{"id":535,"date":"2018-06-04T05:17:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T04:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/witterings.mangopear.co.uk\/?p=535"},"modified":"2018-06-04T05:17:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T04:17:22","slug":"in-response-to-bus-franchising-the-debate-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativefruitbowl.com\/our-witterings\/2018\/06\/04\/in-response-to-bus-franchising-the-debate-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"In response to “Bus Franchising, The Debate Continues”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m writing this article in response to a recent post on Steve’s brilliant ‘Bus and Train’ blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post discusses how a franchised system could benefit the passengers of Norfolk and Suffolk, how the operating landscape has developed over the years and how rural and vulnerable passengers are being increasingly left behind by commercial operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before reading my response to Steve below, you must read his article<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I, respectfully, disagree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I, respectfully<\/em>, disagree with pretty much everything you’ve written Steve. But then again, isn’t that what the internet’s here for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

An attack on commercial operators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You open the post with somewhat of an attack on the author of the original article in the Cambridge Independent – pointing out the supposed irony of his statements “we want to provide an excellent community service<\/em>” and “can\u2019t fund unprofitable routes<\/em> … would jeopardise the salaries that our drivers, mechanics and office staff … rely on\ufeff<\/em>” in the face of Stagecoach’s recent departure from King’s Lynn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reads as though you view Stagecoach’s abandonment of Norfolk as a betrayal to the staff and passengers who relied upon Stagecoach’s North Norfolk network. I view it in the opposite way: had Stagecoach stuck around, they would have been forced to cut back services to stem the losses the operation incurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Multiple<\/a>
Multiple Stagecoach buses in King’s Lynn’s bus station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An alternative view of what happened:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Instead, they left the area to allow the independent operators, who have lower cost bases and smaller profit ambitions – therefore a greater chance of success, to expand their networks to, almost, directly replace the previous offering from Stagecoach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most passengers in North Norfolk face a network that is the same or better than the Stagecoach one with only a handful of routes facing reduced frequencies or curtailment. Most of the Stagecoach staff have found jobs with other operators or elsewhere within the Group. Sounds like a good deal to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s more, Stagecoach decided to up sticks and leave before the busy Summer season – the busiest time of the year for Norfolk’s bus operators. This, in my opinion, will give the new operators a good chance to make some profit throughout the season to support the operations during the quieter Autumn and Winter months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A Coasthopper branded Optare Solo SR seen in King’s Lynn bus station before heading to Hunstanton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hell bent on profit?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Had Stagecoach been all consumed by greed and profit, they may have been inclined to keep their profitable routes, such as Coasthopper, running throughout the Summer depriving the new operators of that much needed profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your article, you go on to mention: “What it is saying is if your service has been cut over recent years don’t expect it back because we won’t consider operating routes that are currently loss making, or even try to turn them around”<\/em> and that it is “rather depressing if you are a passenger on a low income who can’t afford taxis everywhere”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s not depressing, it’s reality. Commercial operators can’t run services that are loss-making and they often don’t have the resources to attempt to turn these routes around – that’s where smaller, dedicated operators (usually with some form of Council support and\/or subsidy) come into play. Sadly there are few around. What’s more, there’s even less subsidy available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bus<\/a>
Bus stop branding from Lynx for their Lynn to Hunstanton services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The costs of franchising<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your argument in favour of franchising seems to ignore the fact that franchising costs a lot of money. Money which then couldn’t be invested directly into providing front line services. TfL’s franchised system works because of the \u00a3millions pumped into the system (currently and in the past). It’s impossible for cash-strapped councils to be able to find those sorts of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nottingham City Transport, an arms-length operator, recently said that TfL style franchising in its region would cost around \u00a360m – for the same money they could run their present network for free! See here for the reference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nexus’ recent attempt at franchising bus services in the North East failed to get off the ground because of the costs that would be required to get such a scheme working – money that should be pumped into the existing bus networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You state, “it is inconceivable that the Council can be expected to subsidise on the scale needed to resurrect the rural bus market without getting some help<\/em>“, assuming that the profit from the commercial services would be sufficient to cover the costs of running the franchised system in addition to<\/strong> supporting the loss-making rural routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the profitable routes simply aren’t profitable enough to do so.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Would<\/a>
Would franchising help the smaller operators?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lack of Council support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You go on to mention that “The operators do not get the support from the councils Kent does<\/em>” – how exactly would that change under a franchised system. It would be the same Councils in charge of running the network(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You go on to mention several areas in which Councils are failing to support operators and passengers, namely: “never ending roadworks, which seem to improve nothing, making sticking to a timetable impossible<\/em>\ufeff” and “\ufefftemporary traffic lights are placed to guard sites the size of a small pot plant with nobody working there anyway<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have the powers to do something about this now, but fail to act. A similar experience faced by operators up and down the Country – a recent example, of many I’m sure, from management at More (a Go-Ahead operator) is featured below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Traffic building nicely on Christchurch Road, Boscombe. I look fwd to seeing some work being done when I walk back! pic.twitter.com\/vD5R3CaSaQ<\/a><\/p>— Richard Wade (@RichardONCL10) May 31, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote>