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Post by lonmark on Apr 21, 2021 13:27:07 GMT
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Post by twobellstogo on Apr 21, 2021 14:24:04 GMT
Arriva do seem to be fairly vigorously ditching some of their more marginal areas. I remain utterly surprised that they are persisting with what is left in the Guildford area and also North West Wales.
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Post by N230UD on Apr 21, 2021 16:07:39 GMT
Bus And Train User (aka Roger French) recently sampled the Sheppey network, and can be seen on his blog here busandtrainuser.com/2021/04/09/get-down-sheppey/He sums up the state of their operations very well! I’m not particularly surprised about this decision, as Arriva don’t really seem that enthusiastic about running buses. They will continue a presence on the Island, with the trunk Maidstone to Sheerness 334 route. I’d imagine Chalkwell and Travelmasters will replace some of the other routes (probably via Kent County Council). In my opinion, Arriva have got to be the worst ‘big group’ operator around, and First have certainly upped their game, an operator heavily criticised in the past. I recently travelled on Arriva’s 12 service in Kent from Maidstone to Tenterden. An impressive 30 minute frequency for that route, but no timetables at any bus stops (because of Covid apparently, but timetables have reverted to normal), the buses were in a terrible state (particularly their ‘04 reg B7TLs which they still have a large fleet of), and full of stickers everywhere. An incredibly grumpy driver too (although I do find most of them really good). This contrasts greatly to Stagecoach’s operations in the east of Kent. I won’t get started about their awful new website...
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Post by localet44 on Apr 22, 2021 8:43:29 GMT
You will seen in the kentonline article it is reported that "Meanwhile, in January this year, the bus firm abandoned using printed timetables. It meant passengers on Sheppey must now either call a number or use a mobile phone to find out when the next bus is due."
If this is a permanent abandonment of issuing printed timetables there will be even less passengers on their buses. Passengers are not going to call or use their useless, unhelpful website to find the next bus.
Nothing has been said about Sittingbourne's town routes which (I think) are also operated from Sheerness depot.
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Post by N230UD on Apr 22, 2021 15:42:44 GMT
You will seen in the kentonline article it is reported that "Meanwhile, in January this year, the bus firm abandoned using printed timetables. It meant passengers on Sheppey must now either call a number or use a mobile phone to find out when the next bus is due." If this is a permanent abandonment of issuing printed timetables there will be even less passengers on their buses. Passengers are not going to call or use their useless, unhelpful website to find the next bus. Nothing has been said about Sittingbourne's town routes which (I think) are also operated from Sheerness depot. Those Sittingbourne locals are indeed operated from Sheerness. I have read a couple of times now on Facebook groups that these routes will transfer to Gillingham or Maidstone, but I think this is pure speculation at this stage. I believe only 3 vehicles are needed in total for these routes (2 for the 347, 1 for the 349). This would be a lot of dead mileage for a small local network.
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Post by wirewiper on Apr 22, 2021 16:40:17 GMT
You will seen in the kentonline article it is reported that "Meanwhile, in January this year, the bus firm abandoned using printed timetables. It meant passengers on Sheppey must now either call a number or use a mobile phone to find out when the next bus is due." If this is a permanent abandonment of issuing printed timetables there will be even less passengers on their buses. Passengers are not going to call or use their useless, unhelpful website to find the next bus. Nothing has been said about Sittingbourne's town routes which (I think) are also operated from Sheerness depot. Those Sittingbourne locals are indeed operated from Sheerness. I have read a couple of times now on Facebook groups that these routes will transfer to Gillingham or Maidstone, but I think this is pure speculation at this stage. I believe only 3 vehicles are needed in total for these routes (2 for the 347, 1 for the 349). This would be a lot of dead mileage for a small local network. Are the Sittingbourne locals commercial? If they are tendered they may well be surrendered and reallocated to a local operator.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2021 19:09:38 GMT
Those Sittingbourne locals are indeed operated from Sheerness. I have read a couple of times now on Facebook groups that these routes will transfer to Gillingham or Maidstone, but I think this is pure speculation at this stage. I believe only 3 vehicles are needed in total for these routes (2 for the 347, 1 for the 349). This would be a lot of dead mileage for a small local network. Are the Sittingbourne locals commercial? If they are tendered they may well be surrendered and reallocated to a local operator. Looking at the registrations, the 347 and 349 Sheerness locals are not supported by subsidies. On the island, the 361 is shown as not supported either, 360 in part and 367 supported.
