Nottingham 'Bus War'

[nottinghamcity]

Was given a flyer when boarding NCT 36 service. This morning called Hello Stranger it had voucher for free single towards the City and a 25% voucher off a single journey also informed me that the service is staying at the same frequency even after the tram opens.

It doesn't really surprise me that this is their approach. I think most of the operators will take a wait and see stance, but I think the bus landscape will look very different in 12 months time, when the change in customer demand has become a daily reality.

 

[MCR247]

From 24th may the last few y36 journeys are withdrawn the last bus is now 22.30bfrom City.

So are evening Y1 Y3 and Y28 buses. The last Y28 from town is now 6.35pm, leading NCT to post this (assuming the link works?)

5 Trent Barton Optare Solos are in Trent Barton red with 'eighteen' branding, to replace the current Wright Solars on the route. See here

 

[Marcus Fryer]

Arrived at Derby bus station yesterday at 17:27 for 17:31 to Nottingham - only 1 other passenger (told by the hostess that the 17:19 left late, but I would have expected more people to have turned up by the time we left).
Returned on the 20:30 ex Nottingham and it was over-full - 3 potential passengers at QMC directed to IGO/i4.
The recorded announcements have been updated and we've lost the local Nottinghamshire dialect for a posh BBC English accent.

 

[Ginga]

Skills are running around getting Drivers for National Express 240 and 440's services, they are even planning on doing interviews tonight,

Yourbus are so short of Drivers ,that the Agency is offering £10 per hour and 45 hour contracts for Service Work! Bartons pay £10:32 after 3 years service!

 

[pjnathanail]

Skills are running around getting Drivers for National Express 240 and 440's services, they are even planning on doing interviews tonight,

Yourbus are so short of Drivers ,that the Agency is offering £10 per hour and 45 hour contracts for Service Work! Bartons pay £10:32 after 3 years service!

I thought that the 240 and 440 NatEx runs were yourbus runs - have Skills taken them over?

Why are Skills and yourbus so desperately short of drivers?

 

[Mitch in Notts]

My mate works for Skills. Hes been doing Nat Ex work for Yourbus on hire for a few weeks now. Things are manic at Skills because of all the extra work.
I presume one of the reasons for the cuts to the Yourbus evening/Sunday network on the Y1/3/28 is due to Yourbus' critical shortage of drivers.

 

[MCR247]

I presume one of the reasons for the cuts to the Yourbus evening/Sunday network on the Y1/3/28 is due to Yourbus' critical shortage of drivers.

That and the fact that they'll be losing money

 

[Mitch in Notts]

That and the fact that they'll be losing money

And I did say 'ONE' of the reasons, we know all the others

 

[winston270twm]

My mate works for Skills. Hes been doing Nat Ex work for Yourbus on hire for a few weeks now. Things are manic at Skills because of all the extra work.
I presume one of the reasons for the cuts to the Yourbus evening/Sunday network on the Y1/3/28 is due to Yourbus' critical shortage of drivers.

Courtesy of Nick Blurton on Yahoo NX coach groups, it appears that Yourbus have lost all their NX coach work as of this weekend. They once the biggest NX contractor & won awards, how times have changed.

What implications this will have on the Yourbus business going forward is anyone's guess at present....

It appears that Your Bus is losing most (if not all) of it's NatEx work this weekend.

So far as I can tell, the services affected are 230/240/ 440/450 and 561, although others may be involved.

I know that Skills are taking the 240, and the 561 is being covered by Johnson's, Parks, Selwyn's and Stotts to name a few!

 

[MCR247]

Does anyone know who will cover the 450?

 

[Mugby]

I think I'll be taking a lot more notice of the legal lettering on Nat Ex coaches from now on!

 

[howittpie]

Noticed a Johnson coach in Broadmarsh tonight parked up behind a 240 Bradford service it appeared the Nat Ex coach was transfering its passengers onto the Johnsons coach.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A y36 driver confirmed Yourbus have lost all there Nat Ex work. He also said NCT are also very short of drivers as well.

