Whittles

[Cedric]

will
have you seen 163 about lately  , there seam to be a few I have not seen for  a while , and I think they
are now struggling to maintain the services  as 2 Saturday last month I went to catch the last 2a to bewdley
and they did not show nor the 2c, driver have left and gone to diamond, and travel star  European   , and
even left the industry for other work

[Reece]

Maybe showing that openly announcing a business is up for sale is never a good idea?

It's suicide.... they should have approached other interested parties and kept it all confidential/even with staff until such time that they had a firm offer on the table or had decided the only option was closure. Who's going to want to buy anything now? They may as well wait for it to all come crashing down and pick up the pieces they want for free or a token amount.

Especially when you admit it will shut if there's no sale! Who's going to push for a sale now when they can just sit back and wait or recruit their staff?!

Alternately, you can sell your assets (property / vehicles etc) & minimise exposure to redundancy payments. Not such a bad move after all.

Dave, I see where you're coming from, but other than it's fleet, Whittle's doesn't appear to have many assets other than it's fleet, order book, name & goodwill and we don't actually what liabilities they have. The 6 x Levante's will no doubt be on operating leases, as with the Finglands sale, EYMS may prefer to retain the fleet to update its own, they may well opt to do the same with Whittle's coach & bus fleet. From seeing Peter Shipp in 'On the Yorkshire Buses' I can't help feel he's just a genuinely nice bloke and cares about all his staff, EYMS Group is more than just about money to him, he doesn't come across as profit driven.

Anyone who's done any length of service at Whittle's would be daft to defect to Diamond/others, they should stay put & wait for the redundancy payout at least.

Winston quite a few Staff have already left or leaving soon.  do not think there are that many that have done a great length of service on the bus side , think a few on the coach side have.  do  not think it  will before the end comes , think it will be soon than people think (just my view)

Cedric, it doesn't sound like it. Closure now seems the most likely, with Diamond picking up the pieces on the bus side. What's the betting we see a new registration on the 125 & 192 soon from Diamond following it's recruitment drive......?

I would think that Arriva might well want to take over the 125 rather than Diamond as Arriva have some presents in both Bridgnorth and Stourbridge. If Diamond was to take over the 125 would this mean they may take over the 101 Bridgnorth town service as well then?

I expect Diamond would want to take over everything that Whittle's currently operate to consolidate their position & prevent anyone expanding within Kidderminster

Diamond at the moment have got a big shortage of long buses and these kind of buses are needed to operate services like the 125 and 192. How can Diamond run the 125 and 192 services on MPDs if Whittle's is not purchased.

[winston]

Diamond at the moment have got a big shortage of long buses and these kind of buses are needed to operate services like the 125 and 192. How can Diamond run the 125 and 192 services on MPDs if Whittle's is not purchased.

Exactly the same way they currently do, i.e. allocating MPD's on unsuitable services.....

[Reece]

Diamond at the moment have got a big shortage of long buses and these kind of buses are needed to operate services like the 125 and 192. How can Diamond run the 125 and 192 services on MPDs if Whittle's is not purchased.

Exactly the same way they currently do, i.e. allocating MPD's on unsuitable services.....

So if Arriva did get the 125 and 192 Whittle's services would they be better than Diamond running them?

[Cedric]

Diamond at the moment have got a big shortage of long buses and these kind of buses are needed to operate services like the 125 and 192. How can Diamond run the 125 and 192 services on MPDs if Whittle's is not purchased.

Exactly the same way they currently do, i.e. allocating MPD's on unsuitable services.....

even whittle use MPD & E200 some of time , in answer to your question about Arriva  being any better than diamond   at running the 125/192
do not think so as all companies  are suffering the same challenges at the moment. (do not know much about arriva though) the only bit I could see the may do was if the 125 was spilt to just bridgnorth to Kidderminster as it always was

[the trainbasher]

I'm surprised Hansons haven't started a Kidderminster to Stourbridge service to compete against/replace the Whittles 125.

Or Diamond extending every other 142 down to Kidderminster?

[Cedric]

I'm surprised Hansons haven't started a Kidderminster to Stourbridge service to compete against/replace the Whittles 125.

Or Diamond extending every other 142 down to Kidderminster?

you never know what might happen, think  we should get some idea soon
as companies interested in doing anything with the whittle routes  will have to
put registrations in soon 

[Cedric]

PD1030553/83 - WHITTLE COACH & BUS LTD, FOLEY BUSINESS PARK STOURPORT ROAD, KIDDERMINSTER, DY11 7QL

Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Town Hall given service number 2A/2C effective from 15-Dec-2014.

[winston]

PD1030553/83 - WHITTLE COACH & BUS LTD, FOLEY BUSINESS PARK STOURPORT ROAD, KIDDERMINSTER, DY11 7QL

Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Town Hall given service number 2A/2C effective from 15-Dec-2014.

Those new services didn't last long

[Cedric]

johnsons  coaches have now started advertising holidays from Kidderminster in todays local papers
as well as hardings   .

[D10]

PD1030553/83 - WHITTLE COACH & BUS LTD, FOLEY BUSINESS PARK STOURPORT ROAD, KIDDERMINSTER, DY11 7QL

Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Town Hall given service number 2A/2C effective from 15-Dec-2014.

The section between Stourport and Bewdley will definitely need replacing, so will Diamond step in commercially or will Worcestershire CC have to subsidise...

[winston]

PD1030553/83 - WHITTLE COACH & BUS LTD, FOLEY BUSINESS PARK STOURPORT ROAD, KIDDERMINSTER, DY11 7QL

Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Town Hall given service number 2A/2C effective from 15-Dec-2014.

The section between Stourport and Bewdley will definitely need replacing, so will Diamond step in commercially or will Worcestershire CC have to subsidise...

Diamond have moved extra buses in to KR, so why not take the opportunity to add to its own existing services/register new with the addition of potential frequency increases etc

[iamwilljh92]

PD1030553/83 - WHITTLE COACH & BUS LTD, FOLEY BUSINESS PARK STOURPORT ROAD, KIDDERMINSTER, DY11 7QL

Cancellation Accepted: Operating between Kidderminster Town Hall and Kidderminster Town Hall given service number 2A/2C effective from 15-Dec-2014.

The section between Stourport and Bewdley will definitely need replacing, so will Diamond step in commercially or will Worcestershire CC have to subsidise...

Simple answer is no Diamond won't they're not interested in the 2A/C I've been told that by a driver friend of mine so it looks as if Worcs CC will have to come up with something very quickly!!

[PM]

Well they've got over a month! Whittles haven't gone bust.

I imagine the 15 would regain the section between Stourport and Bewdley and be re-tendered.

Did anyone on here use this bit of the 2A/C to see how it was doing?

I don't imagine Diamond would want the 2A/C as it is unnecessarily confusing for passengers.

[iamwilljh92]

Well they've got over a month! Whittles haven't gone bust.

I imagine the 15 would regain the section between Stourport and Bewdley and be re-tendered.

Did anyone on here use this bit of the 2A/C to see how it was doing?

I don't imagine Diamond would want the 2A/C as it is unnecessarily confusing for passengers.

Yes I have! On the last 2 occasions that I have been on the late afternoon 2C service they're has only been ME as a passenger!! so it can't make much revenue