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Post by danorak on Apr 23, 2021 10:31:55 GMT
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Apr 23, 2021 12:27:34 GMT
I wonder if the eventual plan to sell it off is now resulting in a lack of investment from DB. Why invest money in a company that you don't want and would rather be free of? The obvious issue this then causes is the company get worse and then nobody wants to buy shares, a majority shareholding or just the whole company. I think the issue here is there's a lot of Arriva that's extremely unprofitable throughout the UK, I think the aim no is to sell off anything unprofitable to try and get the remaining parts to then be profitable in turn. This could then probably then perk up the interest of any hedge funds or banks that might want to buy the company, maybe even another transport company. The biggest issue here is the hit on staff morale and the degradation of services as a result. Once the Pandemic is past I expect Arriva to be heading towards a stock market floatation or a buy out. Although should it be a complete buy out I don't see the company remaining in one piece, it's extremely varied throughout from huge train franchises through to little minibus routes. Not to mention should any existing transport operator try the size of Arriva could start bringing local competition rules into play. London for example has the 25% rule, while that doesn't seem to apply to tendering, it exists back from the privatisation days to prevent takeovers from owning a huge chunk of the market. Anyone who buys Arriva as a group will probably need to make sure they don't already run an operation in London that could affect the sale. Then you have the fact with all the train franchises their future is very up in the air, we know fully privatised franchises are not returning again, but buyers and investors want future security which is just non-existent at the moment.
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Post by greenboy on Apr 23, 2021 12:39:38 GMT
I think the Kent operation has been on the slide for a while, the Sapphire E400 MMCs for the 700 have been moved to Leicester (although 6520 still remains at Gillingham at the moment) and replaced with older buses and new buses for Sapphire route 101 have apparently been cancelled. The 04 reg Volvo B7TL's which were nice buses are starting to show their age now and clearly can't go on too much longer. I don't think the Sheerness closure has come as a great surprise and as you say there have been rumours about the future of Tunbridge Wells. I agree that their website is abysmal and the lack of timetables at many stops really is appalling.
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Post by danorak on Apr 23, 2021 14:33:28 GMT
I'm wondering whether they might be content to move to an entirely franchised/partnership type model as envisaged by 'Bus Back Better'. They have experience of this in mainland Europe and it saves them doing the hard yards of actually putting the effort into attracting passengers.
As for Kent, they effectively abandoned Sevenoaks long ago. Tunbridge Wells might be attractive to GoAhead through Metrobus or Brighton & Hove and I reckon Stagecoach wouldn't mind a bit of the Medway Towns.
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Post by twobellstogo on Apr 23, 2021 18:59:58 GMT
I'm wondering whether they might be content to move to an entirely franchised/partnership type model as envisaged by 'Bus Back Better'. They have experience of this in mainland Europe and it saves them doing the hard yards of actually putting the effort into attracting passengers. As for Kent, they effectively abandoned Sevenoaks long ago. Tunbridge Wells might be attractive to GoAhead through Metrobus or Brighton & Hove and I reckon Stagecoach wouldn't mind a bit of the Medway Towns. Of late, to my mind, the only bit of Kent Arriva seem bothered with now is the former Kentish bus stuff in and around Dartford and Gravesend: the rest has been left to slide. Not even that sure they’re that bothered about the TfL work from DT any more.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Apr 24, 2021 6:20:56 GMT
Arriva do seem to be fairly vigorously ditching some of their more marginal areas. I remain utterly surprised that they are persisting with what is left in the Guildford area and also North West Wales. If they dump their Guildford routes Stagecoach and maybe Safeguard could be interested. As Comfort DelGro already have a toehold in Wales through New Adventure Travel, I would not be surprised if they bid to buy Arriva Buses Wales.
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Post by N230UD on Apr 26, 2021 17:00:47 GMT
Chalkwell Coaches have announced they will be taking over the 360 and 361 routes from Monday 12th July after Arriva cease operating those routes on the 11th July (note it’s no longer June). The 360 is the main route between Sheerness and the east of the island at Leysdown. Generally hourly with a infrequent Sunday service. The 361 is a local service around the west of the island centred on Sheerness, generally hourly with no Sunday service. Here is their announcement: chalkwell.co.uk/chalkwell-to-take-over-360-361-bus-service/It is still unclear what will happen to the rest of the routes. These are the 347 and 349 Sittingbourne locals, likely to be kept by Arriva, the KCC contract route 347 on Sheppey (to the obscure Warden Point terminus), as well as school routes S341 and S647.
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Post by bustavane on May 6, 2021 13:57:52 GMT
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