 

[Volvodart]

http://www.route-one.net/industry/yourbus-and-national-express-part/

 

[nottinghamcity]

The distraction of NX will soon be gone and we can now refocus the business with the original strategy and values.” He adds that the whole business had an annual turnover of £31m in 2014, the same as Trent Motor Traction.

But how much of the £31M is due to NX works? High volume, but low margin? I find it hard to see how their commercial operations could turn over anything like TB's

 

[tbone]

But how much of the £31M is due to NX works? High volume, but low margin? I find it hard to see how their commercial operations could turn over anything like TB's

Turnover doesn't equal profit so that figure is meaningless. Most of Trent Barton's work is commercial with, I'd imagine, a fairly high margin. The majority of Yourbus' work is/was contracts, DCC and Nat Ex with far lower margins but a margin of some kind (in theory). Part of that safety net has gone now and the article suggests they were pushed out, regardless,of Sctt Dunn's claim that they've wanted out for a while.

I can't see Yourbus staying as it is for long. Scott Dunn has a successful business and his family on the other side of the world. I can imagine Yourbus UK being wound up or, if there are any takers, sold within 12 months.

 

[Robertj21a]

Turnover doesn't equal profit so that figure is meaningless. Most of Trent Barton's work is commercial with, I'd imagine, a fairly high margin. The majority of Yourbus' work is/was contracts, DCC and Nat Ex with far lower margins but a margin of some kind (in theory). Part of that safety net has gone now and the article suggests they were pushed out, regardless,of Sctt Dunn's claim that they've wanted out for a while.

I can't see Yourbus staying as it is for long. Scott Dunn has a successful business and his family on the other side of the world. I can imagine Yourbus UK being wound up or, if there are any takers, sold within 12 months.

Quite agree. Yourbus was kicked off all NatExp routes, at very short notice, that should say something. I'm just surprised it took so long.

 

[Ginga]

Hourly Service and Evening Buses? (4-6-15)

Parish representatives met again with Trent Barton and the County Council at Barnstone on 1st June 2015. Trent Barton confirmed their plans to run the Rushcliffe Green (renamed the ‘Villager 2’) around the Vale from Bingham to Cropwell Bishop (as at present) then to Nottingham via Cotgrave (like the old 22) instead of via Radcliffe.
The good news is that the County Council are considering a revision of the County sponsored 850/853 services so that we would still have a regular (hopefully hourly) link via Cropwell Butler and Upper Saxondale to Radcliffe where we can catch the ‘Mainline’ to Nottingham or Bingham which will run every 10 minutes.

The provision of the 850/853 will enable Trent Barton to run the ‘Villager 2’ service (arriving from Langar) to travel along Church St, then loop back along Hoe View (omitting Cropwell Butler) on its way to Cotgrave and Town. The return journey would follow the same route in reverse. Residents along Hoe View Road will have their hourly daytime service restored and it should also reduce the journey time into Town.
The new services should be confirmed by mid June and are planned to commence on 30th August 2015.

At a future date, when the Cotgrave services are revised to take account of the new Hollygate Estate development, Trent Barton will consider linking the ‘Villager 2’ to a more direct service via Cotgrave Manvers Arms, avoiding the loop around Ringleas (who are well served by the Cotgrave Connection).

The other good news is that Trent Barton have offered to run a trial evening service for a 6 month period over the Winter months. Their suggestion is to run 2 evening buses from Nottingham to Cropwell Bishop, one at about 7.30 and one at 10.00. The service will continue after the trial if sufficient usage is demonstrated. The Parish Council will liaise with Trent Barton to determine the most viable options to try to ensure continuation of the evening service.

The Cropwell Bishop Parish Council are most grateful to Phil Stockley and colleagues at Trent Barton and Chris Ward and colleagues at the County Council for constructive discussions which have led to these improved proposals.

Cllr John Greenwood
3rd June 2015

 

[ag51ruk]

TB already run a Villager 2 from Derby - while there is no crossover in the operating area, it does seem odd to run two completely separate services with the same route number.

