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Post by snoggle on Apr 10, 2013 10:54:27 GMT
Anyone know where else the owner of this company operate? The parent company have subsidiary bus operations in Perth and Adelaide. They take up contracted routes in Sydney later this year. They also run ferries in a few places in Australia. I looked at the Transperth and Adelaide websites yesterday. The services are not hugely frequent but do include the Adelaide O Bahn (formerly the world's biggest busway). The scale of London operation looks like a big step up to me but they clearly do know how to run bus services. The question is whether their Australian experience actually maps across to how TfL want things running. I have no idea how Transperth (the TfL equivalent in Perth) or Adelaide organise their bus service contracts or manage them. On the assumption that the Aussies do not "throw the baby out with the bath water" (i.e. sack experienced First staff) they should start out OK. The bigger risks for them are how they deal with the unions and what pension liabilities they pick up. These are the issues that "did for" Macquarie at ELBG along with a hopelessly overpriced deal in the first place! Comment I have seen elsewhere suggests that the Tower Transit garages are the ones with the poorest profitability so the new owners may have the bigger struggle on their hands if they need to start making a return quickly. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 11:55:15 GMT
Look for the clue in the name as to their heritage. I had not worked it out or had it pointed out until today. Anything to do with Harry? |
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Post by vjaska on Apr 10, 2013 12:24:07 GMT
So what about Quality Line, that was a small, family run business and look how it grew into a top performing TfL operator. They operate a 1000 buses across three Australian city's so they seem to know what they are doing. To be fair to Quality Line, they only major route they run is the X26. Buying up routes like the 23 and 25 is rather entering in at the deep end of London bus operations. That's not to say they'll be a total failure, just that they'll probably have a tough time. The 23 and 25 together alone outnumber the PVR of EB. True but they are operating 400 buses worth in London when they already operate 1000 buses worth in Australia. They have more experience than other unknowns who have entered London over the years  |
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Post by snoggle on Apr 10, 2013 13:11:32 GMT
Look for the clue in the name as to their heritage. I had not worked it out or had it pointed out until today. Anything to do with Harry? Having dug around some more seemingly not. There seems to be confusion between similarly named groups in Australia. There is Transit Australia Group (TAG) that did have a link to Harry Blundred. He ran a firm called Sunbus that TAG bought out. Harry did not stay with the group - he retired to the South of France. This group owns a bus manufacturing company as well as running buses. The group buying part of First London is Transit Systems Australia that seems to have grown out of smaller businesses based in Western Australia. No Harry Blundred link that I can find. It also runs ferries. You have to wonder if it fancies taking a stab at river services too. |
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Post by cc2005 on Apr 10, 2013 14:41:51 GMT
Hmm, Tower Transit, it reminds me of the name Tower Hamlets. And the name Transit reminds me of a van.  I am intrigued as to where the inspiration for the trading name "Tower Transit" came from!! |
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Post by moz on Apr 10, 2013 14:54:36 GMT
Anything to do with Harry? Having dug around some more seemingly not. There seems to be confusion between similarly named groups in Australia. There is Transit Australia Group (TAG) that did have a link to Harry Blundred. He ran a firm called Sunbus that TAG bought out. Harry did not stay with the group - he retired to the South of France. This group owns a bus manufacturing company as well as running buses. The group buying part of First London is Transit Systems Australia that seems to have grown out of smaller businesses based in Western Australia. No Harry Blundred link that I can find. It also runs ferries. You have to wonder if it fancies taking a stab at river services too. I've spoken to a couple of mates who work at First and both of them are actually looking forward to the takeover. I've only got their word but it would seem that the current First garage structure is fairly management heavy and could do with a wheat/chaff investigation. My personal experience of such was moving from London General to Arriva - LG had managers for everything and anything all fighting to keep their jobs whilst Arriva run at about half the weight of managers and simply choose competent people to do the jobs (at Norwood anyway). It will be interesting to see quite how involved the new owners become in their new purchase, a lot of people gave Comfort Delgro six months when they took Metroline over but they've certainly proved themselves over the last few years. Tower Transit may yet become a power to behold! Moz |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 16:19:09 GMT
Hmm, Tower Transit, it reminds me of the name Tower Hamlets. And the name Transit reminds me of a van. I am intrigued as to where the inspiration for the trading name "Tower Transit" came from!! I'll give you a hint:  |
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Post by snoggle on Apr 10, 2013 16:56:14 GMT
Hmm, Tower Transit, it reminds me of the name Tower Hamlets. And the name Transit reminds me of a van. I am intrigued as to where the inspiration for the trading name "Tower Transit" came from!! No need for intrigue. I believe all of their bus businesses have the word "Transit" as the suffix. I am sure someone has posted somewhere that the current London office is near Tower Bridge. Therefore "Tower Transit". Whether I have worked it out correctly I am sure we shall find out in due course. |
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Post by ServerKing on Apr 10, 2013 18:33:20 GMT
Already there's a Wikipedia entry for them, but the wrong companies house details have been entered, details say the head office is in Basingstoke, RG21  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 20:43:42 GMT
Had a quick search. Tower Transit, Basingstoke is a coach hire company.
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Post by DT 11 on Apr 13, 2013 18:50:09 GMT
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Post by DT 11 on Apr 13, 2013 18:55:22 GMT
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Post by DT 11 on Apr 13, 2013 19:15:15 GMT
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Post by DT 11 on Apr 13, 2013 19:30:02 GMT
Nothing particularly interesting then, looks a bit like the First logo ironically. I agree. IMO looks like a Boring Version of the Connex Logo. They have edited a Pic of the 23 & 26 and stuck their logos on it lol. Looks boring IMO. |
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Post by COBO on Apr 13, 2013 19:59:38 GMT
Does anybody know when Tower Transit takes over AS, X and LI?
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