Discount Travel Solutions

[winston]

I can confirm sunny travel have completed the purchase of discount travel. The fleet remains the same & it is being kept & run as a separate entity.

Steve, when you say run as a separate entity, will Sunny run DTS on their current license with only the two vehicles allowed? Can the license reduction be reviewed now DTS has new owners / financial backing?

Other than the buses & equipment, what business are Sunny actually buying? With the 29 & 63E both being withdrawn & the 966 having only operated for a few days so far, surely it's too early to see if its going to be viable route. Would it not have been more cost effective for Sunny just to register on the former DTS routes and source their own extra buses?

[Steveminor]

My understanding is that the DTS licence can be increased once the tc is satisfied that they meet the financial standing.  Obviously there is a time scale involved. Sunny had been looking at the 966 anyway & with the fact they were looking at purchasing other operators to increase their business portfolio DTS made sense & the price was right.
You have to remember that the owners of Sunny have several other business interests both in the UK & India. They have a lot of financial clout behind them.

You may ask why don't they have newer buses if they have so much money? Well it's simple you don't make money by spending it frivolously.  They spend what they need when they need to. When on the 120 they didn't need to buy slfs & indeed the takings didn't warrant it. It's a different story now on the 71.
There are some interesting plans for DTS & indeed the whole group.
We may yet see a third bus company in their portfolio.

[andy]

I can confirm sunny travel have completed the purchase of discount travel. The fleet remains the same & it is being kept & run as a separate entity.

Steve, when you say run as a separate entity, will Sunny run DTS on their current license with only the two vehicles allowed? Can the license reduction be reviewed now DTS has new owners / financial backing?

Other than the buses & equipment, what business are Sunny actually buying? With the 29 & 63E both being withdrawn & the 966 having only operated for a few days so far, surely it's too early to see if its going to be viable route. Would it not have been more cost effective for Sunny just to register on the former DTS routes and source their own extra buses?

Winston, could it be that the TC was looking at Sunny themselves and their number of licenses? And they have acquired DTS as a way of heading this off?

I wouldn't be atall surprised.

[winston]

My understanding is that the DTS licence can be increased once the tc is satisfied that they meet the financial standing.  Obviously there is a time scale involved. Sunny had been looking at the 966 anyway & with the fact they were looking at purchasing other operators to increase their business portfolio DTS made sense & the price was right.
You have to remember that the owners of Sunny have several other business interests both in the UK & India. They have a lot of financial clout behind them.

You may ask why don't they have newer buses if they have so much money? Well it's simple you don't make money by spending it frivolously.  They spend what they need when they need to. When on the 120 they didn't need to buy slfs & indeed the takings didn't warrant it. It's a different story now on the 71.
There are some interesting plans for DTS & indeed the whole group.
We may yet see a third bus company in their portfolio.

Thanks for the update Steve, I totally agree with the above statement, but there are also times when you have to 'speculate to accumulate' obviously within the spending constraints of the company concerned. Sunny will be forced to replace the steppers by the end of next year anyway and to be fair you can pick up SLF's for £5k & less anyway, so not exactly talking mega bucks.

It would be nice to see Sunny Travel & DTS adopt fleetnames on their vehicles, can we expect DTS or Sunny to introduce any new routes of their own or are they simply going to continue cherry picking the busiest NX routes?

Winston, could it be that the TC was looking at Sunny themselves and their number of licenses? And they have acquired DTS as a way of heading this off?

I wouldn't be atall surprised.

Andy, it's always possible. But  I'm not aware of Sunny having any run-ins with the TC

Having more than one license gives you the flexibility if the needs arises.....

