Stagecoach North West Discussion

[themaster985]

For those who want to read through 86 pages, the full report is here
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2009/fulltext/551.pdf

Much of the early part relates to what has been going on since the "bus war" started. The conclusions start in section 10. Basically it says Preston Bus has to brought back to the same firm that was in business before Stagecoach took them over.

I know for a fact this will mean recruiting quite a few staff as there is only one PB inspector that stayed on and about 90% of the office staff at Deepdale Road all finished or were made redundant. I dare say that they will need a good few drivers as well. It will be interesting to see what happens to those drivers that decided to move across from Deepdale Road to Selbourne Street during the period of Stagecoach ownership. Will they have to return? Interesting times ahead.

 

[cainebj]

with it not going through, its totally messed everything up for bus services in Preston! when the routes were merged, most were kept under Ribble Motor Services, so the Preston Bus routes were cancelled. buses were moved from Preston Bus to Ribble Motor Services to run the routes.
effectively, there is Stagecoach routes with no buses and Preston Bus buses with no routes.
if Preston Bus does manage to be purchased by another company, it'll just end up in the same bus wars and all of this will just repeat!
so, lots of step entrance vehicles in Preston now then? seeing as 14 solo's moved on! resulting in a potential big order in Preston again, causing more competition with other operators cos Stagecoach will have nice brand new buses?

Vario on Harrington & Seaton.
16447 on 300.
20757 and CE's 20959 on 600.
16338 on Brampton 685 with a broken bright tech. it was on "School Services" and everytime they tried to put it onto "Brampton 685", it just added and removed random blocks. in the end, an inspector got the full length 685 destination board and covered up "Newcastle".
20966 was on 66, and then went onto 93.
20943 was on 93 this morning.

Scotland's 33077 on 382.

14202/5, 33076, a B10M, a Citi dart, 34711 and 34695 in workshop areas. 16338 was in there, but was took to bus station by a fitter.
Scotlands Plaxton Profile SF09 ACZ in the big shed, later went on X75.
spotted 42025 hiding in the shed.
42090/4 and 42545 in back corner of depot.
a rubbed down B10M (presumably 20219. it had DP seats and a bright tech display) also in back corner.

 

[jonesy3001]

They started painting most of the newer preston bus vehicles then got told to stop repainting them until this inquiry has ended. Now they will have to go back to deepdale depot in stagecoach livery and confusing the public of preston and changing the bus station back to what it was.

 

[Dave The Bus]

They are VR`S they kept that part quiet.

Shhh... why do you think they got 15xxx series numbers....

 

[andy 37]

I will have a look tomorrow or thursday, 16657 is moving into the paint shop this week

16874 has Cumberland Moter services on with Stagecoach in Cumbria on the sides. I was told it is to stay at Carlisle.

 

[jonesy3001]

16874 has Cumberland Moter services on with Stagecoach in Cumbria on the sides. I was told it is to stay at Carlisle.

16877 is in garage for repaint prep and seats to be retrimmed , i wonder what is happening to/or replacing 16664 and 16665 then?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Shhh... why do you think they got 15xxx series numbers....

I`ve always said that they are a newer build VR when they started appearing in manchester.

 

[infobus]

47007 is being collected from Preston tomorrow, have been told that as well as 40028 going to Barrow two of the 814's are being replaced by the 3 Solos that will have come from Preston and are going into reserve.
Also 16714 is coming to Lillyhall to replace 14234

 

[cainebj]

47007 is being collected from Preston tomorrow, have been told that as well as 40028 going to Barrow two of the 814's are being replaced by the 3 Solos that will have come from Preston and are going into reserve.

can only be a good thing i suppose! theres only 42566 out of the 4 Vario's that is any decent!

Also 16714 is coming to Lillyhall to replace 14234

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! another knackered awful Volvo Olympian to replace a lovely Leyland Olympian! why can't we have one of the nicer Volvo Olympian's Preston have haha (N3xxNPN batch springs to mind!)

