Bus company in administration

[Smethwickian]

R H Transport of Witney, Oxfordshire, is to cease trading at the end of today.

Temporary replacements for most but not all services until the weekend have been announced by Oxfordshire County Council

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/news/2012/oct/rh-transport-affected-school-buses

RH Transport: replacement school buses found

Oxfordshire County Council has arranged for replacement school buses on all routes affected by local bus company RH Transport going into administration.

The school bus contracts that have been put in place start from Monday 8 October and will run until March 2013 when a further tendering process for a longer period in to the future will take place.

The replacement buses will run to the exact timetables as before.

RH Transport provided school transport for around about 8.5 per cent of school routes. Three affected schools (Chipping Norton, Henry Box and Wood Green) were in on an inset day yesterday and so were unaffected.

Councillor Rodney Rose, the Deputy Leader of Oxfordshire County Council and Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “We’ve made a lot of progress in a very short space of time and that is testament to the experience and knowledge of the staff in our public transport team and the strong professional relationships they have with personnel at bus companies throughout Oxfordshire and beyond.”

“I’d also like to thank all of the different bus companies with whom we’ve been in dialogue over the last couple of days. They’ve shown a great deal of flexibility and understanding.

“Regular users of services previously provided by RH Transport should also be thanked for their forbearance and I hope they can see that all at the council have rolled up their sleeves and worked hard on their behalf to minimise disruption."

 

[W-on-Sea]

Not at all surprised (having lived on their patch for the last year).

The poor condition of some of their buses (and hired-in/rattling second-hand acquisitions in a variety of liveries) has been evident for some time, and matters can't have been helped by their staying out of the inter-available ticketing arrangements that Stagecoach and the two Go-Ahead local companies introduced last year.

I suspect they took on too many contracts for their own good; while I wish all their former staff the best of luck in finding new employment, I have to say that the quality of the services they provided have frequently left much to be desired. (And in some cases were extremely poorly advertised, too - not putting up tinetables for infrequent rural routes is unhelpful and foolish and self-defeating)

(Maybe they were struck by the curse of having an almost identical livery to the quite unlamented Bexleybus ?)

I hope Stagecoach will take back a lot of what were in many cases formerly their routes, and make a decent job of running them. But maybe scope for further Thames Travel expansion, too.

 

[richw]

A an old school friend was a driver for them, was on the late tonight so will have operated one of their last services.
He's found a new driving job but is tight lipped where to at the moment

 

[MCW]

sounds like a carbon copy of Leicester's Thurmaston Bus company. Too much too fast.

 

[robertclark125]

Their website, or what's left of it.

http://www.rhcoaches.com/

The statement says those who have booked private hires should make other arrangements. I think there may well be a few people who are going to have a hard job making other arrangements, like, just as an example, say a wedding party.

Anyway, very sad to see jobs put at risk.

 

[Ivo]

I know it's not really appropriate to make such a comment at this time, but who wrote that note? The grammar is appalling...!

 

[CC 72100]

I know it's not really appropriate to make such a comment at this time, but who wrote that note? The grammar is appalling...!

I was thinking that too Ivo, must admit!

 

[kylemore]

For a few wonderful moments on seeing the headline to this thread I thought it might be about First Group!

 

[Tomonthetrain]

For a few wonderful moments on seeing the headline to this thread I thought it might be about First Group!

That's hoping a bit!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

At least the now-defunct Speedwellbus operation in the Tameside area of Greater Manchester has lessons well worth learning in respect of over-confidence in a company's ability to expand any service provision, which does not have the "wherewithall" to allow for this.

 

[MK Tom]

Is this why I've seen a sudden invasion of Stagecoach solos in Oxford this week?

 

[richw]

Yep stagecoach covered all the routes they could last Friday on their own accord apparently, with the new emergency tenders starting from Monday

 

[Shrimper]

I recall Stagecoach doing the same thing when Speedwellbus went under up here - they even had blinds programmed in!

 

[Rich McLean]

Saw a few stagecoach Solo's in Carterton yesterday, very rare sight

 

[Tomonthetrain]

I recall Stagecoach doing the same thing when Speedwellbus went under up here - they even had blinds programmed in!

Don't take 5 minutes to program LEDs!!!