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Post by snowman on Sept 23, 2017 6:24:41 GMT
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Post by MoEnviro on Oct 18, 2017 11:57:33 GMT
Rotala/Hallmark are set for further expansion with there forthcoming take over of the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa Network
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Post by snoggle on Oct 18, 2017 16:00:03 GMT
Rotala/Hallmark are set for further expansion with there forthcoming take over of the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa Network Is that a retender of the work by Heathrow Airport or have they bought out National Express's work? I confess I don't understand how those services work. Given Hallmark have been struggling with their SCC work let's hope they do better with the Hotel Hoppas or else there'll be a lot of complaints. Amazing that it costs £4.50 single though if web purchase, £5 single on the bus!
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Post by redexpress on Oct 18, 2017 16:16:15 GMT
Rotala/Hallmark are set for further expansion with there forthcoming take over of the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa Network Is that a retender of the work by Heathrow Airport or have they bought out National Express's work? I confess I don't understand how those services work. Given Hallmark have been struggling with their SCC work let's hope they do better with the Hotel Hoppas or else there'll be a lot of complaints. Amazing that it costs £4.50 single though if web purchase, £5 single on the bus! They've bought the business from NatEx - article here. This states that the service runs "under contracts to the hotels and airlines". Seems surprising that airlines are directly involved with the service; I'd have thought it was up to the airport rather than individual airlines. The service makes a profit but not a huge one, despite those high fares. Probably a reflection of how many empty buses they have to run to keep the service attractive.
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Post by snoggle on Oct 18, 2017 16:51:42 GMT
Is that a retender of the work by Heathrow Airport or have they bought out National Express's work? I confess I don't understand how those services work. Given Hallmark have been struggling with their SCC work let's hope they do better with the Hotel Hoppas or else there'll be a lot of complaints. Amazing that it costs £4.50 single though if web purchase, £5 single on the bus! They've bought the business from NatEx - article here. This states that the service runs "under contracts to the hotels and airlines". Seems surprising that airlines are directly involved with the service; I'd have thought it was up to the airport rather than individual airlines. The service makes a profit but not a huge one, despite those high fares. Probably a reflection of how many empty buses they have to run to keep the service attractive. Thanks for that. I wonder if it means that there is a depot going spare at Heathrow or nearby once Nat Ex move out? If so, I wonder if anyone local (or not so local) will grab it to give themselves a new foothold (cough Metrolinasaurus cough).
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Post by planesandtrains on Oct 18, 2017 17:39:43 GMT
They've bought the business from NatEx - article here. This states that the service runs "under contracts to the hotels and airlines". Seems surprising that airlines are directly involved with the service; I'd have thought it was up to the airport rather than individual airlines. The service makes a profit but not a huge one, despite those high fares. Probably a reflection of how many empty buses they have to run to keep the service attractive. Thanks for that. I wonder if it means that there is a depot going spare at Heathrow or nearby once Nat Ex move out? If so, I wonder if anyone local (or not so local) will grab it to give themselves a new foothold (cough Metrolinasaurus cough). At the moment the Hotel Hoppa vehicles are based at Sipson Way garage, which I doubt is being sold as coaches are based there, along with a bunch of other contract work including University of West London and British Airways.
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Post by redexpress on Oct 18, 2017 17:47:24 GMT
They've bought the business from NatEx - article here. This states that the service runs "under contracts to the hotels and airlines". Seems surprising that airlines are directly involved with the service; I'd have thought it was up to the airport rather than individual airlines. The service makes a profit but not a huge one, despite those high fares. Probably a reflection of how many empty buses they have to run to keep the service attractive. Thanks for that. I wonder if it means that there is a depot going spare at Heathrow or nearby once Nat Ex move out? If so, I wonder if anyone local (or not so local) will grab it to give themselves a new foothold (cough Metrolinasaurus cough). The depot is on Sipson Road - would be handy for the 222! - but there's other work there, e.g. shuttle services for BA and University of West London (and the BBC contract if that's still running). I believe some coaches are also based there. The article only mentions Hotel Hoppa so I assume NatEx are keeping the other contracts. Thinking about Hotel Hoppa, the fleet is getting on a bit - the buses will be 10 years old next year so would probably need to be replaced in the not too distant future. I guess NatEx have taken the view that the service isn't worth that sort of investment. It'll be interesting to see if / how Rotala renew the fleet.
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Post by snoggle on Oct 18, 2017 18:47:00 GMT
Thinking about Hotel Hoppa, the fleet is getting on a bit - the buses will be 10 years old next year so would probably need to be replaced in the not too distant future. I guess NatEx have taken the view that the service isn't worth that sort of investment. It'll be interesting to see if / how Rotala renew the fleet. The other interesting issue is length remaining on the contracts. I assume there must be some sort of reasonable duration or else why on earth would you the business. I assume Rotala take the view they can shuffle vehicles from other fleets if necessary. Do the NatEx Darts have luggage pens / stacks for their role? If so that would be a potential conversion cost for any standard vehicles that Rotala decided to bring in from elsewhere. Not a huge cost but something to be funded.
