Rail replacement contract end dates?

[Goldfish62]

The second issue is that rail replacement buses are becoming (very) expensive now too - the need for modern vehicles, emissions compliant, tracking, cost and admin of road charging schemes, fully accessible, announcements/visual aids, rail replacement co-ordinators, the issues around revenue loss/protection that occur, and the loss of competition in this space as operators have sold/condensed because the admin and cost of running a bus company these days doesn't scale nicely for small father and son type businesses - not to mention local bus franchising/taking back into local control. In previous days, you could rustle up a bus from anywhere quite easily - but it might have been something barely road legal and unlikely to be accessible and certainly not compliant with standards now mandated in 2026.

This is all true. Even without these cost pressures the railways have been increasingly unprepared to pay reasonable rates to bus operators, failing to or refusing to realise the huge inflationary increases in the cost of of running buses over the past few years (industry-specific inflation has run way ahead of the general inflation rate). If they don't pay a decent rate then they can't expect buses to turn up.

There is also potentially an issue (eventually) with electric vehicle charging provision as rail replacement routes don't generally have the same infrastructure as service routes.

Electric buses can be and are already used on rail replacement services. The latest generation EVs can comfortably do a day's work without charging. Coaches are not there yet though.

 

[weastebusdepot]

This is all true. Even without these cost pressures the railways have been increasingly unprepared to pay reasonable rates to bus operators, failing to or refusing to realise the huge inflationary increases in the cost of of running buses over the past few years (industry-specific inflation has run way ahead of the general inflation rate). If they don't pay a decent rate then they can't expect buses to turn up.

It's increasingly happening that some bus and coach operators are getting booked to do rail or tram replacement for engineering work planned months in advance. Then throwing it back with a few hours notice when they've received a booking for something that requires that vehicle/driver and makes more money. Then it's a struggle to find another operator to replace them, leading to either a completely unsuitable vehicle or a gap in the service. Particularly common at weekends when there is a major football or rugby game with large quantities of coaches being booked to move supporters across the country, or weekdays during school term.

At one time the 'penalty' would be not to give them any more rail work, but the desperation for operators means they are booked again for the following week... and quite likely to do the same again.