Most Profitable single route by Depot (Guessing).

[monkeyjoe]

I'm meant to be working but procrastinating, which route by depot do people think are the most "profitable" (not necessarily highest frequency etc). Probably been done before but... anyway.
My guesses.

BY:- 17
BC:- 60 or  29 (busy corridor, but one of shortest).
PB:- 65 or 638
YW:- 50 (although high freq still shortish vs other routes)
AG:- 1
WB:- Dunno
PE:- 222??
WA:- ????
CV:- 20??
WN:- 59


Knowledge of BC is not there clearly.

[Kevin]

How is the 638 the most profitable for PB? Runs exactly the same as the 28 for the most part and I never really see it that full. I'd say either 46 or 101

[Dylan4579]

wb-82

[monkeyjoe]

How is the 638 the most profitable for PB? Runs exactly the same as the 28 for the most part and I never really see it that full. I'd say either 46 or 101

I said the 638 as i thought runs on a busy corridor and is 1 or 2 buses and someone quoted it as being (somewhere can't remember where), however after your comments would now go with the 46 didn't think of that one.

Anyway better do some work now.

[Sh4318]

PE- 246
WB - 5?

[Liverpool Street]

BC - 29, 98 & 99

Urr... you're joking aren't you? The 98/99 are fairly quiet in comparison.

Possibly the 29 but more likely 900/E. My argument is have you seen the volume of passenger traffic to the Airport/NEC? and not only that a lot of the passengers are foreign so more likely to buy tickets and not have passes.


This could be a good one for the Director.

[Tony]

The answer will be different depending on whether you mean the route that makes the most money overall or the route that makes the highest percentage profit per vehicle.

No one from the company is ever going to post profitablility on an open forum, but some routes people think make a lot of money don't and vice versa

[monkeyjoe]

I was talking profitability (margins) so i guess the highest % per bus. I understand is commercially sensitive as I said procrastinating as my spreadsheet (ironically looking at profit margins) are doing my  head in.

Are any of them marginally close (probably worth more than your job to say)? :)

[Dylan4579]

U can't base a profitability of a route just by loadings so from WB the  82 would probably beat every thing not only by high loadings but by quick turnaround/low PVR

[Ash]

The 4/4H/4M at Walsall is a very popular service but at every 6 minutes using 21/22 vehicles the cost of operating this service daily must be high so probably not the most profitable service at Walsall it would probably be something like the 311/313 service.

[wilmotm (Matt Wilmot)]

U can't base a profitability of a route just by loadings so from WB the  82 would probably beat every thing not only by high loadings but by quick turnaround/low PVR

But you are all forgetting that it interworks with the 87! Which yes I'm sure is profitable, but not as high as the 82

Anyway I think personally that this topic is a bit of a waste of time, there are so so many factors to consider as to whether a route is profitable, just looking at routes from an enthusiasts view isn't going to give a true answer, and like Tony has already said, no real answers will ever be given out so publically and so specifically for each route 

[Stu]

From a business point-of-view, the most profitable routes will be the shorter routes, that use fewer buses and staff, yet have a 'high' passenger turnover, ie passengers only using part of the route, with people frequently getting on or off. (PB 46 probably being a good example)

This applies to longer routes too. For example the 126 wouldn't be very profitable if everyone who got on in Birmingham travelled all the way to Wolverhampton, as that same bus would carry the same load of passengers for the 15-odd mile journey. Instead, passengers frequently get on and off, travelling only along certain parts of the route, therefore that gives you a higher passenger turnover. However, the frequency of the service, combined with the large number of buses required to operate at that frequency, will eat into any profit margin, so the service would need a constant stream of passengers getting on and off to keep it viable.

Of course, without knowing the exact numbers of passengers using a particular service, and the running costs involved, we enthusiasts can merely only speculate.

[nitromatt1]

I'd guess the 140/241 would be the most profitable at PN, as they are relatively short, operate (mainly!) with fuel-efficient B7RLEs, aren't high frequency (30 minutes during the day) but still get busy/packed (particularly the 140)

[Stuharris 6360]

I'd guess the 140/241 would be the most profitable at PN, as they are relatively short, operate (mainly!) with fuel-efficient B7RLEs, aren't high frequency (30 minutes during the day) but still get busy/packed (particularly the 140)

Then again what about the 9, surely NE would not operate such a route with such a high frequency during the day, without it being profitable.

[Stu]

I'd guess the 140/241 would be the most profitable at PN, as they are relatively short, operate (mainly!) with fuel-efficient B7RLEs, aren't high frequency (30 minutes during the day) but still get busy/packed (particularly the 140)

Then again what about the 9, surely NE would not operate such a route with such a high frequency during the day, without it being profitable.

As Tony has already stated, it is not necessarily the high-frequency routes that are the most profitable, for the reasons I have suggested above.