Franchised bus network.

[Lukeee]

Wonder what will happen to operators based outside the West Midlands who run cross border services (for example Chaserider on the 70/71). 

[Mayfield]

Same as Manchester I guess

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

The mayor said lower fares yet they are going up  I know of areas that kept the fares low

Which was lies,his own government put it up to £3, I had a discussion with a lad on this last night and we both felt NX, Diamond whoever should be allowed to set there own fares. You just know this is going up so he can do his plan of Franchising, if Fares were lower you pay more Council Tax, who no doubt share that to TFWM, if it's left Private NX can do there accounting and reduce fares or freeze them something they did ages ago before Covid, since Covid NX, Diamond and the liked have put up prices to cope with today loss of revenue. A Good mayor sort of like Andy Street (who didn't want to Franchise the buses), he actually said he wanted to work with Bus operators to make people feel safer on them and to try and get people onto the buses to ease congestion, the entire reason Partly Parker wants them under public ownership. Street knew what he was doing and it was working. I think in his first term and part of his second fares remained consistent, since Parker took over they have gone up. Parker could have stuck with what Street was doing and then after a year or two say this isn't working consulted operators rather than bully them and think of a solution that somehow means NX say as he likes to Bully them can focus on there main core routes and the local tendered services could all run by the Public ownership firm as sort of a last resort/demand service, as they are more than likely the routes not making money for operators.  

[Simon Dunn]

I have been reading your posts on West Midlands Franchising.
 
I have seen comments about Diamond and NX and I would like to offer my contribution.
 
In my opinion the current bus fares in the West Midlands are not sustainable.  I have not seen any recent numbers, but National Express have around 85-90% market share.  The impact of the industrial action was to escalate their pay costs above an affordable level for that business.  In April with the impact of the budget, and potential employments rights bill their will need to be more money into the network.  The only two avenues to do this will be either fare increases or more network support. 
 
The recent revision to £2.90 singles is a direct impact of the adjustment of the £2 farecap and the financial support with that.
 
On 18^th January 2024 Rotala went from being an AIM listed business to being owned 70% by my family and 30% by John Gunn.  As my family own most of the shares, we control it.  I have been approached by an officer at TfWM about our Tividale site.  I am 48 years of age.  I intend to work until I die, and I tell all our staff I am living past 100 (clearly I have no control over this).  The point being I never intend to sell Rotala, Tividale is our Head Office.  Although Rotala is today primarily a bus business, with some other business interests.  We intend to diversify – I have made it very clear I have no intention of selling the site as I see it key to our strategy inside and outside of bus. 
 
The Mayor will ultimately decide the direction of the bus network.  I cannot control this; I have no intention of taking any legal action.  I do not think the large depot approach taken by Manchester is the right way forward.  From my own experience, it takes time to accumulate a team who understand what you want, the culture and to build a working relationship.  That relationship builds overtime, and good people you invest in, and aim to evolve.  I do not think people are an easily transferrable commodity.  I have done over 30 acquisitions in my working life, and I know from personal experience the people issue that come from change.

I think the London approach of individual contracts is far better for service delivery.  It keeps all operators in the game and thinking long term about their people, it's at no disbenefit to the SME and there is no need to provide bidding assumptions to operators to create a level playing field.  The bidding assumption creates a massive onerous risk to the CA. 
 
I do not think this approach will be taken/forward seriously. In my opinion it is the best long-term approach for the market, and all stakeholders.


 
 

[Stu]

In my opinion the current bus fares in the West Midlands are not sustainable.  I have not seen any recent numbers, but National Express have around 85-90% market share.  The impact of the industrial action was to escalate their pay costs above an affordable level for that business.  In April with the impact of the budget, and potential employments rights bill their will need to be more money into the network.  The only two avenues to do this will be either fare increases or more network support. 
 
The recent revision to £2.90 singles is a direct impact of the adjustment of the £2 farecap and the financial support with that.

Thanks for your valuable input Simon.

I agree completely, the costs of running bus operations have dramatically increased for operators in the last 2-3 years, whether through general inflation, fuel/energy costs, increased staff wages, and of course costs are going to increase when employers NI contributions go up next year.

Yet in all this time, bus operators have been 'expected' to keep fares as low as possible, and for a time, TfWM and our former mayor promised to keep fares 'frozen'.

The fare increase earlier this year offered some respite for beleaguered operators. With regards to National Express, during the bus strike action, it didn't help when Unite were making wildly inaccurate claims about the amount of profit that NX were making, quoting figures representative of the Mobico group as a whole, rather than NX Bus itself.

Because the media just repeated these claims without question, people still have this 'perception' that NX Bus are greedy and profiteering.

Then of course Mr Parker bemoans about providing £55m worth of funding to NX Bus, though I'm sure this figure refers to funding provided to ALL bus operators in the region.

I think he is living in fantasy land if he thinks that he can pay bus operators to run services under contract, and keep fares low at the same time as maintaining the current levels of service.

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

Thanks for your valuable input Simon.

I agree completely, the costs of running bus operations have dramatically increased for operators in the last 2-3 years, whether through general inflation, fuel/energy costs, increased staff wages, and of course costs are going to increase when employers NI contributions go up next year.

Yet in all this time, bus operators have been 'expected' to keep fares as low as possible, and for a time, TfWM and our former mayor promised to keep fares 'frozen'.

The fare increase earlier this year offered some respite for beleaguered operators. With regards to National Express, during the bus strike action, it didn't help when Unite were making wildly inaccurate claims about the amount of profit that NX were making, quoting figures representative of the Mobico group as a whole, rather than NX Bus itself.

Because the media just repeated these claims without question, people still have this 'perception' that NX Bus are greedy and profiteering.

Then of course Mr Parker bemoans about providing £55m worth of funding to NX Bus, though I'm sure this figure refers to funding provided to ALL bus operators in the region.

I think he is living in fantasy land if he thinks that he can pay bus operators to run services under contract, and keep fares low at the same time as maintaining the current levels of service.

I could also sense NX who probably have quite a strong legal term could take legal action if he tries to buy depots and targets them for his plans considering he has basically Slated them. He certainly is living in Fantasy land if he also thinks clever people who aren't old, gullible or don't care will fall for his lies, much like his party people will See through his lies and cracks. There will be issues and eventually I think this whole plan will fall apart, the Tories will get re elected at mayoral level, sell the broken franchise back of to the likes of Rotala, NX and whoever replaces the Independents and we will once again get normality

[Stu]

I could also sense NX who probably have quite a strong legal term could take legal action if he tries to buy depots and targets them for his plans considering he has basically Slated them.

The WMCA have already purchased the Walsall depot from NX Bus.

[the trainbasher]

I could also sense NX who probably have quite a strong legal term could take legal action if he tries to buy depots and targets them for his plans considering he has basically Slated them. He certainly is living in Fantasy land if he also thinks clever people who aren't old, gullible or don't care will fall for his lies, much like his party people will See through his lies and cracks. There will be issues and eventually I think this whole plan will fall apart, the Tories will get re elected at mayoral level, sell the broken franchise back of to the likes of Rotala, NX and whoever replaces the Independents and we will once again get normality

The thing is that Stagecoach and Rotala both tried legal action in Manchester for franchising there, and Justice Julian Knowles stated in his decision that he was not "persuaded the impugned decisions were either unlawful or irrational", so NXWM don't really have a leg to stand on. Anyway, its the way things are going, with Merseyside, SYPTE and WYPTE also going down that route, taking advantage of the Bus Services Act 2017.

[wembley86]

Is the current Mayors figures correct on franchising cost or was Streets figures correct.