertaken by Paris-based staff rather than those with intimate local knowledge of Bournemouth’s bus network.

All in all, the relaunched network was a disaster for the company. While winning plaudits from politicians in the local press, passengers appeared to vote with their feet.

The route names, while not an unreasonable idea, simply seemed to confuse them. But there were other issues too.

“Their core territory was between Bournemouth and Christchurch,” one local commentator told Passenger Transport. “For some strange reason, they decided to name it the ‘Priory Line’ when it was obvious the ‘Christchurch Line’ would have been far more self-explanatory.

“They also decided to route everything from Christchurch to Bournemouth via Bournemouth station. While a really noble idea, especially these days when all we do is talk about integration between modes - the station isn’t in the town centre, so it meant a 10-minute loop - and fighting some tricky traffic congestion - off the core route. It just turned passengers off. [More Bus] was the beneficiary of that decision.”

Smith suddenly left the business in October 2017 after the accounts were lodged with Companies House for the year ending December 31, 2016, revealing an operating profit of just £115,000. The following year’s 26 | 26 August 2022 PT271p24-27 26

accounts also revealed the scale of 2017’s problems - the company reported a substantial operating loss of £1.6m. Turnover fell by almost £3m to £19.9m on costs that were largely static.

RATP Dev brought in David Squire, another respected bus manager who had previous stints at the helm of Warrington Borough Transport and First Eastern Counties, but had latterly acted as commercial director for RATP Dev’s operations in the north west of England. Within months he announced a revised network that largely unpicked the changes introduced a year earlier. It restored through buses from Poole to Christchurch and withdrew unviable limited services to some outlying areas. “Put simply our message to passengers is: You’ve spoken and we’ve listened,” said Squire at the time.

But it was perhaps a case of too little too late. Accounts for December 31, 2018, reveal operating losses had ballooned to £2.8m as turnover fell once again to £19.4m. Costs had meanwhile increased to £22.1m. With More Bus increasingly having the upper hand on the contested corridors and nibbling its way into what was once considered Yellow Buses territory; it was a lonely time for Yellow Buses’ staff driving double deckers that were largely ferrying fresh air on the contested route between Bournemouth and Poole.

At this point, RATP Dev decided it wanted out. Around the start of 2018, the French group had already quietly acquired the 10% shareholding in the business that Bournemouth Council had retained, following the sale of the business to Transdev in late 2005. This cleared the way for a sale of the business in July 2019 to the management team of Squire, commercial director Simon Newport and service delivery director Phil Pannell. RATP Dev said the decision to sell followed a review of its UK operations which had led it to conclude that it should focus on its London bus operation and sightseeing and coach businesses in Bath, London and the

“It was a lonely time for Yellow Buses’ staff driving double deckers that were largely ferrying fresh air”

north west of England.

The sale agreement has never been made public, but in recent weeks there has been feverish speculation about the price the trio actually paid for the business. As one senior industry figure told Passenger Transport, it’s likely there were some serious incentives for the management team to take on control of the loss-making business. In doing so RATP Dev could avoid the reputational risk associated with simply pulling the plug.

But the new management owners faced some very significant headwinds.

In a fortuitous bit of timing just weeks before the first Covid-19 lockdown, the family owners of Fareham-based coach operator Lucketts sold their business to National Express. The company already operated a number of routes for the transport group’s express coach arm and the purchase provided www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 16:16

Yellow Buses staff, including then MD Andrew Smith (front centre), and local councillors launch the 2017 Yellow Buses network. A year later it was substantially revised

the impetus for National Express to transfer more routes on the south coast and across the wider West Country to its new subsidiary. This included Yellow Buses’ contract to operate the 035 coach service between Poole and London, one it had held for many, many years.

Attempts were made to plug this significant loss of revenue with a much smaller contract to operate Megabus routes and another to operate an open top sightseeing service in Bournemouth on behalf of Golden Tours.

