Are you also on the Ipswich forum buslad1988?! Sounds very similar to someone who posts on there on a regular basis. If not my apologies.
Now I have no experience in running a bus company, and have no intention of doing so, but I prefer to look at it from a business point of view with my operational managerial background rather than the rose-tinted enthusiast/traditionalist view as these bus companies are supposed to be run as businesses not loss making departments of a council.
When tendering for any contract, you put in a price which covers costs plus a mark up to make profit. If someone undercuts you is it better next time to bid to run the tender at a loss or to stick to your costs model? OK if you are breaking into a market I guess as a loss leader, but not sustainable in an existing market. We don't know the financials of the costs vs tender price of course for these tenders as well as taking into account the differences between Essex processes and bidder behaviours and the Suffolk model. What I would say with a reasonable degree of certainty is that Ipswich Buses would have put in their prices for any and all contracts around Ipswich which are financially beneficial to them.
Lets not forget, not all SCC tenders have been announced yet, there is still the 118/119 and a lot of school routes up for renewal and I expect them to be very competitive at the moment as if a second lockdown comes, the school/contract routes still get paid. You only have to look at how First have suddenly gone in for tenders across Eastern Counties for proof of that with Norwich taking Konect contracts hand over fist.
So far Ipswich Buses have so lost 3 buses of work in Suffolk on the 111, 116 (that was a short term after Galloway threw in the towel) and the 174 and gained 3 buses in Essex.
Knowing that the local tenders are becoming few and far between as the County Council cuts routes to save money and forces prices down to silly levels on others, sense would say to look outside your normal area which is what Ipswich Buses have done. I can lose track of how many other bus companies have done so, Reading already being mentioned, Roberts of Hugglescote running Leicester P&R, Whippet running to Kettering and Corby with dead mileage from Swavesey to Huntingdon just a couple of examples.
I also wonder what the dead mileage is to Hitcham (111) /Wetheringsett (115) is compared to Severalls in Colchester. Yes Clacton is a bit further but don't forget the 117 used to have dead mileage to Harleston in Norfolk not so long ago! If a bus breaks down at Hitcham is it any quicker to get a tow truck there than Colchester via the A12?
Mention has also been made of the lack of buses running in Ipswich compared to First. Again business head on here, apart from peaks, most First buses I see are empty or have one or two passengers on it around Ipswich surely that's just losing money for the sake of it? We are in uncharted waters, and the usual IB knockers would soon be whinging if IB ran their pre-COVID timetables with lots of empty buses. Incidentally, not much mention has been made of how First have now dropped the commercial 60/60A (very quietly I might add - had it been IB I would think the press and the like would be jumping up and down by now) proving that even with sustained competition the volume of passengers just isn't there in Ipswich even on a busy route such as Nacton Road and Gainsborough. Chantry was another where it was tried and failed. First are finally improving their image with new branding and colour scheme which is very welcome having done this not so long back with the RAF Blue Ipswich rebrand and the interior refurbs. Ipswich Buses rebranded green and purple and have been mocked ever since. Guess if you paint your buses the same colour they were in in the 50s-80s then its fine.
Guess my point here is that its all well and good saying they should concentrate on Ipswich, but why not explore other revenue streams outside the borough boundary too? Yes the Ipswich town network could be better, a fleet of brand new buses running every 10 minutes everywhere would be fantastic, but realism has to kick in. Looking at our neighbours in Colchester, buses run between 10-60 minutes on towns on a comparable network to Ipswich, operated by two multinational companies with cast off buses from elsewhere - not much different to Ipswich after all, only thing is Ipswich is municipal so everyone expects it to run at a loss. Let us be judged by our actions after they have gone wrong.
Have a nice day everyone
