East Thames Buses to be sold

It was announced yesterday that the board forming Transport for London (TfL) intends to sell its wholly-owned bus company, East Thames Buses (ETB), to Go-Ahead's London General Bus Company.


The sale has been done to sure-up funding for TfL, who also made headlines yesterday for the level at which its spending had been tightened. The Board claim that over a nine-year period, a total of £30 million is likely to be saved by TfL through selling ETB to the private sector.

The date London General is expected to acquire the business has been set for September, after which routes 1, 42, 108, 132, 180, 185, 201, 661, 669 and N1 will start to acquire their variant of the London bus livery. A total of 113 buses, equipment and associated assets have been acquired by London General in the transaction.


The sale concludes just over 8 months of consultation, with TfL first seeking responses to a possible sale in a document it released last December. ETB traces its routes back to erstwhile London bus operator Harris Bus, whose demise came in December 1999, following the company's liquidation and collapse. Then, no privately-operated company was willing to take on the stricken company and its associated vehicles and routes, so the undertaking was taken in-house by TfL, who assigned it the ETB name.

All ETB drivers will be transferred over to London General, retaining their pay and conditions in the short term at least. (GWB)

A spot of spontaneity

Not fake, but definitely rigged. Keep with it, very amusing. Can't see the same happening at King's Cross though! Seems suspiciously like something T-Mobile is instigating at the moment.

LEYTR's Top 'n' Tail part 3

Internet woes have meant that we've not been updating our most recent jaunt around the country. We'd got up to Part 2 on the 28th of last month and then nothing... until now. If you remember, the LEYTR Top 'n' Tail jaunt aimed to see us travel from the most northerly settlement on the mainland to the most southerly in a manner befitting the current economic downturn, i.e. as cheaply as possible.

Part 1 (Day 1) saw details of how we all converged in central London to commence the overnight trip to Scotland in order to position ourselves for the mammoth trek. Part 2 (Day 2) detailed the final part of our journey to Wick, where we stayed overnight and sampled, once again, the facilities within Wetherspoons' most northerly hostelry (and walk along the world's shortest street). We now move onto Part 3 - Day 3, in which the journey-proper commences....

Day 3 - Monday 22 June 2009

There's nothing worse than having to get up with the milkmen at silly o' clock in the morning to start an historic trip! Our first bus of the day was thankfully at a reasonable hour - 0845hrs, from Wick rail station, taking us to John o' Groats. In the past 4 years, I've made this specific journey on three occasions and each time the journey has thrown up something interesting. The first time, back when m'colleague and I undertook our 2005 LEYTR Railrover, the chap driving Rapsons' Service 77A mis-charged us the fare for their Rover ticket and we saved a couple of quid; the second time in Febraury, my friend and I travelled aboard a full-sized coach with National Express trim and a huge hole in the back where the toilet and servery used to be. On this occasion, our driver was from Kent and spent 27 years living in Scunthorpe - in the heart of the LEYTR area!

Our first vehicle of the day: Stagecoach in Caithness Service 77, seen here parked outside Wick rail station.

It was quite a revelation - so too was the Kent stuff, since one of we intrepid three lives there, too. Our vehicle was a full-sized coach again - a Dennis Javelin/Plaxton Profile, 27054 (SY51 EHX), still wearing the overall dark blue Rapsons livery and bearing both Rapsons and Stagecoach fleetnames. It featured 2+3 seating (C70F) and had just come off a school run. The driver of Service 77 (on this occasion we caught the slightly more direct journey, compared to the once-daily Service 77A) was based at Thurso and explained how recently, in a bit to improve the frequency of various services in Caithness, Stagecoach had allocated a large amount of what was traditionally operated Wick depot work to Thurso, which sees a lot of empty running in the mornings and evenings.

The only 'person' that paid on the journey was a tray containing 10 loaves of bread. This was put onto the bus at the Somerfield stop in Wick, with the baker paying the bread's fare with instruction to drop the haul off at the John o' Groats Post Office on his way back. Everyone else travelled free.

We arrived at John o' Groats bus terminal in light drizzle on time at 0940. En route, the driver's offside windscreen wiper stopped working, but with a small amount of manual adjustment, he set it right. 2+3 seating really is awful for any journey carrying people over 5-feet tall. Having wandered around the tourist areas located nearby, and having had our photo taken under the historic sign post on top of a concrete plinth, we went to board our next vehicle - the first of this historic trip.

