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Post by YY13VKP on May 14, 2018 13:42:47 GMT
Glad to see Martijn go to Go-Ahead, he is a huge talent, and a good acquisition for them. Will be bad for Reading Buses, however I feel as if Go-Ahead may be looking to take over Reading Buses in the future since it isn’t owned by anyone and recently they have been called to help out GAL a lot for rail replacement, not as if that means much though.
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Post by snoggle on May 14, 2018 13:46:16 GMT
Glad to see Martijn go to Go-Ahead, he is a huge talent, and a good acquisition for them. Will be bad for Reading Buses, however I feel as if Go-Ahead may be looking to take over Reading Buses in the future since it isn’t owned by anyone and recently they have been called to help out GAL a lot for rail replacement, not as if that means much though. Err Reading Buses is owned by Reading Council and therefore, indirectly, by the people of Reading. I wouldn't want to see it taken over by a large group that will simply squeeze the network to death in order to extract massive profit margins.
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Post by danorak on May 14, 2018 21:02:47 GMT
Glad to see Martijn go to Go-Ahead, he is a huge talent, and a good acquisition for them. Will be bad for Reading Buses, however I feel as if Go-Ahead may be looking to take over Reading Buses in the future since it isn’t owned by anyone and recently they have been called to help out GAL a lot for rail replacement, not as if that means much though. Err Reading Buses is owned by Reading Council and therefore, indirectly, by the people of Reading. I wouldn't want to see it taken over by a large group that will simply squeeze the network to death in order to extract massive profit margins. Reading is doing well at the moment but council ownership can have its limitations. Given the squeeze on council funding, Reading Council could conceivably want the bus company to pay it some kind of dividend in the future, become self-sustaining or pay for under 25s concessionary travel (I confess I am posting from a position of ignorance about their finances.) There's been a bit of 'playing at buses' - meant in the nicest possible way - there recently with some of the gimmicks they've pursued and the climate could turn against that. And the expansionism into surrounding areas is an awkward fit. Don't forget how quickly Thamesdown went from an 'operator of the year' to a basket case. That said, Martijn is clearly a talented and progressive bus man and I think he will do well at Go Ahead. The North East is a good starting point given the need to repair operator/Tyne & Wear relations and I wouldn't be surprised to see this as the testbed for one of the partnership options enabled by the Bus Services Act.
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Post by snoggle on May 14, 2018 23:44:36 GMT
Reading is doing well at the moment but council ownership can have its limitations. Given the squeeze on council funding, Reading Council could conceivably want the bus company to pay it some kind of dividend in the future, become self-sustaining or pay for under 25s concessionary travel (I confess I am posting from a position of ignorance about their finances.) There's been a bit of 'playing at buses' - meant in the nicest possible way - there recently with some of the gimmicks they've pursued and the climate could turn against that. And the expansionism into surrounding areas is an awkward fit. Don't forget how quickly Thamesdown went from an 'operator of the year' to a basket case. That said, Martijn is clearly a talented and progressive bus man and I think he will do well at Go Ahead. The North East is a good starting point given the need to repair operator/Tyne & Wear relations and I wouldn't be surprised to see this as the testbed for one of the partnership options enabled by the Bus Services Act. I am not terribly familiar with Reading Buses other than photographing their buses every so often. Last time I was there some routes were doing well and others not so well but nothing hugely unusual in that on an average weekday. At least people were waiting for buses - it could so easily be different in what is a reasonably prosperous area. I tend to agree with the "playing at buses" comment. I can sort of understand the desire to grab bits of territory being surrendered by Stagecoach and First but there is a risk of over indulgence or what looks to be a simple job becoming rather more involved (e.g. First reacting to some of RB changes into Heathrow) and commercially draining. There may be a strategy behind the "land grabs" but if there isn't I can see it quickly being reversed if any sort of competitive presence remains. There isn't the volume of many of these long neglected routes to turn an instant money spinner so you're either in it for the long haul *or* you accept the returns are going to be marginal at best. Also a new MD may wish to make their mark and we know some MDs have axes for hands so it will be "slash and burn" the dead wood to create an instant win for the bottom line. As for the North East well having been up there very recently for a day and having ridden Go Ahead buses the most I had mixed views really. Obviously I have long memories of how the bus network was and how it has changed (I do try to keep up with developments). The overriding theme of late, in what has always been good bus territory, is consolidation. If there have ever been good times since