 

[driver9000]

Stagecoach selling Preston Bus could be beneficial, maybe not in the short term with the older buses coming back from store (presumably to their old stamping grounds). A large group such as Transdev despite having not been interested during the 'wars' will now be able to pick up a bargain and with a bit of good managment, affordable fares and a good well designed network potentially make it work better than PB which didnt really do itself any favours with limited routings and a perverse bedtime of midnight - no later departures from the bus station than 23:00. Stagecoach may have been putting on a good show but if the CC had gone in favour of them the usual rot would have set in before long with fares increasing and services being cut and tweaked to the detriment of the passengers particularly those in the outlying areas.

 

[rosswatson]

For those who want to read through 86 pages, the full report is here
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2009/fulltext/551.pdf

Much of the early part relates to what has been going on since the "bus war" started. The conclusions start in section 10. Basically it says Preston Bus has to brought back to the same firm that was in business before Stagecoach took them over.

I know for a fact this will mean recruiting quite a few staff as there is only one PB inspector that stayed on and about 90% of the office staff at Deepdale Road all finished or were made redundant. I dare say that they will need a good few drivers as well. It will be interesting to see what happens to those drivers that decided to move across from Deepdale Road to Selbourne Street during the period of Stagecoach ownership. Will they have to return? Interesting times ahead.

This is certainly going to mix things up a bit, or a lot! In other news, 20761 is still covering for accident damaged 53338.

 

[cainebj]

just noticed this on the report:

"We found that the only relevant customer benefit that had resulted from the merger was integrated ticketing."

i think they are forgetting that Stagecoach withdrawn the 6 Metroriders, providing more of a guarantee of accessible buses being used! surely that is an important factor! with another operator, surely the metroriders will have been in service throughout, keeping the Preston residents in doubt over whether or not the bus would be easy to access for wheelchairs and pushchairs!!!

 

[Dallamlad]

Glad to hear 16874 may be staying at CE!

The traffic in Lancaster has now improved with most of the roadworks near completion. Services have now started to go round by Common Garden Street again. I guess this means that the KL drivers will be sent back and 20894/20735 will be sent off. Had a ride on 20894 today and sat at the back resulting in a bone shattering ride! Plus the engine sounded awful!

Also an interesting article in Lancaster Uni's internal paper that sums up the transport problems caused by the roadworks:

http://scan.lusu.co.uk/2009/11/11/road-works-spell-chaos-for-local-transport/

As for the PB situation I'll be very interested to see who bids for it...

Spotted Paul on the 55 today working with 20546!

 

[Swift-Deere]

Glad to hear 16874 may be staying at CE!

The traffic in Lancaster has now improved with most of the roadworks near completion. Services have now started to go round by Common Garden Street again. I guess this means that the KL drivers will be sent back and 20894/20735 will be sent off. Had a ride on 20894 today and sat at the back resulting in a bone shattering ride! Plus the engine sounded awful!

Also an interesting article in Lancaster Uni's internal paper that sums up the transport problems caused by the roadworks:

http://scan.lusu.co.uk/2009/11/11/road-works-spell-chaos-for-local-transport/

As for the PB situation I'll be very interested to see who bids for it...

The worst is on Friday when the cattle market is on!!!!! and that when i catch the train to get home lol, but ive noticed the traffics got better now, the worst was a couple of weeks back when they were working on Alexandra park underpass lol

 

[cainebj]

something else i've noticed in the report:

"PBL operates from a freehold depot at 221 Deepdale Road, which currently houses 95 buses and 249 staff. Before the merger there were 125 buses and approximately 300 staff."

so, 30 buses have apparently moved from Deepdale.

12 Scania Esteems
2 Leyland Olympians
3 Leyland Lynx's
2 Lolyne's
6 Metroriders
4 Solo's

= 29 buses

i wish they'd get stuff fully accurate in a bloody official report!!! 29 clearly isn't 30! they can't just round up to the nearest 10 just cos they feel like it!

