DunnLine replace some StagecoachScunthorpe service (Read 2,774 times)

[humberside]

The council has been forced to find £30,000 to save bus services that Stagecoach decided to withdraw at the end of this month.

Over 200,000 bus passengers in North Lincolnshire faced being left stranded - nearly half of these are either over 60 or have disabilities.

Stagecoach has given notice it is to withdraw Scunthorpe town routes 7 and 8, and also Scunthorpe circulars 10 and 11. The company has said it is not making enough money from passengers on these routes. These routes have never received a subsidy from the council. Services 7 and 8 carry 118,000 passengers a year and services 10 and 11 carry 62,000 passengers.

Stagecoach also gave notice it is withdrawing service 60 Scunthorpe-Burton-Whitton. This service is subsidised by the council but Stagecoach decided this subsidy was not high enough. Over 46,000 people use this service each year, many of these are students travelling to colleges in Scunthorpe.

The services were to be withdrawn from the end of October - leaving some parts of Scunthorpe without any bus services.

The council has saved service 60. This will be run by bus company Dunn-Line. Services 7 and 8, the only buses covering parts of Crosby, will continue thanks to a subsidy from the council. The service will return to its old route via the Hospital and Avenue Vivian. This will also be run by Dunn-Line.

Service 10 and 11 will continue to run, but will not cover all the places these services covered in the past. A new service, labelled 10, will run between Scunthorpe bus station and Ashby via Healey Road, Bellingham Road, Lakeside and Fulbeck Road.

The council has been unable to save the other half of the circle between Ashby, Westcliff and Tesco because the money is just not available. The new service will be run by Stagecoach.

Stepping in to save these services will cost the council an extra £30,000 between the end of October and April. The situation will then be reviewed. As the withdrawals came as a surprise the council did not plan to have this money in the budget.

Cllr John England, cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said:

"Stagecoach giving us notice to withdraw these services came as a real shock - especially the routes in Scunthorpe that are fairly well used and at a time when bus use is on the increase. We were faced with a tough choice - find extra money to give to bus companies to keep routes running, or leave thousands of people stranded. Thankfully we have identified the money needed - although the service 10 and 11 will be reduced.

"The council has a limited budget for subsidising public transport. Generally we provide subsidies on routes that are not as well used but still provide a vital link. This is the first time a bus company decided to withdraw a popular route unless it receives a subsidy from the council tax payer."

www.northlincs.gov.uk/NorthLincs/News/CouncilStepsInToSaveVitalBusServices.htm

I guess this shows that Stageacoch has higher profit margins than RoadCar. I guess similar cuts to other services could come in the future for this reason

What depot will Dunn Line use for these services. Alpha's Hull depot is the nearest but the bridge toll would rule that out - so will it be Lincoln (a lot of dead mileage involved) or will they open a new Scunthorpe depot, or even share one with someone else (like they with MASS)

Finally, I wonder if no extra money is found in the long term to fund these services, will there be further cuts to buses in North
Lincolnshire elsewhere. The last round of cuts were pretty drastic in places. I hope there are no more cuts to come

[yorks06]

Well id imagine if they went out to tender that Stagecoach and Hornsby would have bidded for them therefore i doubt that Veolia would share either of their depots as id imagine not many bus firms would want to share a depot with somebody whove theyve lost work to even if they are paying, so id imagine maybe a new depot. I notice how Veolia are sticking to purely contract work and how they wont take on any of their competitors in nottingham/lincoln/sheffield/rotherham/hull/scunthorpe/worksop/retford on a fully commerciall basis. Personally i cant see how Veolia can make much profit out of their tenders as they put in very low bids compared to the other firms out there & i cant imagine their costs been drastically lower maybe wages but other factors are likely to be of a similar level. Id imagine if they open their own depot in the scunthorpe area it will be just a outstation as id imagine the above routes would only be several buses worth of work like the A1/173/174 are.

[donnytom]

Maybe the time is right for Isle Coaches to start expanding...

[maxtom115]

This example shows exactly what is wrong with the public transport industry in this country today - profit centred thinking, not customer focuessed thinking and service provision. At least Veolia/Dunn-Line will provide a service while Stagecoach in Lincolnshire will have even more dissatisfied customers than they have already got following cuts in Lincoln - to be quite honest I now try to avoid travelling SiL if I can, why should my money go to company shareholders and not be put back into the services I am travelling on?

