I have VERY mad thoughts sometimes but if I was to...
run a train company I would run this route: Blackpool-Liverpool-Manchester-Sheffield-Nottingham-Derby-Birmingham-London
run a coach company in Nottingham I would run these routes: Nottingham-Leicester. Nottingham-Mansfield-Worksop. Nottingham-Lincoln. Nottingham-Newark. Nottingham-Grantham. Nottingham-Melton and Oakham.
Why don't people run short distance coach journeys? E.g. Red Arrow Notts-Derby runs every 10 mins and is always full!
Anyone know?
Most of that rail route is already covered by existing services though. It would be classed as primarily abstractive. The only real market would be Blackpool direct to Nottingham etc assuming the existing services were still running.
With regards to the coaches, many of the journeys mentioned are provided by National Express, just on longer journies as opposed to dedicated coaches.
Nottingham-Leicester is covered by NatEx roughly once or twice and hour, although granted not clock face and often late. Trent Barton tried Leicester express with buses then coaches and that was a flop.
Nottingham-Worksop is covered by the train so you would struggle to compete on time. Fares would have to be low and I'm not convinced there is the demand
Nottingham Lincoln could be good, as there is no direct bus and the rail service is painfully slow when you stop at all stations. Perhaps this could link with Nottingham Newark and compete with the 90
Nottingham Grantham would have to work hard to compete on journey times and fares with the train, one (usually) non stop an hour, another local stopping. The A52 is also a major headache for operators, and your entire service could end up stuck on here when something major happens either here or on he M1
Nottingham to Melton and Oakham is covered by the 19
I work for a company who operates a large proportion of NatEx entire network, and we find most people use a coach for longer journies. The few that use it for shorter ones are being subsidised by the longer ones. Some of the routes, the coach would really be a limited stop bus. This has two problems, you have to get the critical mass if passengers to break even from fewer stops, so if the demand isn't there you have issues, and it has to have a fast route.
If it runs the same route as the regular bus, it doesn't matter that it is limited stop as it will get caught in the same traffic, but if it runs along a parallel A road or motorway an RTA or just rush hour could see the service go out of the window as happens on the red arrow.
I'm always interested in providing faster journey times, and one thing I think that we could do is emulate Spain where express buses run along major roads, but stop alongside these roads to allow local passengers to board. These stops are coupled with footbridges. This has a minimal time penalty but many passengers use it. Perhaps if we did this more local express services may be possible.
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