Johnstone & Area Community Transport CIC

[Stan Drews]

I thought there was a thread created when this operator began just over a year ago, but if there was I can’t find it!

Anyway, they have advised on their facebook page that they have ceased all operations, which consists of three services.
Their website https://www.kilbarchanbus.co.uk/ appears to have been taken down.

As from Tuesday 10th June 2025, Johnstone and Area Community Transport will no longer be operating bus services.

It is with great sadness that an agent has been appointed for the liquidation of our small company.
Rising costs and cash flow problems have led us to make this difficult decision. SPT were informed last week that we were in a critical financial position.
We are incredibly grateful for the loyalty of our passengers and hopefully we have shown there is demand for additional local bus services.
We are also thankful to Renfrewshire Council and The National Lottery Fund that together supported us with £35,000 of funding. This figure is less than half of the value that I personally contributed to this company.
After working for a year without pay, I can no longer sustain the financial burden. The team of drivers, in my opinion are the best drivers in the world. Their humility, empathy and community spirit could not be surpassed. They all demonstrated to the bus industry how to operate a bus service with recognition of people’s needs and not just treating them as revenue.
The whole community supported us. We wish everyone all the best on their future journeys. Unfortunately, we will not be part of that.
Sincerely
John McBarron
Director

 

[overthewater]

The man a idiot... He had no wages for a year, has some grand vision of delusion.. as he think

"hopefully we have shown there is demand for additional local bus services" and " demonstrated to the bus industry how to operate a bus service with recognition of people’s needs and not just treating them as revenue."

Clearly not because he gone burst, and is no longer providing any service to anyone anywhere... Good to know the community supported them just in not in a useful way like using thier services...

The trouble is you do have to treat passengers in some respect as revenue as you need to cover your costs and it's clear as day this was never covering its costs, proving a service to attract new users, I don't know what he was trying to prove but running a successful and useful bus company he wasn't.

 

[Stan Drews]

The man a idiot... He had no wages for a year, has some grand vision of delusion.. as he think

"hopefully we have shown there is demand for additional local bus services" and " demonstrated to the bus industry how to operate a bus service with recognition of people’s needs and not just treating them as revenue."

Clearly not because he gone burst, and is no longer providing any service to anyone anywhere... Good to know the community supported them just in not in a useful way like using thier services...

The trouble is you do have to treat passengers in some respect as revenue as you need to cover your costs and it's clear as day this was never covering its costs, proving a service to attract new users, I don't know what he was trying to prove but running a successful and useful bus company he wasn't.

Yes, there’s certainly a contradiction between their “we have shown there is demand for additional local bus services” statement and the fact they’ve ran at a significant loss!

 

[318266]

The fares were somewhat low for a local service, I doubt they were making good use of the concessionary system as most Scottish companies tend to!!

I do wonder how the McGill's 32 fared - carried fresh air when JACT were about - and whilst competition is a Good Thing from an economic perspective I do think their strategy was ill-thought out from the outset. Fleet reliability was a key problem - a couple hand-me-down Solos does not a reliable service make.

 

[sannox]

Not an easy area to make money. The service has steadily declined in the Gryffe and Johnstone areas but reflects the economic realities of the area. Not the first operator to go bust around there. I guess McGill's will pick up the slack.

I thought the locals around Johnstone might work but running the 9 service commercially always looked like a challenge - was surprised when they took it on.

I understand his statement - there is demand for better transport than what SPT and operators were providing but that isn't profitable. As a society this worked in Western/Clydeside days as revenue support from the region funded these services but not now. The previous 1/2/1a/2a services always seemed confusing from the timetables and trying to cover too much too thin.

The days of the 90s when any operator could get 2nd hand buses, cheap drivers and run marginal services aren't there. See the number of independent operators in Glasgow area now compared to 15 or 20 years back.

What is sad is the passengers that did rely on them got the rug pulled suddenly and drivers now out of a job.

 

[Buzby]

Sad it’s gone…. I only came across them when I wanted to visit NTS’s Weavers Cottage in Kilbarchan last month. They didn’t appear to run to timetable, but the frequency was reasonable and the drivers pleasant. I’m sure the locals will quickly miss them.

 

[Observer]

Does anything still need to be covered by SPT or commercially by McGill's or someone else still?

To be fair it did seem like they were buying any old Optare Solo and expecting them to run well and they never had much in terms of spares as the services increased.

Without any regular spare buses there are always bound to be issues. Commend them for trying but the fact of the matter is if they can't make money then it's going to fail some day.

 

[Stan Drews]

Does anything still need to be covered by SPT or commercially by McGill's or someone else still?

To be fair it did seem like they were buying any old Optare Solo and expecting them to run well and they never had much in terms of spares as the services increased.

Without any regular spare buses there are always bound to be issues. Commend them for trying but the fact of the matter is if they can't make money then it's going to fail some day.

Their 3 and 6 routes just duplicated existing links, so no need for SPT to consider replacements. However, their 9 route effectively replaced the tendered service 1, which was cancelled just after they began in January, (The SPT thread had a number of posts at the time) so they will need to find a replacement for the areas served around Brookfield and Bridge of Weir that now have no other services.

 

[sannox]

Their 3 and 6 routes just duplicated existing links, so no need for SPT to consider replacements. However, their 9 route effectively replaced the tendered service 1, which was cancelled just after they began in January, (The SPT thread had a number of posts at the time) so they will need to find a replacement for the areas served around Brookfield and Bridge of Weir that now have no other services.

You can still get out of Bridge of Weir but slower. Brookfield is cut off apart from a few McGill's run.

 

[Stan Drews]

You can still get out of Bridge of Weir but slower. Brookfield is cut off apart from a few McGill's run.

Other than the Kilmacolm Rd/Houston Rd at the top end of Bridge of Weir (BoW) served by the 1A and X7 there are no other Mon-Sat daytime services covering the rest of BoW. Similarly Brookfield now only has the evening and Sunday X6A/B journeys.