 

[KendalKing]

something else i've noticed in the report:

"PBL operates from a freehold depot at 221 Deepdale Road, which currently houses 95 buses and 249 staff. Before the merger there were 125 buses and approximately 300 staff."

so, 30 buses have apparently moved from Deepdale.

12 Scania Esteems
2 Leyland Olympians
3 Leyland Lynx's
2 Lolyne's
6 Metroriders
4 Solo's

= 29 buses

i wish they'd get stuff fully accurate in a bloody official report!!! 29 clearly isn't 30! they can't just round up to the nearest 10 just cos they feel like it!

Me too, if i not mistaken at the time of the take-over the PB fleet was thus:-

27 Leyland Olympians (14533-14547/14551-14564)
2 Scania Omnidekka (15406-15407)
1 Optare Delta Trainer (26082)
10 Scania Esteem (28510-28517)
4 Leyland Lynxs (29212/29215/29218/29228.)
55 Optare Solos (47701-47708/47751-47797)
6 Metroriders (47913-47916/47918-47919)

= 105 buses.

So where are the missing 20 buses at ?

 

[K777DAO]

14255, 47062 & 22611 on distington bypass about 7:20PM, all not in service, heading home for the night!

Must be noted that the old H-Reg Ollys can still wind out a good turn of speed!!

 

[robertclark125]

A mate thinks Transdev will buy PB. Whoever does, will face the full wrath of stagecoach there and then. There are to be no behavioural undertakings. Hence, within 6 months, Stagecoach could be back to where they were after the takeover. You have to ask yourself, why bother CC?

 

[pickles]

~~~~~

 

[KendalKing]

PB had dennis tridents as well - I think.

Thanks Pickles, I had forgot about the 18 Dennis Tridents (18582-18599), which will bring the total to 123 buses, NOT 125 buses as CC says.

 

[pickles]

~~~~~

 

[Dave The Bus]

You're welcome. Two to find? - or did they never exist?

Maybe they included something stupid like the wrecker and a works van?!

 

[jonesy3001]

You're welcome. Two to find? - or did they never exist?

What about the one at morecambe 14543 (A33 MRN)

 

[cainebj]

in service at Deepdale:
25 Leyland Olympians
2 Scania Omnidecka's
18 East Lancs Tridents
1 Leyland Lynx
51 Optare Solos

= 97

Preston Bus buses at Frenchwood:
1 Leyland Olympian
12 Scania Esteems
4 Optare Solos

= 17

Preston Bus buses in storage:
1 Leyland Olympian (A33 MRN)
6 Optare Metroriders
3 Leyland Lynx's

= 10


97 + 17 + 10 = 124

if the Trainer is included, then its 125 in total, but that is still at Deepdale and never left, so whichever way you look at it, the figures in the official report are incorrect! cos it'd mean theres 96 at Deepdale.

 

[K768 DAO]

...........

 

[pickles]

~~~~~

 

[infobus]

Hmm, I'm confused, where is 47007 going, Lillyhall or Barrow? And who's 814's are being replaced by 3 solo's, Lillyhall's or Barrow's?

47007 is going to Lillyhall, two of Lillyhalls 814's are going into reserve.

This means that the 3 solos 47005/6/7 will replace 40028 and two as yet unidentified 814's

 

[K768 DAO]

..........

 

[Paul Mcgill]

16411 - M311DGP Was in morecambe depot going thru wash when had ma brake today dunno if that staying or not!!

 

[themaster985]

It's one that has just been transferred from West at Gloucester to Merseyside. Still doesn't explain why it's at Morecambe. Over to Gez?

 

[jonesy3001]

16411 - M311DGP Was in morecambe depot going thru wash when had ma brake today dunno if that staying or not!!

There`s 3 gilmoss depot deckers coming down for there M.O.T`S in the coming weeks and this was the first one. First time i`ve had a N/C cummins engined decker in the wash(checking for leaks in windows) and pretty quick when setting off.