"Surely you want 'LEYTR' on the sign?" said the guy taking the photo. That would be going just too far - "The working title of the jaunt will be sufficient," said we!

This was the 1025hrs Stagecoach in Caithness Service 80 to Thurso, operated on this occasion by 27588 (SN56 AXS), an integral ADL Enviro with B60F seating arrangement - yes, you guessed it, 3+2 seating. Obviously, if the alternative was for these services to cease operating if they couldn't be combined with school runs in the daytime peaks, having to contend with this rather cramped and particularly uncomfortable seating is a small price to pay for the ever-expanding network of local bus services in the area, which appears to have grown since Stagecoach came to town last year.

3+2 seating on this integral ADL Enviro300, seen here as we alight in central Thurso.

Our stopwatch was started the second we pulled away - 2 minutes late at 1027hrs. We were scheduled to arrive at Land's End the following day at 1722hrs, totalling 30:57, but with our 2 minute late departure, could this be shaved to a mere 30:55?

As with Service 77/77A, I've travelled on this route on three occasions now; this, the latest, offered the best views of Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of land on the mainland. The bus passes through the tiny village of Dunnet but the road to the historic outcrop is a further couple of miles by road.

You can't get any more northern than this - Dunnet Head, with a large dollop of cotton wool on top.

Our journey did look as though it would run into trouble after only 15 minutes, as the photo below shows.


Luckily, our Nottingham-born and bred driver (where are all the Scots drivers?) chose to do the only sensible thing with a trio of long-distance travellers on board, and that was to mount the ornamental grass verge to pass. Well done him! We were all impressed. We were a couple of minutes late arriving in Thurso, alighting on Sir George's Street at the time we should've arrived at the town's rail station, 1130. Not to worry though as our next journey wasn't until 1305hrs.

Having visited the most northerly Tesco for supplies and following the wander to the 99p shop in the town centre that sells microwaves (sadly, not for 99p!), we headed to the rail station in the drizzle. This stands at the top of Lovers Lane - at the foot of which is the town's bus depot. When I visited here last November, the Rapsons signs were still in evidence, now it's Stagecoach everywhere - except, weirdly, on the buses - some of which continue to only bare Rapsons fleetnames; others have both Stagecoach and Rapsons and others have just Stagecoach names (generally these are the ones in Stagecoach corporate swirls).

Stagecoach's bus depot in Thurso. Until last November, Rapsons names still were shown on the sides of the buildings; they can still be seen on almost all the buses.

I assured my companions that this particular train journey on the Far North Line would be very quiet indeed. We had seat reservations that accompanied our online advance ticket purchases, but I was confident they weren't really needed. How wrong I was!

For on the platform, as our Class 158 approached, were over 25 people. On board - and the train had only called at Wick - virtually all seats were taken, including those we had reserved. Shearings had booked a coach load of people onto the train from Wick to Golspie, for reasons unknown, and their driver had apparently told them to "sit in any reserved seat". What he should've said was "your seats are reserved and you can identify these over those that have been reserved for the other passengers as your surname has been written on your reservation slip".

158725 stands at Thurso station, just before the game of musical chairs inside.

The conversation I had with a gaggle of over-60s as I asked them to move from our seats was just surreal. Asking politely had no effect; the guard seemed completely lacking in the areas required to marshall the situation, and so diplomacy was ignored as I virtually ordered them to move. It worked (take note United Nations!). Having realised I was legitimately invading their airspace, the people sat in our reserved seats buggered off somewhere else. The completely ludicrous logic of these people in sitting where they did still baffles me to this day.

All that was needed was for the Shearings driver to have conveyed with much more accuracy what the situation was, and for the First ScotRail guard to ensure - prior to the train's departure from Wick - that the coach load were sat in their reserved seats that corresponded to their surnames, and none of this unpleasantness would've happened. As ever, it was down to the little people to sort out - successfully.

Rant over and we were now aboard 158725 and from what you've read above, our Plan B to sit in first class legitimately (there is no first-class fare on the Far North Line, thus occupying first class is perfectly okay) was scuppered as it was full of yet more Shearings people. However, it was a very nice, scenic trip (that got a lot better after Golspie!) and didn't seem to drag on as long as it has done in the past when m'colleague and I made two trips along the route during our 2005 LEYTR Railrover.

