North West Coachlines (new company)

[northwichcat]

A website has appeared for a new company called North West Coachlines: http://www.northwestcoachlines.com/

The company North West Coachlines Limited was registered this year to an address in Waterloo, Liverpool and has two directors, one of whom is Stephen Elms. Some people on here may remember a company called Gorilla Bus which tried to run Intercity coach travel but didn't succeed, of which Stephen Elms was behind and had a registered office in Waterloo, Liverpool who wet leased coaches off other operators.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thank you for this confirmation, as a contact had telephoned me earlier today about a new Steve Elms-involved project.

Perhaps he may decide to come onto the RailUK website once again, as he did before, in the days of the Gorilla Bus project...or maybe not.

 

[deltic1989]

Hmm, looks like one to keep an eye on.
I'm inclined to give Mr Elms the benefit of the doubt, maybe something will come of this venture. If they manage to get a vehicle on the road they will have done more than Gorilla Bus, from what I have read.
That being said the website looks like it has been created using one of these free website type operations, and the photograph looks like a copy paste job from Google.
Like I say benefit if the doubt but I won't hold my breath.

 

[theblackwatch]

Phew, at first I thought it might be one of Nathan Hudson's creations (Xcite Travel, Rainbow Horizons, Prestige Rail Services, Dash Travel, Ellan Vannin Airways, Prestige Office Solutions).

 

[gazthomas]

Fantasy coach land. Best keep to the pretend timetables and cycle around town kids.

 

[Shrimper]

Wonder if he's asked Northwest Airlines (well, Delta now) if he can use their logo?

 

[starrymarkb]

Well that might prove one way to end up knee deep in lawyers. Someone should drop Delta an Email

 

[deltic1989]

Wonder if he's asked Northwest Airlines (well, Delta now) if he can use their logo?

I thought the logo looked familiar. Now this is starting to emit an aroma similar to that of Grimsby.

 

[northwichcat]

It looks like they are doing Christmas shopping trips from Liverpool and Coach hire: http://www.northwestcoachlines.com/

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I see that you can view their operator licence on their website. Perhaps they are only running certain coach services to specific events.

Who can ever forget those halcyon past days when Steve Elms appeared regularly upon this website when the "Gorillabus" fiasco was in full swing...

 

[WatcherZero]

Looks like a few months on perhaps there were issues with the logo, its now totally different.

 

[Whistler40145]

I just hope it's not going to be another outfit in the mould of Classic Bus Northwest/Oakwood Travel. I will reserve my judgment until we see proof of their operations!

 

[Greenback]

What happened with Gorillabus in the end? Can anyone refresh my failing memory?

 

[northwichcat]

What happened with Gorillabus in the end? Can anyone refresh my failing memory?

They advertised services and had a website allowing booking (payment by PayPal.) According to Steve Elms every service which someone had booked tickets for operated using wet leased coaches, although some were operated using 16 seater mini coaches.

Around 3 months later they started revising routes so Airports were more of a focus - Manchester Airport and East Midlands Airport got added as destinations, while Birmingham got removed. Soon after that the website disappeared and a holding page appeared saying they aren't currently operating any services.

What some people were suspicious of is the head office address was not somewhere where it would be possible to store coaches. Also as a number of services didn't operate due to no bookings some people were suspicious of whether a service would operate if they made a booking.

 

[radamfi]

Did anyone actually book with Gorillabus and get transportation?

 

[Whistler40145]

Excuse my ignorance, what's a "Wet lease Bus"?

 

[Greenback]

They advertised services and had a website allowing booking (payment by PayPal.) According to Steve Elms every service which someone had booked tickets for operated using wet leased coaches, although some were operated using 16 seater mini coaches.

Around 3 months later they started revising routes so Airports were more of a focus - Manchester Airport and East Midlands Airport got added as destinations, while Birmingham got removed. Soon after that the website disappeared and a holding page appeared saying they are currently operating any services.

What some people were suspicious of is the head office address was not somewhere where it would be possible to store coaches. Also as a number of services didn't operate due to no bookings some people were suspicious of whether a service would operate if they made a booking.

I remember them stating they weren't running services, I wondered if there had been any developments since. Did they actually become insolvent, for instance? Or did they just disappear?

Did anyone actually book with Gorillabus and get transportation?

That's another good question! Steve Elms used to be very active on the web promoting and defending the concept from the sceptics who appear to have been right all along!

 

[northwichcat]

Excuse my ignorance, what's a "Wet lease Bus"?

