Veolia pulling out

[WatcherZero]

Veolia Transdev (which also has interests in utilities and services) has announced its selling off all its transport interests in order to reduce its debts by 5bn Euros, likely through a IPO next year.

Worldwide it has:
•119,000 employees in 28 countries
•5 continents
•60,000 vehicles
•3.3 billion trips per year
•13 transport modes
•27 light rail networks

In the UK
* London Sovereign (Bus)
* Blazefield Group (Bus in North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire)
* Greentomatocars (Environmentally freindly car hire)
* 50% ownership of Nottingham NET (Tram) until the next franchisee takes over.

 

[trentside]

Considering that they've just completed a merger, I'm surprised at this move.

I can't say I'll miss Veolia, but I think Transdev have been a force for good in the UK.

Possibly an opportunity for RATP to gain a further foothold in the UK, as they've already taken Yellow Buses and London United.

 

[tbtc]

* Blazefield Group (Bus in North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire)

Was a fine "stand alone" bus company (before the Veolia merger), but could it work as an "independent" nowadays?

Stagecoach gave up the East Lancashire operations because they weren't making enough money, so I don't know whether there are sufficient returns to interest the "big boys".

 

[Schnellzug]

Hmmm, well, they made a good job of YellowBuses, although Blazefield had a good reputation before they acquired it. So will RATP swoop on them, I wonder? They wouldn't have enough of a foothold yet for the Monopoly people to take an interest, or will it be Stagecoach and or the (if you ask me) over-rated Go Ahead (probably, since First don't seem to want to expand more than they are already, probably wisely)? RATP seems to be continuing the good work at YelloBuses, at any rate.

 

[northwichcat]

Was a fine "stand alone" bus company (before the Veolia merger), but could it work as an "independent" nowadays?

Stagecoach gave up the East Lancashire operations because they weren't making enough money, so I don't know whether there are sufficient returns to interest the "big boys".

Centrebus might be interested. Their West Yorkshire operations are effectively the routes that Stagecoach and First didn't want anymore.

 

[sonic2009]

Astons Coaches of Worcester are owned by Veolia as well.

 

[mbonwick]

I thought the reason Stagecoach sold off Burnley & Pendle was extremely poor employee relations?

 

[Badger]

I've noticed the Silverlink Shuttle (enderby park and ride) in Leicester now has another company's logo pasted over the Veolia one. Is this related or did they just pull out of that route?

 

[trentside]

I've noticed the Silerlink Shuttle (enderby park and ride) in Leicester now has another company's logo pasted over the Veolia one. Is this related or did they just pull out of that route?

The former Paul James operation (which Veolia bought a few years ago) was sold to Roberts Tours (coaches and Leicester P&R) and Centrebus (Saxby depot).

 

[martinsh]

Well they can start by selling "Northern Colorado Supershuttle" back to the previous owners - they've completely b*llsed it up since they took over !

 

[WatcherZero]

Probably wont be broken up, they will probably just float their transport division on the stockmarket and someone will buy it up, heck Transdev might even buy up the other 50% Veolia owned.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Are the "Yorkshire Coastliner" services from Leeds affected by this?

 

[IanXC]

Are the "Yorkshire Coastliner" services from Leeds affected by this?

I think so (pretty certain there's a logo on the back). The Yorkshire elements would probably also be of interest to EYMS.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What reasons did RAPT give for exiting their shareholding in TRANSDEV when this occurred?

 

[anthony263]

As a former member of staff at Veolia Transport Cymru I am not too sad to see Veolia pull out of the transport market speaking.

I remember when they closed the depot down in Treforest near Pontypridd which they had only just opened less than a year before as well as stripping down some buses which were only a few years old.

Transdev on the other hand are a good company before they merged with Veolia.

I know Veolia are under contract to operate a lot of bus routes in Powys until 2012 however they have been loosing a lot of contracts all over the rest of south wales.

First Cymru, Stagecoach and Newport bus as well as others have all benefitted from this, in fact 1 of the management at Newport bus has mentioned about running an express bus link from Newport to Swansea

 

[MCR247]

Veolia Transdev (which also has interests in utilities and services) has announced its selling off all its transport interests in order to reduce its debts by 5bn Euros, likely through a IPO next year.

Worldwide it has:
•119,000 employees in 28 countries
•5 continents
•60,000 vehicles
•3.3 billion trips per year
•13 transport modes
•27 light rail networks

In the UK
* London Sovereign (Bus)
* Blazefield Group (Bus in North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire)
* Greentomatocars (Environmentally freindly car hire)
* 50% ownership of Nottingham NET (Tram) until the next franchisee takes over.

You missed part of Nottingham City Transport

 

[mancnq]

Will this affect Veolia's transport operations outside the UK too? Here in Frankfurt they run a bundle of bus routes on a franchise from the city council.

 

[flymo]

Will this affect Veolia's transport operations outside the UK too? Here in Frankfurt they run a bundle of bus routes on a franchise from the city council.

They run Hong Kong Tramways too, at least for now.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

With the approval of the Todmorden chord for the betterment (eventually) of the rail services, the Transdev X43 "Lancashire Witch" service, with its high-backed coach seats, using modern double-decker buses, will eventually be gaining a competitor for passengers. It depends how this type of "flagship" service will be viewed for retention in its present form by a new operator.

An example of a sudden drop in the quality of bus provision, after certain operational changes, is to be recently clearly seen on the "TP" service between Manchester and Derby/Nottingham.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Veolia Transdev (which also has interests in utilities and services) has announced its selling off all its transport interests in order to reduce its debts by 5bn Euros, likely through a IPO next year.

Would this require any formal Stock Exchange regularity involvement, at any period in time ?

