Commercial services which became council supported

[Martin1988]

I'd be interested to find out about services which were being run commercially, subsequently withdrawn by the operator and then ended up being retained through council funding.

I know that this happened with the 20/520 and 51 routes in Bristol and the X27 and 482/483 routes in Yate but does anyone know of any others?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'd be interested to find out about services which were being run commercially, subsequently withdrawn by the operator and then ended up being retained through council funding.

I know that this happened with the 20/520 and 51 routes in Bristol and the X27 and 482/483 routes in Yate but does anyone know of any others?

Sure there's plenty out there. Think of town services in most smaller towns and they were commercial once and are now supported. Even in Weston, some of the services operated by Crosville were once First commercial routes.

Two specific examples off the top of my head - 184 Radstock to Frome and 4 City to Bathampton (now 12)

 

[northwichcat]

In Cheshire East there's been a few services which switched between being subsided and being commercially operated.

The 27 Knutsford to Macclesfield service was a contracted service. At the end of a contract the operator decided to try and run it commercially with a reduced frequency and increased fares. However, their attempt wasn't a success and they gave 56 days notice that they would withdraw it. The council started the process of awarding an emergency contract but Vale Travel (GHA Coaches) decided to register the service commercially. When GHA Coaches went in to administration, High Peak agreed with the council that they would run Mon-Fri services only on a temporary commercial basis, with the council awarding an emergency contract for Saturday services. It is now a Mon-Sat contracted service.

The 300 Knutsford town daytime service used to be a commercial service operated by Arriva but they decided to cancel the service. It finished up going out-to-tender and was awarded to Bowers (who became High Peak after a merger.) High Peak decided to continue running the service commercially after the contract ended until GHA took over the 27 service (see above), at which point D&G Bus took over the services on a commercial basis to the same timetable and fares. (Julian Peddle is a director of both D&G Bus and Centrebus who own 50% of High Peak so I imagine some information was shared between the operators.) D&G decided the Saturday daytime services weren't profitable so they finished up being contracted again, with weekday daytime services remaining commercial.

What is now the 99 service between Congleton and Macclesfield suffered a similar fate to the 27 service. High Peak ran the service commercially, decided to withdraw with GHA taking over the service commercially. Then when they went out of a business an emergency contract was awarded to Arriva with D&G Bus getting the long term contract when the emergency one ended.

The 130 Macclesfield to Manchester Su and BH service was contracted. When the contract (which GHA held) came to an end, the replacement contract was awarded to D&G Bus. However, GHA decided to keep running a reduced service on a commercial basis rather than let a competitor run the route. (Which led to the council contract being annulled.) When GHA collapsed an emergency contract was awarded to Stagecoach Manchester, with the service now under contract to Arriva.

Just outside Cheshire East Arriva decided the Altrincham-Manchester Airport section of one of their routes was not making a profit so they planned to withdraw it. It was kept going due to an emergency arrangement with TfGM until they put the service out to tender properly and awarded a contract to run a separate service between Altrincham and Manchester Airport to Manchester Community Transport.

 

[Robertj21a]

I'd be interested to find out about services which were being run commercially, subsequently withdrawn by the operator and then ended up being retained through council funding.

I know that this happened with the 20/520 and 51 routes in Bristol and the X27 and 482/483 routes in Yate but does anyone know of any others?

There must be hundreds all over the country.

 

[SCH117X]

An annoying one is the 770 between Harrogate and Wetherby (continuing to Leeds) . This was commercially operated, up to half hourly, then along came competition between Harrogate and Wetherby by Harrogate Coach Travel running direct along the A661 rather than the village route taken by the 770. The result is that the village route is now funded by NYCC on a hourly frequency and curtailed evening workings.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There must be hundreds all over the country.

Exactly - you may as well say "there's a bent bus stop flag near my house - are there any others round the country"?

Every small town that had local town bus services has probably seen them migrate to tendered. As you say, hundreds

 

[Busaholic]

I'd be interested to find out about services which were being run commercially, subsequently withdrawn by the operator and then ended up being retained through council funding.

I know that this happened with the 20/520 and 51 routes in Bristol and the X27 and 482/483 routes in Yate but does anyone know of any others?

As others have said, hundreds, would still be dozens if you went on to say 'and have now lost their council funding, and hence withdrawn once again'. This latter group will increase by the month, unfortunately, and may in the end be almost as many as those hundreds. The Bus Bill is a figleaf pretending to be a blanket, the reality is that the number of bus routes in England has halved over a period and won't be increasing anytime soon.

 

[175mph]

Most local routes here in Scunthorpe that are run by Stagecoach.

When they took over RoadCar, many of the routes suddenly became 'commercially unviable' and withdrawn but later reinstated with council backing, but the route numbers placed higher up, for example route 7 became route 37.

Why would the numbers be placed higher up after being reinstated with council backing?

 

[TheWalrus]

In Swindon service 53 becomes council funded on 2nd April and service 70 became service 80 and council supported in June 2015.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

There was, until March '08, the 61A which ran from Huddersfield to Buxton (the section between Huddersfield and Holmfirth was timetabled as a 310 but the number was shown as 61A on the front) which was withdrawn only to be reinstated in summer '09 as a 951 and thus being tendered by, as it were then WYPTE, now WYCA.

I do believe that the 10 Leeds to Temple Newsam is subsidised by WYCA which in turn replaced the commercial 63/63A, but I could be wrong (there was until 2011 / 2012 a service 950 that ran from Leeds to Lotherton Hall via Temple Newsam, this was later withdrawn completley as it was apparently under used).