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Post by snowman on Oct 18, 2017 19:03:14 GMT
Thinking about Hotel Hoppa, the fleet is getting on a bit - the buses will be 10 years old next year so would probably need to be replaced in the not too distant future. I guess NatEx have taken the view that the service isn't worth that sort of investment. It'll be interesting to see if / how Rotala renew the fleet. The other interesting issue is length remaining on the contracts. I assume there must be some sort of reasonable duration or else why on earth would you the business. I assume Rotala take the view they can shuffle vehicles from other fleets if necessary. Do the NatEx Darts have luggage pens / stacks for their role? If so that would be a potential conversion cost for any standard vehicles that Rotala decided to bring in from elsewhere. Not a huge cost but something to be funded. I presume that once the proposed London wide ULEZ for buses comes in (2020?) then the buses will need to be euroVI Although logically any existing buses could be moved to an unaffected area (and have luggage stacks replaced by seats)
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Post by redexpress on Oct 18, 2017 19:40:45 GMT
Thinking about Hotel Hoppa, the fleet is getting on a bit - the buses will be 10 years old next year so would probably need to be replaced in the not too distant future. I guess NatEx have taken the view that the service isn't worth that sort of investment. It'll be interesting to see if / how Rotala renew the fleet. The other interesting issue is length remaining on the contracts. I assume there must be some sort of reasonable duration or else why on earth would you the business. I assume Rotala take the view they can shuffle vehicles from other fleets if necessary. Do the NatEx Darts have luggage pens / stacks for their role? If so that would be a potential conversion cost for any standard vehicles that Rotala decided to bring in from elsewhere. Not a huge cost but something to be funded. They do have luggage racks. But perhaps a bigger issue with bringing in existing vehicles is that I think they need to be short buses, presumably to deal with tight turns in and out of hotel forecourts. The existing buses are 9.6m long, and the Volvos previously used were to a similar length. 9.6m buses are extremely uncommon outside of London - there are loads of 8.9m buses around but those might not have enough capacity once you fit luggage racks. Still, Rotala will be using the existing vehicles for the time being so I suppose this isn't a pressing issue. I have no idea what sort of condition they're in - I suppose they could last a few more years with a refurb. (BTW sorry planesandtrains - didn't see your message when I was posting earlier on, so ended up repeating what you'd already said)
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Post by N230UD on Oct 18, 2017 22:45:36 GMT
Is that a retender of the work by Heathrow Airport or have they bought out National Express's work? I confess I don't understand how those services work. Given Hallmark have been struggling with their SCC work let's hope they do better with the Hotel Hoppas or else there'll be a lot of complaints. Amazing that it costs £4.50 single though if web purchase, £5 single on the bus! Slightly OT, but when I stayed in a Premier Inn on the Bath Road before catching a flight, it was cheaper and easier to catch the TfL bus outside the hotel, rather than the Hotel Hoppa.
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Post by M1199 on Oct 19, 2017 13:29:28 GMT
Is that a retender of the work by Heathrow Airport or have they bought out National Express's work? I confess I don't understand how those services work. Given Hallmark have been struggling with their SCC work let's hope they do better with the Hotel Hoppas or else there'll be a lot of complaints. Amazing that it costs £4.50 single though if web purchase, £5 single on the bus! Slightly OT, but when I stayed in a Premier Inn on the Bath Road before catching a flight, it was cheaper and easier to catch the TfL bus outside the hotel, rather than the Hotel Hoppa. One way of ripping off the tourists! On occasions, you do see them running round empty but they’re better used on runs to hotels not on the Bath Rd. I often see the services that serve the Crown Plaza, Novatel, Holiday In and Premier Inn close to the M4, j4. They’re very well used, can on occasions see them crush loaded with people up against the front doors! Those little e200’s have a good turn of speed, quite often end up behind one, they seem to reach 40-50mph in no time at all! I think they have a e400 lump under the bonnet if I recall correctly
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Post by vjaska on Oct 19, 2017 13:57:12 GMT
Slightly OT, but when I stayed in a Premier Inn on the Bath Road before catching a flight, it was cheaper and easier to catch the TfL bus outside the hotel, rather than the Hotel Hoppa. One way of ripping off the tourists! On occasions, you do see them running round empty but they’re better used on runs to hotels not on the Bath Rd. I often see the services that serve the Crown Plaza, Novatel, Holiday In and Premier Inn close to the M4, j4. They’re very well used, can on occasions see them crush loaded with people up against the front doors! Those little e200’s have a good turn of speed, quite often end up behind one, they seem to reach 40-50mph in no time at all! I think they have a e400 lump under the bonnet if I recall correctly They certainly sound different & interesting that's for sure lol.
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Post by planesandtrains on Oct 19, 2017 14:31:57 GMT
One way of ripping off the tourists! On occasions, you do see them running round empty but they’re better used on runs to hotels not on the Bath Rd. I often see the services that serve the Crown Plaza, Novatel, Holiday In and Premier Inn close to the M4, j4. They’re very well used, can on occasions see them crush loaded with people up against the front doors! Those little e200’s have a good turn of speed, quite often end up behind one, they seem to reach 40-50mph in no time at all! I think they have a e400 lump under the bonnet if I recall correctly They certainly sound different & interesting that's for sure lol. These have the larger 6 Cylinder engine as found on NZ's and Hong Kong E200's. A few other operators in the UK have them as well, but are rare compared to the 4 Cylinders which are everywhere.
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Post by snowman on Oct 19, 2017 15:22:51 GMT
Slightly off topic, but as Heathrow services are being discussed, the Volvo 7900e (electric) demonstrator currently in Manchester is scheduled to spend 8 weeks in Heathrow, doing car park shuttles, and staff and customer shuttles to terminals.
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