Derbyshire County Council have posted some changes to a couple of TB routes in Derbyshire from 26 July (Club Class and Spondon Flyer, plus more buses on i4) but the timetables aren't posted yet

 

[tbone]

TB already run a Villager 2 from Derby - while there is no crossover in the operating area, it does seem odd to run two completely separate services with the same route number.


Derbyshire County Council have posted some changes to a couple of TB routes in Derbyshire from 26 July (Club Class and Spondon Flyer, plus more buses on i4) but the timetables aren't posted yet

I4 will run every 7/8 minutes to Sandiacre and every 15 to Derby with the extra journeys being run by refurbished former Villager Scanias.

 

[Volvo142]

I4 will run every 7/8 minutes to Sandiacre and every 15 to Derby with the extra journeys being run by refurbished former Villager Scanias.

.....which will be more reliable and will feature less rattles than the existing Optare Tempos....

 

[Mitch in Notts]

Very interesting proposal by Trent.

Every 10minutes Nottingham-West Bridgford-Radcliffe Village-Bingham. This would be 'Rushcliffe Mainline'. No buses via Radcliffe bypass!

Every hour (in each direction) Nottingham-Radcliffe-Gunthorpe-Wychwood Road-Bingham-Meadowsweet Hill-Orston-Langar-Cropwell Bishop(Hoe View Road)-Cotgrave-route 22-Nottingham. This would be Villager 1 & 2 and take 2.5hours to do the circuit requiring 5 vehicles.

Upper Saxondale & Cropwell Butler would be served by an hourly? Nottsbus Radcliffe-Cropwell Bishop service.

The info is my interpretation of the maps shown on the Cropwell Bishop village website http://www.cropwellbishopplan.co.uk/travel.html and also comments (including not serving Cropwell Butler) elsewhere by councillors etc. Proposed for the end of August 2015.

 

[trentside]

So direct services from Bottesford to Bingham are totally withdrawn? Except the odd Centrebus 6/X6 that venture this way on school days.

Good news for the trains then!

 

[bussnapperwm]

Chaos down Broadmarsh today as there was a bloke threatening to throw themselves off one of the car parks. Friar lane had no buses going down it because of it.

The Centrelink I had caught had ran from Broadmarsh to Victoria direct then did the Angel Row section towards Broadmarsh.

Trent Barton had a lot of angry people on their Facebook page as nothing could use Friar Lane.

As an aside, anyone notice the Club Class coach today on a nice green route...

 

[Ginga]

Wellglade are pushing to get the Kangaroo price increased, it's up for review in Sept.

Nct are coming under increasing pressure from Nottingham City councillors to extend the Inner City Return ticket (£2.20 per day) up to Kildare Road St Anns, the current boundary is Robin Hood Chase.

 

[kevjs]

NCT are trialling some new Easy Rider products over the next few weeks - the names on them were EasyRider Everyday and EasyRider Anyday.

https://www.facebook.com/Nottingham...44269959645/10152969659669646/?type=1&theater

Wonder if one of them will be like the Oyster pay as you go ?

 

[MCR247]

Finally! I mean the red bus pass readers were meant to all be gone by the end of 2013 IIRC with all cards using the green ones. Now they've gone for new ticket machines as well

 

[howittpie]

Last Wednesday the green readers decided they weren't going to recognise kangaroos it seemed to only be NCT buses that had the problem.

 

[Ginga]

Some of the Nct lads seem to think that Carver Smith is off to join Alex Hornby at Transdev, I know that Transdev Harrogate are after a Marketing Manager.

 

[howittpie]

Plenty of bus activity in the yet to be opened Beeston interchange this morning. There was 2 Yourbus, 2 NCT and a Trentbarton bus with plenty of people in high viz jackets. I assume this was testing if the veichles fittedblooked tight tobmanouvre round.

 

[nottinghamcity]

The displays on local bus stops are showing that the new bus/tram interchange in Beeston will be available from 12th July, but to check with the operators. Almost suggesting that not all operators have confirmed they are moving there.