[yorks06]

donnytom said:

Maybe the time is right for Isle Coaches to start expanding...

Would be a good idea id imagine they could easilly get the 398 tender if i remember rightly it starts up in their area and runs via the various isle of axeholme villages to gainsborough. I dimagine there location goes against them though, lot of potential for the 291 + 399 if they can find the staff though id imagine the 190 would be up their street as well.

[yorks06]

maxtom115 said:

This example shows exactly what is wrong with the public transport industry in this country today - profit centred thinking, not customer focuessed thinking and service provision. At least Veolia/Dunn-Line will provide a service while Stagecoach in Lincolnshire will have even more dissatisfied customers than they have already got following cuts in Lincoln - to be quite honest I now try to avoid travelling SiL if I can, why should my money go to company shareholders and not be put back into the services I am travelling on?

Some how doubt that Veolia would be providing this service if the county council hadn't thrown £30,000 at them or if theyd asked them to run it commercially so you could say theres profit centered thinking at play there as well. I suppose the comments about shareholders is the same with any firm though with Veolia id imagine the money goes back to investors in France as opposed to Stagecoach where investors are probably mainly people over here & id imagine when it comes to Veolia the only reason buses are modern in some cases is because like the A1 for example their SLF spec so who ever ran them whether it be Powell, Stagecoach, First, Tm, Mass etc theyd have to do the same anyway.

[donnytom]

From what people have said on here, Veioaioaieoiolalioieoiaielaieialeiadunnlineconnex can't meet the low-floor provision on their existing routes, never mind any new ones!

[humberside]

yorks06 said:

Well id imagine if they went out to tender that Stagecoach and Hornsby would have bidded for them therefore i doubt that Veolia would share either of their depots as id imagine not many bus firms would want to share a depot with somebody whove theyve lost work to even if they are paying, so id imagine maybe a new depot.

MASS used tom operate the 173/174 and they are using a MASS Depot to operate those routes

[yorks06]

But MASS isn't your average company is it, they probably see letting veolia share there depot and possibly other factors i.e. maintanence, fuel etc as a very easy way of making money without doing anything, somehow doubt if Veolia went upto stagecoach and said can we base our buses at your Scunny depot theyd go yeah sure more like bugger off as i doubt any business would be happy sharing a base with someone who could potentially take your remaining tender work away from you next time its up & id imagine stagecoach may have wanted to get those routes back on tender or if they lost them to hornsby as opposed to somebody new to the area as its gone from 1 other firm against them when it comes to tender work to now 2.

[humberside]

Thinking about it, Veolia could maybe share with Holloways as they dont operate any contracted service buses

[jt]

well, the cuts in lincoln wasn;t that bad, nor are these cuts, in scunthorpe, althourgh I putting my money on that stageoach wan;t SUB on that No7, 8 route, but lose out!

Just becasue it Popular doesn;t MEAN it Profitably!

[jt]

also POINT OUT:

Road car Cut thoses service about 3 years to SAVE money - 7/8 a hugh area of house schme lost the bus to people had to walk further to cacth their bus.

[manontheinside]

"to be quite honest I now try to avoid travelling SiL if I can, why should my money go to company shareholders and not be put back into the services I am travelling on?"

A valid point, but equally why should you fund the French public transport system?

[donnytom]

At least when it goes to Souter's lot, the money is more likely to stay in Britain! To avoid money going to shareholders, Isle Coaches might be the best bet. That or walking!

[yorks06]

Exactly even though the likes of First, Stagecoach, Mass, Powells etc get critised on here & by the public/ press for one thing or another atleast when you hand over the money it stays in the british transport system & even if it goes to the directors back pocket or shareholders its still mostly in the UK, where as Veolia id imagine is on the French version of our stock market therefore the people who benefit are the shareholders in France and the company directors over there & also what exactly do they do for the general public provide contract routes which odds are if they didn't run somebody else would hardly like First, Stagecoach, Arriva, Powells and many others who provide commercial services & compete, to me Dunn-Line/ Veolia is a business which has found a easy way to make money i.e. contract work as opposed to commercial & competitive work and theyll stick to that and expand via it & keep well out of the way of anybody else when it comes to commercial service.