Meanwhile, the management had also inherited some prohibitive pension liabilities when they purchased the business. Chief among these was the operator’s legacy participation in the Dorset County Pension Plan during its municipal days and prior to the formation of Bournemouth Transport Ltd in 1986. Not only was the company liable to pay an exit fee when it no longer had any active www.passengertransport.co.uk

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members within the scheme, but there was also a liability if the assets of the plan failed to cover its obligations. By the end of 2018, this liability had reached £6.1m.

Perhaps in a bid to slash this deficit, the freehold of the Yeomans Way bus depot was sold and then leased back on March 20, 2020 to an investment trust linked to The Honourable Charlotte Townshend, a major local landowner. Documents lodged with the Land Registry reveal Yellow Buses Holdings Ltd, the parent company created as part of the management buyout, received £5.5m for this transaction. Three days later prime minister Boris Johnson ordered the first national Covid-19 lockdown Yellow Buses accounts for the 15 months to March 31, 2020, reveal that £3m, likely to have come from the depot sale proceeds, was upstreamed to the pension plan to

slash the deficit in half. Bearing in mind the gap between the March 23 lockdown announcement and transport secretary Grant Shapps finally announcing the Covid-19 Bus Services Support Grant (CBSSG) for operators on April 3, we will never know if more of the depot proceeds were intended to plug the pension hole had Covid never happened.

But the sale and leaseback of the depot also came with on going financial commitments that would have only drained more cash from the business as it struggled to revive patronage with theloosening of Covid-19 lockdowns and amid a background of emergency funding streams being wound down. On bus patronage, a report by BCP Council to members as part of its plans for an Enhanced Partnership with local operators revealed that by September 2021 it remained stubbornly at between half and two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels.

Despite that glowing set of accounts for the year ending March 2021, it should be remembered that Yellow Buses had received government grants linked to Covid-19 totalling £1.7m during that year. As CBSSG morphed into the Bus Recovery Grant and with growing fears earlier in the summer about whether the government would actually provide any further funding, it is likely things came to a head for Yellow Buses at the end of July.

It is desperately sad. Passenger Transport has been told that when the administrators held a meeting for Yellow Buses staff on the morning after the closure the atmosphere was a heady mixture of anger and grief, like an extended family seeing one another for the last time.

It seems likely that Yellow Buses won’t be the last bus operator to fail, not unless the climate of patronage woes, rampant inflation, staffing issues and a society where more and more of us seem happier to work and entertain ourselves at home suddenly evaporates. Although the particular circumstances Yellow Buses found itself in made it far more vulnerable than many, it is ironic that the Poole-BournemouthChristchurch conurbation not that long ago recorded some of the highest bus patronage increases in the country.

After failing to capture Yellow Buses in 2005, Go-Ahead has finally succeeded in creating the unified network across Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch it envisaged as part of its pitch to buy the business.

Yellow Buses is dead; long live More Bus. 26 August 2022 | 27

24/08/2022 16:16

COMMENT

GREAT MINSTER GRUMBLES

A Minister for Whitehall Reform?

Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the DfT

Well, it looks as if Liz Truss, should she become our next prime minister, has committed herself to proceeding with Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, thus reversing Boris Johnson’s decisions to cut back on these proposals as set out in the Integrated Rail Plan. Mind you, the frontrunner in the race for No. 10 was on the campaign trail in Leeds when she made her commitment, so she was unlikely to say much else. So I wonder how solid this commitment really is.

It feels to me that Truss is backing herself into a corner by committing to an immediate £30bn worth of tax cuts while at the same time also committing to no public spending cuts. She has said that she would pay for these tax cuts through a combination of efficiency savings, borrowing and by paying back the Covid debt over a much longer period of time. But she has also committed to an emergency budget and spending review, and as I see it, spending reviews tend to lead to spending cuts. There are surely going to be some losers in this review.

And it looks like a sizeable chunk of this pain could be directed at Whitehall! There is much talk of Truss reforming the Treasury, even breaking it up into separate finance and economic ministries, of No.10 taking on greater control of economic policy, and of declaring war on “Whitehall waste”. Diversity and inclusion officers will be axed left, right and centre. Of course, it’s not unusual for wannabe prime ministers to talk tough about reforming Whitehall, accusing civil servants 28 | 26 August 2022 PT271p28-29 28

of blocking reform or dragging their collective feet in pushing through change. We’ve been accused of actively and collectively seeking to block and frustrate Brexit.

