About time there was some competition in Cannock??

[sconehead85]

bob- Economic reality, not rubbish.  Whether you like it or not, the future is with the big companies.  Have you forgotten PREMIERE? And that was in Nottingham- a major city.
If bus companies dont wish to waste money on bus wars no one will make them.  There is also a RECESSION on.

Perhaps the best way is for someone to pressurise Arriva to improve- no easy task given that I live in a mainly Arriva area.  Grass and trees dont pay bus fares.

As for Chase Coaches they had a fleet of 30-year old Leyland Nationals which simply had to be retired!

sconehead85

[Bob]

So the future is big huge private empires then? Wheres the choice that privatisation was supposed to bring? Non existent! Maggie the rotten b***h!

[arrifirststage]

bob- Economic reality, not rubbish.  Whether you like it or not, the future is with the big companies.  Have you forgotten PREMIERE? And that was in Nottingham- a major city.
If bus companies dont wish to waste money on bus wars no one will make them.  There is also a RECESSION on.

Perhaps the best way is for someone to pressurise Arriva to improve- no easy task given that I live in a mainly Arriva area.  Grass and trees dont pay bus fares.

As for Chase Coaches they had a fleet of 30-year old Leyland Nationals which simply had to be retired!

Thank God some readers of this forum have a grasp of reality..................many posters seem to think it is only necessary to run a service and passengers will miraculously appear.
Like I keep saying,Cannock does not justify a serious competitor.
Why do you think that Arriva,a huge multinational operator with vast resources,does not consider Cannock worthy of expensive investment?
Managers in senior positions in any large operator are not stupid.

[Steveminor]

The trouble is passenger numbers are falling. I remember a time that yes the 991 was so lucrative that twm & Petes competed head to head on it. If I remember Petes used to take in excess of £200 a day on it. But there are so few passengers on it now that it barely breaks even & that's with just 1 operator, so there is no way it could support 2.
The same can be said for a lot of routes & not only in Cannock. As has been said on another thread look at the 146 once every 20 mins now hourly with hardly any peak running.
It's not as if other operators haven't wanted to compete in Cannock, I know of 3 who have seriously looked at operating in the Cannock area, it's just they can't see anything as being profitable enough.

[Bob]

Which 3 are those then?

[sconehead85]

bob-  The whole bus deregulation thing was a con-trick played by out-of-touch wealthy Tories whose only encounter with buses were "darn big nuisances which stopped one driving one's Bentley a little faster".   A fit of good sense stopped them inflicting deregulation upon London.

The 1985 Transport Act was the b*****d child of wealthy toffs who didnt give the price of a wet bus ticket about the transport needs of those too poor to buy a car.

Even in 1986 it was known there were few golden eggs in running bus services.  In those days there was an abundance of cheap second-hand buses and reddundant drivers with which to start bus companies up.  Now the chickens have come to roost- the drivers made  redundant in 1986 were not replaced, there is an ageing workforce (I see few young bus drivers) and the banks will not lend to a small time bus operator these days.  Those small firms which havent been taken over could/have been dropping like flies in the last year or so.

One of the greatest failures of the Blair-Brown government was their abject failure to repeal the poisonous 1985 Act and re-regulate bus operation.

Co-ordination and regulation not competition is the only way to better bus services. So in Cannock, Catterick or Clackmannan dont hold your breath!

sconehead85

[Steveminor]

Sorry bob but I won't disclose confidential information especially not on a public forum. Suffice it to say they ranged from what people on here perceive as the good & cowboy operators.
I have looked at routes in Cannock myself & am sorry to say I can't see anywhere busy enough to support 2 operators. Yes there are routes which a fairly well used but you have to remember that any new operator can only really expect to get 30% of the passengers at most during the first few months of operation. In Cannock that would mean running at a considerable loss for some time. In today's climate there aren't many companies that could or would risk that outlay

[Bob]

I think as ive said if nxwm were to compete on the 1 to Walsall they would get the lions share of passengers. Admittedly routes like the 62 ( once a profitable service now operated by crap midibuses), 68, possibly the 70 probably wouldnt be. I do think theres a market for a decent ( going nowhere NEAR the M6!) bus service to Birmingham. The number of times ive gone for the train and  it hasnt turned up has put me off for life. Even the X31 with its timekeeping issues wasnt that unreliable. It was unfortunate what happened with it but says it all about how rubbish Arriva route planners/management are that they even CONSIDERED running a bus down the M6! Drivers at the time said it wouldnt work! Also using normal buses on what was supposed to be a flagship express route? Surely DP seated vehicles couldve been found from somewhere at the very least. But thats consigned to history now

[Discodave]

I am afraid the passenger count like most have said would not support 2 operators most of Cannocks operations yes were good but that was in the past and operated badly now I am suprised if it just breaks even.  With the constant tinkering and messing people in the shires have just got hacked off with Arriva and just got cars so folks getting on has nose dived and even with new buses or a bus war you propose and cheaper fare offers it would just bankrupt both companies.  Bus companies are getting less and less in revenue from concessonary passes (and the future of the all England pass is in doubt due to cost as it was just a grey vote winner.).  As much as the all England pass is good the costs were not taken propperly into account by the last Labour govt and it is costing a fortune just like the Scottish and Welsh passes too.  Eventually the fuel duty rebate bus companies get will go completely so either fares (even in PTE areas) will either have to go up or council tax payers will pay more or more routes will have to be cut.  Where is the money going to come from to compete just sticking buses on to take arriva on will cost a lot of money. (Even though I do agree Arriva need a competetor in Cannock its just not economically sound).

[Bob]

Well Arriva are s###e dave so expect ridership in cannock to decline terminally lol along with the crap state of the buses ( if thats possible)

[Stu]

Bob, maybe you and Dave could start your own bus company?  ::)

[PM]

To be fair if I could drive buses, had an o license and the money Id have a stab at the X31 with deckers

[Bob]

I wonder if Cannock does barely make a profit now?

[Bob]

To be fair if I could drive buses, had an o license and the money Id have a stab at the X31 with deckers

Which route would you take it?

[Dylan4579]

Bob, maybe you and Dave could start your own bus company?  ::)

not bob and Dave bob and Reiss