deregulation then they are not there any more. When Stagecoach are having to cut back on the big money spinning cross city Newcastle routes you know there's a problem. While a Monday is never going to be a busy day Newcastle City Centre was pretty dead as was Sunderland. Gateshead was even worse and there weren't even huge crowds at the Metrocentre. The bus network is still reasonably decent and frequent but I saw / used few very busy buses. Mr Gilbert may be able to sprinkle some magic dust on GNE but many of the strongest performers have long had good vehicle and product development. Plenty of snazzy buses with posh seats, tables, wifi etc and enough brands to satisfy even Mr G. It's the middle and low ranking routes where things looked a bit tired to me - old vehicles, tired branding on some routes, poor timetables and a not very logical network in places. I think Mr G might struggle to get board approval to spend money on those middling routes to gee them up a bit and possibly get some more growth. The big killer, though, is car ownership and congestion. I didn't see many jams (I missed both peaks) but I know from tweets / traffic reports / traffic cameras and repeated timetable tweaks that peak time jams are beyond anything I ever saw in my youth. They now cover vast areas in every conurbation and this is despite decades of road investment - new link roads, dual carriageways, town bypasses, roads to new industrial estates etc etc. I don't see any move at all from bus companies or Nexus or the Combined Authority to really tackle the car use issue. That simply means bus operators will face worsening conditions for years to come. Even some of the off peak journeys I made I encountered bunched buses on 10-12 min headway routes. That shouldn't really be happening. Therefore I think Mr G may well have his hands full on arrival in T&W and that's without knowing what the Go Ahead board expect him to do.
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Post by planesandtrains on May 15, 2018 9:07:38 GMT
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the extra routes once a new CEO is appointed to Reading Buses. I agree that Martijn has increased the profile of the company and introduced some interesting new concepts, also improving profitability of the company however, I’ve been somewhat sceptical about some of recent new ventures and the amount of extra work taken on over a short period. It’ll be interesting to see how this is reflected in the next annual return. The Green Line routes main selling points are Windsor and Legoland and recent changes appear to reflect that. I can’t really see the London section covering costs and I do wonder whether the route can justify a new the promised batch of new vehicles. The Slough operation is small and the Heathrow corridor is competitive as companies bet on First pulling out, something they probably will do in the future once the damage has been done to others margins. I personally think the Green Line routes need their time to grow , the 702 seems to already be doing very well if duplicate buses have had to be put out during the holiday season to meet the demand. The (TV) 5 is on a council contract so can't see that one moving anytime soon.
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Post by Lewis J.N. on May 16, 2018 22:37:19 GMT
Given the squeeze on council funding, Reading Council could conceivably want the bus company to pay it some kind of dividend in the future, become self-sustaining or pay for under 25s concessionary travel (I confess I am posting from a position of ignorance about their finances.) I believe they are already self-sustaining, the fact that they needn't have a profit margin is what sets them apart from non-municipal companies.
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Post by snoggle on May 17, 2018 8:28:13 GMT
Given the squeeze on council funding, Reading Council could conceivably want the bus company to pay it some kind of dividend in the future, become self-sustaining or pay for under 25s concessionary travel (I confess I am posting from a position of ignorance about their finances.) I believe they are already self-sustaining, the fact that they needn't have a profit margin is what sets them apart from non-municipal companies. Eh? They are stand alone companies - they need to earn a profit to survive. No council has the resources to sustain an unprofitable municipal bus company hence why Rosso was flogged off to Transdev recently. What Reading Buses don't need to do is achieve the typical double digit rates of return that the stock market typically requires from listed transport groups. As long as Reading Buses is earning a surplus and can sustain its recent large scale fleet investment I suspect Reading Council are reasonably happy. The risk is whether the recent expansionist adventures are financially self sustaining or whether they are simply a drag on company earnings (allowing for a period of adjustment). Reading Buses must be hoping they can either keep costs down or generate more revenue to make their new routes a sensible addition to their portfolio. Looking at the last set of published accounts (to Sep 2016) they made £1.9m operating profit which became a profit after tax and financing costs of £745,000. Not massive but reasonably healthy and a big step forward from 2015 (which I think was quite a difficult year operationally). The biggest financial issue for Reading Buses (really Reading Transport Ltd) is the pension scheme deficit. The pension scheme is in deficit.