 

[Deerfold]

An example of a sudden drop in the quality of bus provision, after certain operational changes, is to be recently clearly seen on the "TP" service between Manchester and Derby/Nottingham.

Sudden? It's been slowly going downhill for years. Or has it suddenly got a lot worse?

Or is that just about the change of vehicles rather than the regular hacking at the timetable of the through service?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sudden? It's been slowly going downhill for years. Or has it suddenly got a lot worse?

Or is that just about the change of vehicles rather than the regular hacking at the timetable of the through service?

I liked the coach (fleet number 61 ?) with the tables for four, either side, half-way down the coach. Can someone confirm the correct fleet number, please.

 

[317 forever]

Considering that they've just completed a merger, I'm surprised at this move.

I can't say I'll miss Veolia, but I think Transdev have been a force for good in the UK.

Possibly an opportunity for RATP to gain a further foothold in the UK, as they've already taken Yellow Buses and London United.

RATP have already stated that they hope to expand in the Uk. What better way than to buy out Veolia's stake in Veolia Transdev?

What reasons did RAPT give for exiting their shareholding in TRANSDEV when this occurred?

I gather RATP did not want to work with Veolia. So when Transdev announced their merger with Veolia, RATP preferred to claim their stake in Transdev (eg London United and Yellow Buses) rather than join the merged Veolia Transdev.

 

[trentside]

RATP have already stated that they hope to expand in the Uk. What better way than to buy out Veolia's stake in Veolia Transdev?

I seem to remember reading some comments that some people were unhappy that they placed a logo depicting the River Seine on their London buses. Other than that I've heard little about them, though possibly that's a good thing - one French group departs, another arrives.

I gather RATP did not want to work with Veolia.

Who can blame them for not wanting to work with Veolia? If you asked people round here what they think of Veolia they'd tell you in no uncertain terms that they were a terrible bus operator, doing nothing to address the failings of the company they'd acquired - just making them worse. If you asked their ex-employees for an opinion it would be un-publishable.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It sounds like comparisons can be drawn between Veolia and G4S, in the matter of being strong in certain sections of their company profile and poor in the sections where their strengths do not lie.

 

[anthony263]

I seem to remember reading some comments that some people were unhappy that they placed a logo depicting the River Seine on their London buses. Other than that I've heard little about them, though possibly that's a good thing - one French group departs, another arrives.



Who can blame them for not wanting to work with Veolia? If you asked people round here what they think of Veolia they'd tell you in no uncertain terms that they were a terrible bus operator, doing nothing to address the failings of the company they'd acquired - just making them worse. If you asked their ex-employees for an opinion it would be un-publishable.

Yes I can agree with that especially since I am an ex employee of Veolia's

Veolia did start out good but I think they expanded to much too quickly. They should just stuck to running the services in Swansea and the Bebb travel operations around Llantwit Fadre & Pontypridd instead of then expanding to take over most of the National express coach operations in Birmingham area.

However Veolia pulling out has brought many opportunities for First Cymru & Stagecoach as well as a few independent operators.

Thye have recently lost a few contracts at 1 f their last remaining welsh operations at the Newport depot to Newport Bus.

I know Veolia did try to pass off the welsh operations to RATP who refused, no wonder when the welsh operations were running at a big loss.

 

[trentside]

In Nottinghamshire, they under-cut most of the local operators around Retford and Newark to take over most of the tendered routes. Some of these got so unreliable a local operator actually registered one route commercially, forcing the termination of Veolia's contract. They surrendered most of their remaining contracts a year early - with Travel Wright of Newark regaining some work, alongside Yourbus who took over the majority of the Retford work and took on most of the drivers.

Lincolnshire saw what they were about and banned them from tendering for a time in order to avoid having to accept their low bids. This was well known locally, but the company claimed this was untrue.

Dunn-Line was far from perfect, but it was still amazing that Veolia managed to run it into the ground so quickly.

 

[anthony263]

In Nottinghamshire, they under-cut most of the local operators around Retford and Newark to take over most of the tendered routes. Some of these got so unreliable a local operator actually registered one route commercially, forcing the termination of Veolia's contract. They surrendered most of their remaining contracts a year early - with Travel Wright of Newark regaining some work, alongside Yourbus who took over the majority of the Retford work and took on most of the drivers.

Lincolnshire saw what they were about and banned them from tendering for a time in order to avoid having to accept their low bids. This was well known locally, but the company claimed this was untrue.

Dunn-Line was far from perfect, but it was still amazing that Veolia managed to run it into the ground so quickly.

They have done the same in Powys, which I think the council will heavily regret in 2012/2013 when Veolia will in my opinion close their operations there.

Veolia's Abercrave depot has lost a lot of work, in fact the buses they use on service X63 Swansea - Brecon were sold to ensignbus who sold them to New Adventure travel (based in Pontypridd) who then leased them back to Veolia.

Veolia. used to operate some local routes around Brecon which are now back in the hands of Stagecoach who in my opinion offer a far better service same can be said of First Cymru (that something I didn't think I would ever say lol)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When the time comes for the Veolia decision to take effect, how much interest is there likely to be in the Transdev services in East Lancashire, with its "flagship" X43 Lancashire Witch services to Manchester.

 

[anthony263]

Just seen on VOSA that Veolia have de registred their services around Chepstow it seems that Veolia's Newport depot has lost all but 1 of the contracts. Now all I am expecting is for Veolia to annouce that they are closing their Powys operations.

 

[trentside]

Just seen on VOSA that Veolia have de registred their services around Chepstow it seems that Veolia's Newport depot has lost all but 1 of the contracts. Now all I am expecting is for Veolia to annouce that they are closing their Powys operations.

I doubt it's worth sustaining a depot for one contract, after Newport closes - I presume that's it?

What ever happened to the Astons Coaches operation?