For Sale

[Tony]

£1.5 million for 35 buses in areas where rotala already operate/near where they operate where buses are busy is a good deal and per bus it works out as good value compared to what stagecoach offered/nearly had north devon for. It's a good price and rotala should do well out of it provided they do not allocate too many mpds and solos to what are busy routes and need full sized single deckers.

There looks likely to be 5 Solos and a total of 12 MPDs allocated to RH/KR when the fleets are combined. I would think a couple of routes will be suited to these so it will be interesting where they turn up

[Ash]

What is going to happen the the nifty fifty centro's that have been repainted blue, has this just happened due to blue being the colour for the new livery or are they on the move to Redditch/Kidderminster.

[PM]

£1.5 million for 35 buses in areas where rotala already operate/near where they operate where buses are busy is a good deal and per bus it works out as good value compared to what stagecoach offered/nearly had north devon for. It's a good price and rotala should do well out of it provided they do not allocate too many mpds and solos to what are busy routes and need full sized single deckers.

There looks likely to be 5 Solos and a total of 12 MPDs allocated to RH/KR when the fleets are combined. I would think a couple of routes will be suited to these so it will be interesting where they turn up

I would imagine these will end up on routes like the 51 and 64 or something like that-the 143 needs deckers, the X3 needs larger single decks along with the 57 and 58 thats for certain

[Tony]

What is going to happen the the nifty fifty centro's that have been repainted blue, has this just happened due to blue being the colour for the new livery or are they on the move to Redditch/Kidderminster.

They are transferring to RH/KR whether the 50 is as well I don't know

[Ash]

What is going to happen the the nifty fifty centro's that have been repainted blue, has this just happened due to blue being the colour for the new livery or are they on the move to Redditch/Kidderminster.

They are transferring to RH/KR whether the 50 is as well I don't know

Ok thank you for the info Tony, If the 50 moves out of Long Acre that's another service lost from there and if this is the case wouldn't surprise me if the 16 doesn't return back to Tividale in the near future with the hybrid versa's as there still in black diamond livery.

[jc]

143 only needs deckers because singles are banned from it, singles cant get round morrison's in Bromsgrove due to there size, Those shorter MAN/Centros should do fine on there!

KX08HMY is stored in the First Group depot with 861

[Tony]

143 only needs deckers because singles are banned from it, singles cant get round morrison's in Bromsgrove due to there size, Those shorter MAN/Centros should do fine on there!

KX08HMY is stored in the First Group depot with 861

I would imagine both are there for 'type training' ready for Sunday. Those are the only two types of vehicles that First drivers will not be a used to driving, unless a couple have arrived since Redditch last had Solos

[tank90]

143 only needs deckers because singles are banned from it, singles cant get round morrison's in Bromsgrove due to there size, Those shorter MAN/Centros should do fine on there!

KX08HMY is stored in the First Group depot with 861

I would imagine both are there for 'type training' ready for Sunday. Those are the only two types of vehicles that First drivers will not be a used to driving, unless a couple have arrived since Redditch last had Solos

Diamond staff have also been down at Plymouth Road to type train on Lance Enviro 300 President Volvo Olympian so that they can driver them too.

[Cedric]

Had an update on the changes
42641, the last new 'real' Midland Red West vehicle is now not to transfer, but will be used for spares at Worcester, 42401 will replace it at Redditch
11 Enviro 300s are to transfer to Worcester to replace their last MRW Lance; 4 'ODZ' Lances and 6 'R' reg dats. 1 Enviro is to transfer to Hereford to replace 42401. The other 4 Enviro 300s are to be temporarily stored at Hereford

tony 42641 is a Kidderminster bus  not a Redditch one  so wonder if 42401  will come to Kidderminster to join the rest of the batch , I was on 42220  to day and ticket machine was broke driver issuing by hand wonder if fist will bother fixing it

[Tony]

Western Greyhound has found a buyer - Go-Ahead group

from Route 1

Go-Ahead-owned Plymouth Citybus has acquired Western Greyhound bus services in the Liskeard area.

It follows Western Greyhound being offered for sale, after a period of poor operation and financial pressures (routeone, News, 19 November).

Says Western Greyhound MD and co-owner Mark Howarth: "The company continues in discussions with interested parties for the rest of the business and an announcement will be made in due course."

Go-Ahead took over on Monday (8 December) in south-east Cornwall, safeguarding 31 bus driving jobs in the area, and continuing to run the Western Greyhound timetables currently in place.

This includes routes 572 (Looe-Plymouth), 573 (Looe-Liskeard), 574 (Liskeard Callington) and 576 (Plymouth-Callington-Launceston-Bude).

It will also run the section of route 593 between Plymouth and Liskeard, with Western Greyhound running the 593 between Newquay and Liskeard. Through tickets will continue to be available.

Plymouth Citybus intends to take over the lease of the depot off Culverwood Road in Liskeard, along with nine low-floor buses that will be branded under the new name of 'Go Cornwall Bus'.

Plymouth Citybus runs 180 buses in Plymouth, which is 20 miles away from Liskeard.

Plymouth Citybus MD Richard Stevens says: "We are delighted to be able to come to an agreement with Western Greyhound to take over these routes and not only safeguard 31 local jobs, but secure vital bus services in south-east Cornwall.

"We have a wealth of experience of running buses in the area and have this year started providing services to The Rame peninsular and into Liskeard, complementing our service between Callington and Tavistock."

Mr Howarth says: "We believe that the deal for the Liskeard area represents good value for our employees and users.

"We started operations in south-east Cornwall in August 2004, stepping in when DAC closed down their operations there, and stepped in again when local bus operator Phil Hambley of Pelynt retired.

"Frequencies were steadily increased with through services between Newquay and Plymouth, and more recently increasing the peak Liskeard-Plymouth frequency to half-hourly. "A network based on connections at Liskeard was developed together with integrated ticketing with First Great Western trains on the Looe Valley corridor. I am delighted that Plymouth Citybus will be able to take this network to the next phase of its development."

[mikestone]

I wonder if go-ahead were put off buying the rest of the business by the danger of attracting the attention of the competition clowns, whatever they call themselves this week?

[JoNi]

Apparently the rest of Western Greyhound has been sold

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Jobs-saved-entrepreneur-strikes-deal-Western/story-25542863-detail/story.html

[JoNi]

Further background on buyers of Western Greyhound

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=WiibVMqsBMWy7QbcvoCYDg&url=http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Troubled-bus-firm-sells-rest-business/story-25717980-detail/story.html&ved=0CB0QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNEwlKXQG7RmKcDT_1AOX1aLip5ucw&sig2=OuXcSS7_BlzNLqSxFs44iA

[Bryan]

Further background on buyers of Western Greyhound

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=WiibVMqsBMWy7QbcvoCYDg&url=http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Troubled-bus-firm-sells-rest-business/story-25717980-detail/story.html&ved=0CB0QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNEwlKXQG7RmKcDT_1AOX1aLip5ucw&sig2=OuXcSS7_BlzNLqSxFs44iA

Reading the article, it looks like Western Greyhound could have an interesting and expect anything future!

[mikestone]

I'm not even sure that is the full story - I seem to recall that  when Countryliner collapsed they attempted to set up a new company to carry on but were scuppered by the refusal of the counties concerned to transfer their tenders.