Neither of the two I was travelling with had been on the Far North Line before and the journey certainly represented a box ticked for them. On reflection though, I'd still prefer to travel between Wick/Thurso and Inverness by coach over train; the fare is cheaper and the journey time is quicker. Both offer equally dramatic scenery though completely different sorts. You see a lot more of the sea by road and more of the fascinating villages en route.

Inverness was our tightest connection of the entire jaunt: 5 minutes. We were due in at 1648 and out on a connecting Class 170 'Turbostar' at 1653, or so we thought. The dashing around wasn't really needed as the 1653hrs First ScotRail departure was actually timed at 1656. Yet again people were sat in our reserved seats, though a mild pleasantry got them to shift on this occasion. We departed on time with a heavy load aboard 170394 and made good progress along the Highland Main Line, south to Edinburgh. It's not far south of Inverness that a lengthy 1:60 climb is undertaken for quite some time to reach the highest point a railway on the National Rail network - just over 1,500 feet at Drumochter Pass.

Compared to the '158' we'd just been on, this '170' was much gutsier and handled the steep inclines very well. The comfort was excellent, though the air conditioning poor.

First ScotRail's trains travelling south of Inverness along this route do so to either Glasgow or Edinburgh. The journeys bifurcate at Perth and it was here, on our Edinburgh-bound train, that Glasgow passengers had to change. This saw the load reduced somewhat, as we headed off to the Fife coastline at Markinch, and south through Kirkcaldy and over the Forth Rail Bridge and finally onto Edinburgh. It's always a fascinating experience, crossing the Firth of Forth by rail. I remember asking my comrades how long it'd take to complete painting the bridge; none of them fell into the trap I was expecting them to as the both read this blog!

There wasn't complete carnage on the streets of central Edinburgh as we'd been told to brace ourselves for, what with the building of the city's tram network. It was decidedly calm along Princes Street. We'd arrived at 2029hrs as booked and the city centre was dying down, so perhaps that's why things seemed so calm. To my regret and - soon after - eternal shame, I found myself in the queue at a McDonalds, purchasing a perfectly-formed tiny burger in an equally tiny and perfectly-formed sesame seed bun. From the fast-food establishment (that's curiously started painting all its outlets a organic green colour - we weren't fooled!) it was only a couple of minutes to the city's bus and coach station.

It was from here that we were booked on the UK's longest coach service - National Express' Service 336, linking Edinburgh with Penzance daily. The service has been operated by First Devon & Cornwall for many years (possibly by Wessex before that) and it was a fortnight ago that I learned the company had been unsuccessful in the latest round of tenders, losing 5 contracts from its bases at Camborne and Penzance - the 336 is one such contract, passing to Bruces Coaches.

We didn't know any of this at the time and at 2115hrs boarded an all-white Volvo B12M/Plaxton Paragon C49Ft in readiness for our 2130hrs departure. The vehicle, despite its lack of livery, was a First-owned vehicle and had operated NX services since new. It carried contravision boards on both sides - in the slots were signs stating 'National Express', though I assume equally easy could they show 'First', should the vehicle be needed for their own work. Specifically, our steed for next 18.5 hours was 20532 (WV52 HVF).

M'colleague and I have travelled on the 336 before, from Edinburgh to Birmingham, so I knew that there was no point getting bedded down for the night as there'd be a 30 minute break at Glasgow from 2230-2300. Having loaded around 20 people there, we left punctually, bound for Penzance and into Day 4, which is where Part 4 takes over.....

Day 3 draws to a close here in Glasgow, where we take our last proper break until around 4pm the following day when we arrive in Penzance.

Following the final part being uploaded, the entire Top 'n' Tail jaunt will be published on the LEYTRavels blog.

Hull's celebrations

July sees two anniversaries in the city of Hull: the first commemorates 110 years of public transport in the city and the second marks the centenary of motor bus services therein. To mark these two historic occasions, Stagecoach in Hull, whose antecedents were first formed in 1899, has painted two of its modern-day vehicles in special, commemorative liveries.

Below is ADL Trident 2/ADL ALX400, 18435 (YN06 LMM), wearing the Hull Corporation livery, dating back to the 1930s and worn by all vehicles until 1972.