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Post by Lewis J.N. on May 17, 2018 11:54:16 GMT
They are stand alone companies - they need to earn a profit to survive. No council has the resources to sustain an unprofitable municipal bus company hence why Rosso was flogged off to Transdev recently. What Reading Buses don't need to do is achieve the typical double digit rates of return that the stock market typically requires from listed transport groups. As long as Reading Buses is earning a surplus and can sustain its recent large scale fleet investment I suspect Reading Council are reasonably happy. The risk is whether the recent expansionist adventures are financially self sustaining or whether they are simply a drag on company earnings (allowing for a period of adjustment). Reading Buses must be hoping they can either keep costs down or generate more revenue to make their new routes a sensible addition to their portfolio. Looking at the last set of published accounts (to Sep 2016) they made £1.9m operating profit which became a profit after tax and financing costs of £745,000. Not massive but reasonably healthy and a big step forward from 2015 (which I think was quite a difficult year operationally). The biggest financial issue for Reading Buses (really Reading Transport Ltd) is the pension scheme deficit. The pension scheme is in deficit. My apologies snoggle - believe it or not what you said above is what I meant; I phrased it badly. Thanks for the correction and extra detail. I remember Mr Gilbert saying he had a bit of a tall order to justify to the council that the new ventures outside Reading were viable but he obviously pulled it off.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jun 2, 2018 5:38:59 GMT
Another reason why some Councils will want to hang on to their municipal bus companies is that - particularly if they are pro-public transport - they have the satisfaction of being able to run any viable service they want, and not merely hope that an outside company will run an appropriate network of services.
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Post by wirewiper on Jun 13, 2018 9:15:26 GMT
A new short-wheelbase ADL Enviro200 MMC (YX18 KZE) has appeared at Great Knollys Street, Martijn Gilbert has posted pictures of it on his Twitter feed.
It has been supplied by Dawson Rentals and appears to be from their dealer stock. It is currently in allover white, without a fleetnumber as yet, and is intended for the Thames Valley Buses operation at Slough.
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Post by planesandtrains on Jun 13, 2018 14:02:34 GMT
5 high specification Optare Metrodeckers have been ordered for the Green Line 702.
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Post by N230UD on Jun 13, 2018 19:32:17 GMT
5 high specification Optare Metrodeckers have been ordered for the Green Line 702. An interesting development! Despite Metrodeckers first appearing as demonstrators in 2015, this is the first actual order for a Metrodecker! In fact, Reading did hire a Metrodecker in 2015. It does make me wonder why no other orders for Metrodeckers have appeared until now, 3 years after it was launched. I have actually been on one myself, when Kent independent Autocar had one for a brief period (the demonstrator which originally went to Go Ahead London) - I found them comfortable, with a smooth ride.
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Post by vjaska on Jun 13, 2018 22:45:52 GMT
5 high specification Optare Metrodeckers have been ordered for the Green Line 702. An interesting development! Despite Metrodeckers first appearing as demonstrators in 2015, this is the first actual order for a Metrodecker! In fact, Reading did hire a Metrodecker in 2015. It does make me wonder why no other orders for Metrodeckers have appeared until now, 3 years after it was launched. I have actually been on one myself, when Kent independent Autocar had one for a brief period (the demonstrator which originally went to Go Ahead London) - I found them comfortable, with a smooth ride. Reading were very impressed with the one they hired which explains the order - they may begin to pick up some orders if Wrightbus’ woes get worse. I rode the one that was with Go-Ahead London on a brief 486 journey and I agree it was comfortable & smooth - also liked how it sounded like a cross between a Versa & a Scania.
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Post by redexpress on Jun 14, 2018 1:57:17 GMT
5 high specification Optare Metrodeckers have been ordered for the Green Line 702. An interesting development! Despite Metrodeckers first appearing as demonstrators in 2015, this is the first actual order for a Metrodecker! In fact, Reading did hire a Metrodecker in 2015. It does make me wonder why no other orders for Metrodeckers have appeared until now, 3 years after it was launched. I have actually been on one myself, when Kent independent Autocar had one for a brief period (the demonstrator which originally went to Go Ahead London) - I found them comfortable, with a smooth ride.
Metrodecker demonstrator YJ16DFG (temporary fleetnumber 899) seems to be in fairly regular use on the 702 if anyone fancies a ride.
Can't say I'm too surprised at the lack of orders, given that their products don't tend to last very well. It'll be interesting to see how they fare on the 702.
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Post by galwhv69 on Jun 23, 2018 19:36:05 GMT
As I am no good at the Reading Buses fleet numbers,can anyone provide any bus fleet numbers of demonstrators,optare solo,dart or E400 Citiy buses that are allocated to routes running near Great Knollys Street,thanks
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