26 | COACH & BUS WEEK | November 21, 2012
OpErAtOr prOfilE › high peak buses
allow Transpeak passengers to use trent barton’s frequent Red Arrow service between Derby and Nottingham. “It’s been agreed in principle,” he said.
Becoming domesticated
Another development put in place with Transpeak was its alteration from one through service to four separate registrations (TP1 to TP4). From a passenger’s point of view nothing is different; they stay on board the same vehicle and purchase one ticket. But in altering the scope of Transpeak’s drivers’ regulations from EU to domestic hours, the change has brought efficiencies to the business. “It gives a lot more flexibility with drivers,” explained David. “It also takes away a lot of the administration work to do with tachographs and maintenance of the units. Once you’ve driven on EU hours you can’t go back to domestic, of course. It gives us the flexibility of being able to utilise drivers better, and cuts down on administration.” This transition towards running the operation entirely under the less restrictive hours regulations has presented an opportunity to inter-work driving duties between Transpeak and Skyline. “There was a little bit of resistance to that in the first place,” David said. “Now they might do trip on Transpeak and then an airport and back [on Skyline], which is three hours. That creates a nice duty.” One further innovation has been trialled on Transpeak during the summer, the allocation of a doubledecker to one of the service’s workings. “As a rule the terrain in this area doesn’t suit them,” he continued. “There are overhanging trees, low bridges, that sort of thing. However the 0950 service from Derby to Manchester was duplicated during summer months as there was a lot of tourist trade on that journey. “So we brought in a doubledecker to run it instead of allocating a duplicate. That’s what it came for and it stays on that working. Now summer has gone we probably won’t need it, so we’ll have to make a decision as to whether it stays year-round or not.” The excellent vantage point provided by the East Lancsbodied Scania N94’s upper deck when passing through such an area of natural beauty as the Peak District was an unintended www.coachandbusweek.com
HighPeak.indd 26
Above: Skyline is operated with Wright Solar-bodied Scania L94s. Below: Transpeak drivers’ regulations have changed from EU to domestic hours
A new maintenance pit at Dove Holes garage consequence, but proved popular amongst travellers. Nevertheless, a move towards entirely doubledecking the service is not under consideration.
Derby outstation
Wellglade’s low-cost Notts & Derby subsidiary assists the Transpeak operation. “We have four drivers based in Derby, staff who worked for trent barton and transferred
to us. They sign on with Notts & Derby. Should we need it, defects there are handled by trent barton’s engineering department. We have a good relationship.” Holiday cover is provided by a handful of Notts & Derby’s own staff. Four buses are also operated under subcontract to Notts & Derby on work carrying students to Derby University’s Buxton campus. Low mileage vehicles, these are Volvo B10Bs carrying Notts & Derby’s livery, although they belong to High Peak Buses. “They’re great,” David enthused. “Very, very reliable. They’re a good, heavy bus and do the job they need to do.”
Cheshire work
The heart of High Peak’s network is its local services within north Derbyshire. These include Buxton town work and a pair of routes from the town to Ashbourne. Glossop, New Mills and Marple are also well served by the routes and buses which came with the Bowers purchase five years ago. Perhaps an equally interesting part of the operator’s portfolio is its growing presence in Cheshire.
“Most of that work was tendered, but now we’ve registered it commercially,” explained David. “We see that as the way forward.” Three Cheshire East Councilowned VDL SB120s which were employed on these duties have been handed back and replaced by High Peak’s own Optare Solos. “We scaled back some of the routes there to take a bit of the cost out, to make them profitable in a commercial sense,” he continued. “I wouldn’t say we’re specifically targeting Cheshire, but we’re certainly not looking to wind down what we’re doing there. If more opportunities came up we’d definitely pursue them.” Buses run across from Derbyshire to Cheshire via the famous Cat & Fiddle, a colloquial name for the exposed A537 between Buxton and Macclesfield. They go either ‘dead’ or as positioning journeys on service 58, which observes a largely hourly timetable during the day. This can pose a problem during winter as following snowfall it is not uncommon for the road to be blocked for sometimes days at a time. “Every operator in this part of the country suffers from the same problems,” David explained. “If the Cat & Fiddle is closed we have to send buses the long way round to Cheshire.” And “long way round” means exactly that; instead of their normal 12-mile journey over the hills buses are diverted via Greater Manchester. “The only other option would be to not run there for the full day.” Regardless of the determination to operate come what may, very occasionally exceptional weather may mean only one course of action is viable. “The past winter was difficult at times, and there were a couple of instances when we had to ground buses,” he recalled. “When you work in an area like this it’s a case of striking a balance. You don’t want to let your passengers down, but at the same time you’ve got to think of their safety and that of your staff,” David said. But in a part of the world where customers and employees alike are largely of the hardy type, such a measure is rare in the extreme. David summed up: “As someone said to me recently, the three most important parts of running a bus service are reliability, reliability and reliability. And we really focus on that.”
19/11/2012 14:18