Below is ADL Trident 2/ADL ALX400, 18434 (YN06 LML), wearing the 1980s version of the Kingston upon Hull City Transport (KHCT) livery, including the three KHCT crown emblems.


In all my years in the bus industry, I've never, ever seen two liveries that completely transform what is a bog-standard double-decker bus body in such different ways before. At first glance they don't even look like ADL deckers!

We are, of course, celebrating these two significant anniversaries in greater depth in the forthcoming LEYTR magazine. To subscribe click here. (GL)

The first bendy to go

Today sees the first day's rigid-bus operation on London's Red Arrow Service 507, between Victoria and Waterloo central rail termini. Last Friday, therefore, saw the final day of bendy bus operation on the route. The fete of London's articulated Mercedes-Benz Citaros was sealed by incoming Mayor, Boris Johnson, who pledged to banish the vehicles from the capital's streets as part of his manifesto. More recently he's announced that all bendy buses will have been eradicated by the end of 2011.

Said Boris on Friday: "These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time. Pedestrians that leap, cyclists that skidded and drivers that dodged from the path of the 507 will breathe easier this weekend. Bendy buses on other routes are on borrowed time and I can confirm they will all have gone by 2011. Engineers will now scrape all traces of the capital from these first nine buses and next week they will be sent back to their spiritual home, an airfield in the Midlands."

Coming soon to an airfield near you in the Midlands: this articulated bus (and 8 others like it). It's a serious point though - where else in the UK are there operations that require large numbers of bendy buses that could be recipients of the Mayor's mass-cull?

It's ironic that the Red Arrow network was the first to be converted to articulated bus operation in June 2002. Replacing the 9 bendies on Service 507 are 15 brand new, 12m single deck buses, even more ironically, rigid versions of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro. We understand that they will feature limited seating - similar to the new Class 378s now deployed on the London Overground rail network (112 seats in three cars but with standing room for 500) - with greater emphasis for standees. Open boarding through both doors will continue as with the bendy buses, to reduce dwell times as much as possible.

For the first time, weekend operation of Service 507 took place yesterday and Saturday and the weekday frequency has been increased from a bus every 5 minutes (12 per hour) to one every 3.5 minutes (18 per hour).

The additional vehicles on London's streets will only add to congestion in the central area and will only pollute the atmosphere more with the additional 6 vehicles allocated to the route. The cost involved in replacing articulated buses with rigid versions was released by Transport for London (TfL) a couple of months ago - £3 million *per year*. Outgoing Mayor Ken Livingstone vehemently defended the bendy buses on BBC's Question Time in the weeks before the Mayoral Elections in London, stating categorically that no more of this vehicle type has been involved in accidents with cyclists, cars or pedestrians than any other type of bus.

This was echoed on Friday by London Travelwatch chair Sharon Grant, who said: "We have yet to hear a credible reason for scrapping bendy buses, and we are unaware of any evidence that supports it. We do not believe it represents value for money for London’s travelling public, especially at a time when TfL is short of funds. We are still concerned about capacity on the replacement buses, as well as load and dwell times at stops. We will also be keeping a close eye on the potential congestion caused by the extra buses on roads and at bus stops."

Chatting to a well-placed industry source at the North Weald bus rally at the start of the month, he told us that plans are now being drawn-up to retain bendy-bus operation on two services in London, one route being the 436 (Paddington-Lewisham). It could be argued that now in office, Boris has seen just how ill-informed he's been about the supposed horror on the streets that are the bendy buses, but has got himself in so deep he has no option other than to progress with their removal. (GL)

Routeing Guide

Have you ever gazed at your train ticket and wondered exactly what 'any permitted route' actually means, as stated at the bottom of the ticket itself? What is and what isn't a permitted route and how do I find out? We've often felt this until regular contributor 'GWB' offered us some enlightenment in the way of introducing us to the Association of Train Operating Companies' (ATOC) Routeing Guide.

As a rule of thumb, the shortest distance between your start and end points is always a permitted route. On journeys that necessitate a change or two along that route, the permitted route is where these changes are advertised as being required. For all other journey options, the Routeing Guide needs to be consulted.

First of all you need to look at the Routing Point Identifier table, that lists all stations that form part of the National Rail network. Let's take a trip within the LEYTR area, from Bridlington to Kirton Lindsey. First, we must identify our start point (good old Brid') in the table and note its Associated Routeing Points: Hull and Scarborough Group. From the same table, we now need to choose our destination, the least-used station, Kirton Lindsey. Here, there are four Associated Routeing Points: Barnetby, Doncaster, Lincoln and Retford.