[Steveminor]

Firstly there is no issue re: the traffic commissioner & sunny travel & indeed they can increase the license should they wish. But as has been said having more than one company does give you a certain amount of flexibility in some instances. Let's be completely honest if they hadn't bought DTS then it would be another ceased operator by now.
I agree with the speculate to accumulate philosophy & I think it's obvious sunny are speculating now, there is a new livery & only one step dart left which is due to retire any week now "a shame as it really is a very reliable bus & is much sort after by the drivers." The point I was making is that with the takings on the 120 it would have been a complete waste of money to have updated the buses.
On the route front Sunny did try the park & ride in solihull for a while, it was partially successful & was only cancelled due to political reasons with solihull council. I won't say what they were but the council were being totally unreasonable with what they wanted so in the end lost what they had got.
At the moment sunny is pretty much stabilised on the 71 ( which is more a copy of clarinets route than nx as nx do not run through moored avenue). With DTS it's very early days yet & no one quite knows how the 966 will pan out. If it doesn't work as hoped there is another route already planned but yes it will be a head to head competition rather than new route.

The main problem with starting a brand new route is just how much money needs to be spent initially on advertising etc. Then there is how many buses are needed to make the frequency attractive to customers.
We do have several ideas on brand new routes but at the moment there isn't enough buses to make them work. This will change over the development of the group & will probably be under the third company if and when it is brought into the fold. But no not any time in the immediate future.
There are big big plans but only time will tell if they can be made viable plans.

[andy]

So what you're saying Steve is we can look forward to more terminus occupation, wacky races and dangerous overtaking at bus stops, trip missing, creative timetabling, and all this probably on an already well serviced corridor rather than the offer of anything innovative or useful to the travelling public. I can't wait!

[Steveminor]

As I said Andy there are plans to innovate but these things take time money & buses just be patient. As for your other comments I won't stoop to comment on them.

[andy]

As I said Andy there are plans to innovate but these things take time money & buses just be patient. As for your other comments I won't stoop to comment on them.

It wasn't a personal thing, so no stooping required. I am speaking from my own experiences not just those of others.

[monkeyjoe]

Not sure if this has been mentioned however saw on of these vehicles on the 966 route on the chester road towards Erdington. Number display not working had a paper number sticker displaying 996, had a passenger on it. I found it sort of amusing lol.

[Stu]

Saw X179CTG heading away from Acocks Green up the Warwick Road this evening as I returned home on the 37. Was showing 'Discount Travel Solutions' on the LED display.

[vinh1000]

Noticed a dtsl bus with full blinds working driving around Solihull train station

[James4368]

X179CTG On 966 spotted at Birmingham airport 1500

[the trainbasher]

it was nice to have a croeso on one their ex Cardiff X179CGT earlier (Mainly as it has bilingual interior stickers)

[winston]

No good on the 966 then, where next?

PD1121581/3 - DISCOUNT TRAVEL SOLUTIONS LIMITED, 11-12 ANNE ROAD, SMETHWICK, B66 2NZ
    Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Erdington 6 ways island and Solihull Railway Interchange given service number 966 effective from 05-Jan-2015.

PD1121581/4 - DISCOUNT TRAVEL SOLUTIONS LIMITED, 11-12 ANNE ROAD, SMETHWICK, B66 2NZ
    Registration Accepted
    Starting Point: Oldbury
    Finish Point: Birmingham City Centre
    Via: Cape Hill
    Service Number: 87
    Service Type: Normal Stopping
    Effective Date: 05-JAN-2015
    Other Details: Sundays only.

[Stuharris 6360]

No good on the 966 then, where next?

PD1121581/3 - DISCOUNT TRAVEL SOLUTIONS LIMITED, 11-12 ANNE ROAD, SMETHWICK, B66 2NZ
    Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Erdington 6 ways island and Solihull Railway Interchange given service number 966 effective from 05-Jan-2015.

PD1121581/4 - DISCOUNT TRAVEL SOLUTIONS LIMITED, 11-12 ANNE ROAD, SMETHWICK, B66 2NZ
    Registration Accepted
    Starting Point: Oldbury
    Finish Point: Birmingham City Centre
    Via: Cape Hill
    Service Number: 87
    Service Type: Normal Stopping
    Effective Date: 05-JAN-2015
    Other Details: Sundays only.

They don't seem to be giving the services much time to settle down and pick up.