All prime ministers, indeed most ministers, quickly come to recognise that we aren’t all the bad apples we are often portrayed as.

They rapidly realise that without us they can’t actually do their jobs. And the old adage that “civil servants advise and ministers decide” holds good. I’m personally of the view that a reform of Whitehall is not necessarily a bad thing. But it has to be genuine reform in the way it operates, not some cosmetic change by, for example, merging the odd department or changing its name. History shows that these cosmetic changes have little,

if any, impact not least because the policies themselves don’t change. But they can be expensive and disruptive and sometimes even positively harmful, as the creation of the mega Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when Labour came to power in 1997 showed. It was abolished and split up just four years later - an expensive failure.

Does Whitehall need reforming? Quite possibly. Are there too many civil servants doing pointless jobs or duplicating the work of others? Probably. I recall being taken aback when our former HS2 minister, Andrew Stephenson, answered a parliamentary question saying there were 1,001 civil servants in the railways directorate (presumably including those working on HS2), to give just one example. Given our commitment to devolution should we reassess whether we need a large division dealing with local transport and bus issues when, as buses minister Baroness Vere herself told the Transport Select Committee, decisions on what constitutes a viable bus network and which bus services should be funded are matters for local authorities. Of course, as we provide central government funding, some degree of Whitehall oversight is required, but I wonder if the degree of oversight is too much. We want devolution, but we can’t give up control.

If Truss really is the reforming prime minister she claims to be, then I must confess to rather looking forward to it! There is nothing better than a good old punch up between those who support the status quo and those who have a reforming zeal and want to push through change. In most cases change tends to be modest, implemented over a long period of time, or often simply runs out of steam as prime ministers get bogged down by the weight of office and the sheer volume of issues in their ministerial red boxes.

So if I was the incoming prime minister with a reforming zeal determined to challenge Whitehall orthodoxy I would appoint a secretary of state, or at least a senior minister in the Cabinet Office, with a specific title of ‘Minister for Whitehall Reform’. And this minister should not be advised by civil servants, but by outside constitutional and other experts with no axes to grind. And the success of this minister should be directly assessed against his or her ability to push through genuine reform. Not tinkering at the www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:05

“I sense this is a bad policy and will actually create more problems than it solves” margins, but real reform. Liz, you or your team can get hold of me via the Editor!

Meanwhile, our secretary of state, Grant Shapps, looks like he is keen to set some kind of legacy for his time here in Great Minster House, and he must be assuming that he will be moved on in the cabinet reshuffle that will follow the appointment of our new PM. He’s made a couple of eye-catching announcements these past few days. First, he’s announced that from October all bus fares will be capped at £2 for six months. I understand the politics of this given the cost-of-living crisis and all that, but I wonder if it makes much sense because it’s going to be mighty hard to withdraw it once people have got used to only paying £2 for a bus journey. The backlash that will surely come when or if it is withdrawn will make life rather difficult for the new secretary of state, whoever that might be. I wonder what the “exit strategy” will be. Indeed, I wonder if there is any business case for this intervention or whether it has been announced simply because it makes for good headlines. And where is the money to support this coming from? Is it genuinely new money or is it being diverted from some other

www.passengertransport.co.uk

PT271p28-29 29

budget somewhere? The more I think about it the more I sense this is a bad policy and will actually create more problems than it solves.

Still, with the department having last week that it was throwing yet another lifeline to the bus operators with another £130m extension to the Bus Recovery Grant, at least there will still be some buses in service for people to enjoy the £2 fare! Mind you, we are making it clear to operators that we want them to invest in the sector “for a long time to come”. Quite how they will be able to do that if patronage remains depressed is beyond me. And it’s a final nail in the coffin for the deregulated bus market.