Now it's time to use the Permitted Route Identifier table, in order to ascertain which permitted route we're able to use, since there are no direct trains between Bridlington and Kirton Lindsey, and we're not too sure of which option offers the shortest distance to travel. Here it gets slightly more complicated: we need to look for the first routeing point for our origin station in the first column, which for Bridlington is Hull and the same for our destination point, which for Kirton Lindsey is Barnetby. On page 471 we find our result: Hull - Barnetby has a permitted route labelled 'ER', which is a map reference.

We now need to visit the Map Section to view the cartography associated with 'ER'. This is found on the 30th page. We must now use this map to locate the most direct manner of travel between the two points. We have options. The most direct route appears to be Bridlington-Hull-Doncaster, Doncaster-Retford, Retford-Kirton Lindsey. But since Bridlington had two Routeing Points, the second being Scarborough Group, we can do the same calculation again using this point and any one of the remaining three Routeing Points for Kirton Lindsey: Doncaster, Lincoln and Retford. However, map 'ER' always appears as the ultimate reference.

It therefore means Bridlington-Scarborough, Scarborough-York, York-Doncaster, Doncaster-Barnetby and Barnetby-Kirton Lindsey is also possible and perfectly acceptable.

We're impressed that such depth of information exists and is readily available to rail passengers to use, and we're confident that these permitted routes have been correctly built into the online journey planners, but it does throw into stark light the complexity of any non-direct journey to be made in this country. Such is the confusion at times, how can train guards be expected to know all possible permutations? The book itself has well over 1,000 pages and is therefore incredibly inconvenient to carry around.

If ever the time was right to completely overhaul this and the equally ludicrous fares system that exists, right now, the middle of a thumping great recession is surely the perfect time to do so!

ATOC's web page devoted to its Routeing Guide can be accessed by clicking here. (GWB)

Please note: this entry has had an update posted. Click here to read the update.

Go Whippet gone!

Returning from the North Weald bus rally on 5 July (coincidentally the same date our modem died!), we called in at the Go Whippet depot, just off the A14 near Fenstanton in Cambs. Under the agreement it struck with Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, the company needed to clear its site by Saturday 11 July, as Stagecoach moved in the following day. Luckily, a near-full compliment of Whippet vehicles was still in attendance, with a fair number in the locked workshop, when we called by. The vehicles all bore the company’s new Swavesey address in readiness for the move.


Stagecoach’s Huntingdon depot closed a month before they were able to move into Whippet’s premises, the interim period seeing the undertaking move to what was effectively a large lock-up near St. Ives. That said, the new ethanol vehicles to be used on the forthcoming Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, have been making daily trips to Whippet's yard for the special organic-based diesel contained in tanks delivered to the depot from new.

Stagecoach purchased Cavalier Contracts Ltd at the start of April 2008 and with this acquisition came the Huntingdon & District (H&D) subsidiary, ironically, a company Stagecoach had owned until 1995 when it was forced to divest this and MK Metro in Milton Keynes to be able to retain its recently-purchased Cambus (and it's Peterborough-based Viscount Bus & Coach subsiditary). Cavalier had agreed to sell its H&D depot in Huntingdon prior to selling to Stagecoach and so the hunt has been on for the past year for new premises.

To view all photos taken on 5 July with a near-full compliment of Whippet vehicles in what is now the new Stagecoach in Huntingdon depot, click here. (GL)

How hard can it be?

It has been suggested that the bus industry needs a more defined ‘champion’ than Passenger Focus and Bus Users UK - possibly one individual who is well-known around the country and who could ‘sex things up a bit’. A comparison has been drawn between what Jeremy Clarkson has allegedly done for the car industry and what someone of similar ilk could do for the bus industry.

I’m not sure Clarkson has sexed-up the car industry at all; what he and his possy on Top Gear have done is to create a quirky and entertaining programme that is loosely based on vehicles containing a combustible engine. My mother is a fan of the programme and yet despises cars with a passion. How can that be possible if we’re to believe Clarkson is the bastion of the private motor car? She particularly enjoys the outlandish and oafish behaviour all three display and the innovative races that crop up from time-to-time; the most recent being a road trip from the south to the north of Vietnam by motorbike – so much for sexing up the *car* industry!