It means Steve Elms drew up a timetable and paid a coach operator to run that service, rather than getting his own coaches and drivers.

It's common practice for airlines to do that e.g. Virgin Atlantic operate a Manchester-Heathrow route but the service is provided by Aer Lingus on behalf of Virgin Atlantic. However, less common with coach companies.

I remember them stating they weren't running services, I wondered if there had been any developments since. Did they actually become insolvent, for instance? Or did they just disappear?

It looks like a name change was made to North Western Road Car Company Limited and then it was dissolved: http://companycheck.co.uk/company/07668133/NORTH-WESTERN-ROAD-CAR-COMPANY-LTD/company-summary

 

[starrymarkb]

It means Steve Elms drew up a timetable and paid a coach operator to run that service, rather than getting his own coaches and drivers.

It's common practice for airlines to do that e.g. Virgin Atlantic operate a Manchester-Heathrow route but the service is provided by Aer Lingus on behalf of Virgin Atlantic. However, less common with coach companies.

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It's similar to how National Express and to a lesser extent Megabus work. But while both of these have coaches in their respective liveries and drivers in their respective uniforms, Gorilla just hired coaches on an Ad Hoc basis.

Rather then Virgin I'd compare more with the likes of Norwegian who with their dire 787 reliability are Wet Leasing from HiFly or other companies on an ad hoc basis* when a 787 goes bang. Aircraft and crew are from HiFly (with a couple of Norwegian staff on board for on board service but with no safety role as it's not their aircraft.)

*Boeing is picking up the bill as Norwegian have their 787s on an IEP style "xx aircraft available for service" style contract with all MRO operations being done by Boeing as part of the monthly payments

 

[northwichcat]

It's similar to how National Express and to a lesser extent Megabus work. But while both of these have coaches in their respective liveries and drivers in their respective uniforms, Gorilla just hired coaches on an Ad Hoc basis.

I thought with National Express local coach operators are seen as National Express franchisees, rather than just having a contract to operate National Express services.

Rather then Virgin I'd compare more with the likes of Norwegian who with their dire 787 reliability are Wet Leasing from HiFly or other companies on an ad hoc basis* when a 787 goes bang. Aircraft and crew are from HiFly (with a couple of Norwegian staff on board for on board service but with no safety role as it's not their aircraft.)

I experienced something similar with a Jet2 flight years ago. The service was operated by a Futura plane and crew but there was a man on board in a Jet2 uniform who introduced himself as the Jet2 representative and explained that the flight was being operated by Futura on behalf of Jet2.

 

[embers25]

It's similar to how National Express and to a lesser extent Megabus work. But while both of these have coaches in their respective liveries and drivers in their respective uniforms, Gorilla just hired coaches on an Ad Hoc basis.

Rather then Virgin I'd compare more with the likes of Norwegian who with their dire 787 reliability are Wet Leasing from HiFly or other companies on an ad hoc basis* when a 787 goes bang. Aircraft and crew are from HiFly (with a couple of Norwegian staff on board for on board service but with no safety role as it's not their aircraft.)

*Boeing is picking up the bill as Norwegian have their 787s on an IEP style "xx aircraft available for service" style contract with all MRO operations being done by Boeing as part of the monthly payments

So what do Norwegian/HiFly run instead of their 787 when it goes bang?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It looks like a name change was made to North Western Road Car Company Limited and then it was dissolved: http://companycheck.co.uk/company/07668133/NORTH-WESTERN-ROAD-CAR-COMPANY-LTD/company-summary

I wonder if Steve Elms was inspired to choose such an iconic name as that one, with its historical transport connotations, by noting that the name of Yelloway Travel Limited had been similarly brought back into use by another coach company?

 

[AndyW33]

So what do Norwegian/HiFly run instead of their 787 when it goes bang?

Norwegian are the ones with 787s. When they go bang (or more usually develop fault warning lights that are no-gos, which after several hours work turn out to be a fault in the warning light circuit, not the equipment it is protecting) Hi-Fly appear usually with an Airbus 340. They've also used EuroAtlantic Boeing 767s and 777s. These are airlines that specialise in wet-leasing, like the UK operator Titan.

Getting back to buses, the 787 does remind me of the early years of the Leyland National:
Driver to depot: There's a warning light showing and the bus won't start
Depot to driver: Walk round the bus and kick the side panels
Driver to depot: Gone out now and it has started
depot to driver: That's the safety interlock to stop buses being moved while fitters are underneath them, works loose after about 100 miles. We prefer putting a Do Not Move sign on the steering wheel. That never goes wrong.