Then Shapps announced that he would like to see a consultation on plans to make cyclists take out insurance and have number plates, with ministers reported to believe it’s time that cyclists abide by the same rules of the road as everybody else. It’s been considered before, of course, but rejected as impractical, but I have to say that this is one transport policy I would fully support. Cyclists can break the speed limit but currently aren’t breaking the law when they do - but with so many local roads now subject to 20mph speed limits most cyclists can, and do,

break the speed limit. And I am sure you have all seen cyclists ignore red traffic lights with blatant disregard for other people’s safety. I’m sure the cycling community will be up in arms about all of this but for my money it’s high time cyclists were made to abide by the same rules of the road as everybody else - or get punished when they don’t. Today, too many cyclists seem to think that the rules of the road don’t, or shouldn’t apply to them. Nice one, Grant, although whether your successor pursues this idea remains to be seen!

When I sit down to write my next column we will be just three days away from the announcement on who has won the Conservative Party’s leadership contest, although right now it’s looking like a foregone conclusion. I have previously said that I rather hoped Grant Shapps would be replaced by Kemi Badenoch but the word on the street seems to be that she is being marked out as the next education secretary, which would be quite a promotion for her. So I wonder who we will end up with. Let’s just hope that whoever it is has a vague interest in transport! I’m not holding my breath!

26 August 2022 | 29

24/08/2022 17:05

CAREERS

CALL NOW TO ADVERTISE 020 3950 8000 or email sales@passengertransport.co.uk

Watson to quit Stagecoach Stagecoach South West boss confirms plans to move on after over a decade with group Stagecoach South West managing director Mike Watson has confirmed plans to stand down in January 2023 after 11 years in various roles across the wider group.

Watson has more than 25 years’ experience in the bus sector with several major public transport companies. He was appointed to lead the south-west business on an interim basis in December 2019 and then confirmed as managing director in February 2020 just before the start of the pandemic.

Since then Watson has been responsible for a team of over 1,000 employees and over 300 vehicles. He will continue to lead the south-west business over the next six months while a process to appoint a successor is completed and will work with the successful candidate to ensure a smooth transition.

“This is a really special part of the country and I’ve felt very privileged to have Mike Watson

30 | 26 August 2022 PT271p30-31 30

had the opportunity to be so closely involved in delivering vital bus services for our local communities,” he said.

“The past few years of the pandemic have been very tough for everyone, and I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with such a committed team of passionate and professional people. Delivering high quality public transport is a real partnership, and I would also like to thank our local authority partners and other stakeholders across the region for their support during my time as managing director.

“I will be sad to leave my amazing team at Stagecoach, but it’s now time for me to go and explore new opportunities elsewhere. I will use the last few months of my time here to complete delivery of our recovery plans that will leave our company in a much stronger position as we look to return service performance back to our previous high standards.”

Watson began his career in 1996 in the service planning department at London Transport Buses before moving into contracts and tendering. He then had roles within Go Ahead and Arriva before joining Stagecoach as operations director at the North East business in 2011. He was then managing director in a variety of Stagecoach companies, before a stint as a regional director and also as part of Stagecoach’s business development team.

APPOINTMENTS EUROSTAR Eurostar Group has announced the appointment of Gwendoline Cazenave as chief executive. She succeeds Jacques Damas who took on the role in May following the merger of international rail operators Eurostar and Thalys to create Eurostar Group.

Cazenave (pictured) has 20 years’ experience in rail transport.

For the last two years she has been a partner of consultancy Oliver Wyman, working on the French and European transport and services markets, with a focus on strategy and transformation in the rail sector.

Prior to this, she was an executive at SNCF, holding a range of high-level posts including director of TGV Atlantique, the high-speed route operating in the south west of France, director of finance, strategy and legal affairs at SNCF Voyages and a variety of strategic and operational roles within SNCF’s regional transport arm, TER. Cazenave will take on the role of CEO from October 1.

WELSH GOVERNMENT Julie James, the Welsh minister for climate change, has announced the re-appointment of Dr Dafydd Trystan-Davies as chair of the Active Travel Board.