He's overweight, deeply unfit, smokes and drinks and doesn't mind pushing acceptable boundaries on TV, but many see him as the saviour of the car industry thanks to the way he has helped in promoting Top Gear. Could the bus industry benefit with someone similar?

I’d agree that the bus industry doesn’t have the best of reputations, but still it doesn’t do too badly. For every outrageous complaint made, there are a couple of extremely satisfied OAPs who choose not to write in; the remainder – the overwhelming majority – are pretty indifferent towards bus travel. Sure there are some idiot drivers out there but then there are some friendly chaps who counter-balance the cretins. And then there are those who choose to keep themselves to themselves. Let’s not forget that many complaints made within the bus industry are done so in protest of fare rises, vehicle cleanliness, route alterations, i.e. areas that the bus industry’s version of Jeremy Clarkson (but ‘sexier’) would have no control over. (GL)

Overcrowded already!!

Neither of us were shocked to learn that within the first week of its new services, the Class 395 ‘Javelin’ trans operating along High Speed 1 between Kent and central London are suffering with a lack of seating for commuters. The busiest journey (indeed, the first to log standees) is the 1737 St. Pancras to Ashford. To combat this, Southeastern has made this and the 0748 Ashford to St. Pancras departures 12-cars (2 x six-cars units) in length.

To note, the first-ever passenger-carrying Javelin journey took place on 18 June, for a round trip from St. Pancras to Ashford, carrying journalists and rail industry figures. Services started officially on 29 June to the following ‘preview’ timetable:

Inbound (arrival time at St. Pancras in brackets)
From Ashford International
0648 (0725), 0713 (0750), 0748 (0824).

From Ebbsfleet
0708 0733 0805 0835 0905 0935 1005 1035 1105 1305 then at 35/05 to 1835
Journey time to St. Pancras is 17 mins.


Outbound
From St. Pancras
0737 and at 07/37 to 1107 1307 then at 07/37 to 1837 1926.
All journeys call at Ebbsfleet (taking 17 mins) with the 1737, 1837, 1936 extending to Ashford.

Services operate on weekdays only until 11 December when the full timetable is instigated. (GL)

The worst possible moment

Those of us who've spent many a day out there photographing public transport know only too well how frustrating it can be to wait for a particular vehicle (we're hoping to head to Hull soon for a shot of the Stagecoach trident there in KHCT livery to commemorate 110 years of the former municipal operator - Eds.) only for a cyclist, lorry or pedestrian to pass by at the worst possible moment.

The YouTube clip below shows one such example, where rail enthusiasts, keen to capture the world's most recent steam engine, have their hopes dashed....



These rail photographers, who are likely to have been on the platform a good hour or so before the train passed, laugh it off. They do not become filled with venom any have to vent their anger on each other, rail workers or cars in the station car park on their way home. There are certain sections of society who need to take note and learn from how these people deal with a knock-back! (CW)

Tipping the scales

Stagecoach is considering suspending any of its workforce in possession of a vocational license to drive PCVs who happen to weigh in excess of 120kg. There have, apparently, been cases throughout the country where rotund drivers have been suspended from duty pending an appointment with the company doctor, who has – in consultation with the driver concerned and the company – produced an ‘action sheet’ that includes dietary modifications to ensure the employee is able to lose weight.

At every level in the process, we understand the employee is assured continued employment and receives no deduction in pay. We believe this is called “positive discrimination” and has been employed in other industries. A couple of years ago, a call centre employee lied on her application form about being a non-smoker. Upon employment, she used her legitimately-entitled breaks to go outside to smoke. She was sacked by her employer and when the case came to court, the individual lost.

Back to the bus industry, and the sedentary nature of the work means many large drivers can be found driving buses. We knew of a chap who was so heavy he had to be taken on a bus to the nearby public weigh bridge, where a displacement calculation was made (weigh bus only, then weigh bus with driver in and subtract both values to determine the driver’s weight).

Of course passengers are entitled to query a driver’s physical well-being if, when seated in the cab, his stomach overlaps the steering wheel, and no doubt Stagecoach has this firmly in mind – and of course the well-being of its employees.

