Correct - North Yorks County Council has always been the relevant authority; I think the odd district/parish council involvement may have occurred along with National Parks and private support but generally NYCC....who are not very enthusiastic.
I thought that (indeed my wife works for them), but the local rag is referring to a review.
Someone I work with went to the trouble of taking a look at the tender awards for the "Ribble Country" package and calculated that Transdev would earn between £25-26 per hour for them. Even in pre-COVID times that was brave. So no wonder they have come unstuck now.
Leasing costs for the Mellors maybe?
I think Transdev were unusually naive taking on those Ribble County routes. Expecting them to bring in £25+ per hour is brave enough, but putting in a very low bid for the routes and taking on a fleet of brand new buses too seems like madness. Add the lack of drivers and the resulting mess could have easily been predicted.
With ribble Country, many of these routes saw upped frequencies with this contract. Will be a backwards step if Holmeswood and Pilkington get these back as (although they ran them ok before) they have no online presence, and do nothing to promote the service further, and don’t advertise Lancashire County Council day and period fares. There aren’t any other operators who would take them on now surely? Wonder if Stagecoach would have a go, they seem to be becoming the default operator when Transdev pulls a route.
Out of interest which routes have Stagecoach picked up that Transdev have pulled?
280 was Preston Bus
Stagecoach took the 280 over from Preston Bus not Transdev. Preston Bus registered it commercially after Lancashire County Council ended the previous tender run by Transdev when they decided to reduce funding. I’m not sure I can think of any service which has passed directly from Transdev to Stagecoach.
Stagecoach are not above dumping unwanted routes. They walked away from the Lancaster - Ingleton and Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale (The ones that didnt go via Gressingham)
It won't make much difference, but Bank Holidays should be Sunday service (Christmas period possibly excepted) so more Sundays and fewer weekdays. We usually use 58 and 305 for a quick calculation. I've just checked Lancs website, which shows 3 days with no service this Christmas. And it would seem these are revenue guarantee/minimum cost contracts, so that's an all-in figure with no revenue risk (and one day's earning potential stripped out this Christmas).
Another way of looking at it is price per bus. Assuming a 5% profit margin and 15 vehicles it gives a cost per bus of about £115k which sounds reasonable for these cheap to operate vehicles as priced were a couple of years ago. A low profit margin would of course be quickly wiped out by significant price rises.
Indeed - that doesn't seem unreasonable. It can be construed as naivety but having looked at what I costed in 2020 compared to now, the anticipated level of wage and fuel inflation (and the challenges on staffing), have massively outstripped what was foreseen. Remember that in 2020, the real fear was of mass unemployment - now you see everyone is desperate to get people in seemingly every industry.
Aside from Holmeswood and Pilkintons there aren't really any operators left in East Lancs. There are a few other operators that just seem to do private hire work and Rail Replacements (Mario Coaches I believe is one of them) but I think they're unlikely to bid for such work.
You were quick to seize on the £26/hr figure (which doesn't look right) and stating that it was at minimum cost.
I'm sorry but it doesn't come across that way; more that you like nothing more to have a pop.
I was just going off the figure quoted in the previous post. As for the minimum cost, that information is available from LCC where it is stated how the tender was awarded, either minimum cost or subsidy - https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/media/928062/january-to-december-2021.pdf
Fair enough - I'll take in that spirit. It is Christmas, after all
More buses are on the way on #the36 - as we go back up to every 10 mins between Leeds and Harrogate from Feb 2023.
Given that they are still regularly cancelling Harrogate area services (I travelled on the '1' on the 17th & 24th Dec and on both days it seems a complete diagram wasn't covered), I wonder how they are going to resource the extra workings on the 36? Cuts elsewhere?
Wholesale cancellations this morning. I live on the X98/99 route. I think that most members of the public would prefer a timetable that is kept to rather than promises that Transdev, on current evidence, will struggle to keep.
The information provided about their services online, in printed booklets, and at stops far outclasses First and Arriva. Even the finding the timetables from the big operators is challenging, and the timetables being spat out by their computer systems sometimes require a great deal of deciphering. And my dealings with Blazefield's customer services show that they seem to have a great understanding of the local operation and how buses work, and their replies give me more confidence that the issues are being dealt with than the bland non-replies from Sunderland and Aberdeen.
I guess that provides the answer as to how they will resource the 36's.
Is the 36 still the main money grabber for H&D?