Trystan-Davies (pictured) was initially appointed as the independent Active Travel Board chair in September 2020. He will continue his work in leading the board in its role of advising and supporting Welsh Ministers in relation to increasing walking and cycling in Wales.

FIRSTGROUP FirstGroup has announced the appointment of a new partnerships manager at its bus division.

Catherine De Marco (pictured) joins bringing a wealth of transport industry knowledge and experience following a 17-year career at the Department for Transport.

De Marco held a range of roles at the DfT including local transport, skills and innovation and more recently within rail passenger experience.

She will now join the business as part of Isabel McAllister’s sustainability and compliance team, and will work closely with First’s operating companies.

First says the new appointment “comes at a crucial time for the bus sector when strong partnerships with our local and national stakeholders have never been more important”.

“First Bus is keen to benefit from Catherine’s insight and expertise,” a spokesperson added.

IRIZAR Spanish bus and coach builder Irizar UK has announced the appointment of William Kay into the new role of customer experience manager at its UK operation.

The newly created role will cover not only the traditional aftersales element of customer support, but also dove-tail into the sales process to provide customer continuity from the point of order and throughout ownership.

Kay (pictured) was most recently with Volkswagen Group, and also has experience with both BMW and McLaren.

www.passengertransport.co.uk

24/08/2022 17:07

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DIVERSIONS

Underground LEGO needs your support!

Gloucester Road station inspires enthusiast We are firm fans of anything LEGO here at Passenger Transport and so we were mightily impressed with the work of one 15-year old LEGO enthusiast who has designed a replica London Underground station, complete with train and working escalators.

“With my recent trip to London, I was able to see plenty of beautiful architecture and history I was never able to see before,” said the designer. “This build is heavily

Modern Major (London) General

FRIENDS WITH (BUS) BENEFITS

Rail strikes have been inflicting misery on many weary travellers this summer, non more so than the participants in the Gilbert & Sullivan Festival at

inspired by Gloucester Road.”

The design has 3,000 LEGO bricks, and alongside the working escalator, the replica of the S-Stock train has doors that slide open.

“The tickets and their scanners

are completely accurate to real life,” adds the designer. “I made two separate cards (one for tourists and one for residents) to be more realistic. The ticket machine is also accurate with a realistic screen and a working card slot.”

And this amazing model Underground station could actually become a LEGO kit, but only if it manages to secure enough votes on the LEGO Ideas website. LEGO Ideas allows users to submit ideas for potential sets which they think could be offered for sale.

You can vote to support the astonishing idea, and see the amazing detail of the design, by visiting bit.ly/3AjNEtV.

Harrogate’s Royal Hall.

Luckily for the organisers they had an ace (or bus) up their sleeve in festival participant Peter Crichton, preserved Routemaster owner and founder of software supplier Omnibus.

He takes up the story: “We thought of the silly idea that we could solve the problem of the rail strike and getting to Harrogate for the show by bringing them by bus!

“Neil Smith, who along with the rest of his family organise the Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, asked it they could have the bus and

use it to promote the festival by putting a banner on it outside the Royal Hall. I suggested we have a full set of adverts and thanks to Paul at Reflex, we sent the artwork to them two weeks ago and within five days I got a full set of vinyls.

“Then the fun started and last Wednesday I learnt a new skill and not one I would want to do too often, putting the vinyls on the bus, we got there in the end and, if you look closely in the words of Eric Morecambe, you can see the join!”

Slice of London

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EXPIRY DATE

IT’S A VERY GOOD NEWS DAY Remember those innocent, halcyon days of 2018? When inflation was just 2.68%, when we hadn’t heard of Covid and Boris Johnson was just a simple cabinet minister. Oh yes, and Crossrail was supposed to have opened.

Well we know what happened next - it turned out the project was actually running very much behind schedule. As proposed opening dates came and went, we learnt the Elizabeth line will fully open in November.

And amidst the doom and gloom of things at the moment, freebie London newspaper CityAM really knew how to splash the good news.

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