What’s not been mentioned though is that most manufacturers of driving seats will only guarantee a maximum payload of (you guessed it) 120kg and presumably liability would be a little awkward to confirm should an accident occur as the result of a bus driver’s seat giving way while the vehicle is in motion! ('Banshee')

At arms length

In the first of a few 'while we were away' entries, we look at the ongoing saga of National Express East Coast and shed some more light on proceedings.

Perhaps the most significant news story to be made while we've been away is the debacle surrounding the East Coast rail franchise. Following our initial post, we’ve since learned that, crucially, the contract to run the flagship rail line until 2015 was between the Department for Transport (DfT) and National Express East Coast (NXEC) NOT the DfT and National Express Group (NEG). What does this mean? Well, this is the technicality that we assumed would rear its head that would preclude the DfT from taking back NEG’s other rail franchises, National Express East Anglia (NXEA) and top-performing c2c.

There are 31 Class 91 'Intercity 225' electric locos in NXEC's fleet; all will pass to the new, nationalised undertaking, headed by the DfT by the end of the year.

While NXEC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEG, the latter has no binding contract with the DfT in any way. Similarly, the East Anglia franchise is between the DfT and NXEA, and so too is the franchise between city and coast, c2c. In fact, all rail franchises are between the DfT and the actual franchisee NOT the group who owns it. This is NEG’s get-out clause if you like. This is why it believes the DfT is not entitled to its more profitable and efficient NXEA and c2c franchises. Rather astonishingly, NEG distanced itself from NXEC (and its associated woes) to an unprecedented level by saying: “[NEG] are not a party to, nor a guarantor of, NXEC’s obligations under the East Coast franchise agreement”.

NEG continued: “National Express believes that the Secretary of State would not be permitted… to execute the right of cross default contained in the franchise agreements for NXEA and c2c.” Lord Adonis had other thoughts, stating: “The Government believes it may have grounds to terminate these franchises, and we are exploring all options in the light of the group’s statement.” We understand that a cross-default clause is inserted into all rail franchises, but again, it is legally binding only between the franchise operator and the DfT – i.e. NXEC and the DfT not NEG and the DfT. This technicality has never been tested it court….yet.

NEG are then legitimately entitled to say “It’s over to you….” to Adonis’ staff and hand back the keys. It is understood that the NEG Board chose to cut its losses with its NXEC expenditure being £72 million right now, rather than £1.4 billion by 2015. With the assets NXEC paid for totaling £30 million, the total loss NEG will incur is £102 million, fourteen times LESS than the loss they could well make.

After NXEC has gone, NEG's arms-length companies NXEA and c2c will continue to operate train services. Don't count on NEG ever being awarded another rail franchise though!

To keep things in perspective though, right here and now, the East Coast franchise has not been nationalised; nor has its operator been stripped of its franchise; NXEC is not insolvent; and the DfT is not running the trains – it is continuing to be done so by NXEC, who’s seeing growth of 0.3% annually.

RAIL magazine kindly gave us a list of NXEC’s rolling stock, viz:
Class 08: 08472, 08571/596, 08615.
Class 43: 43206/8/38/9/51/7/77/95/6/9, 43300/2/5-20/67.
Class 91: 91101-22/4-32.
Class 180: 180102/4.

The Class 08s are hired from Wabtec Rail; Class 180s are leased but not in traffic; there are 122 Mk3 carriages (for the HSTs); 271 Mk4 carriages (for the Class 91s) and 31 Mk4 DVTs (running at opposite ends of the trains hauled by Class 91s).

There has been a development regarding the Lincoln journeys, given authorisation for NXEC to operate from December next year. Full details in the forthcoming LEYTR magazine. (GL)

The pitfall of spontaneity

"Do I look like a guy with a plan? The Mob has plans; Gordon has plans.... You had plans and look where that got you!"

This was The Joker's attempt to persuade Gotham's District Attorney, who lay in a hospital bed with half his face burned off, to accept Chaos theory in a scene from last year's blockbuster movie, The Dark Knight.

Later in the scene - just before the entire hospital was raised to the ground using not-so-Chaos-based tactics employed by The Joker, the following line was uttered: "And the thing about Chaos..... It's fair!"

Are these closures planned? TfL believes that saying that they are is likely to stop us all moaning.

Transport for London (TfL) do not base their Underground engineering works on the sentiments of that made by the late Heath Ledger's Oscar-award winning character, oh no. They have chosen to deliberately place the word "planned" at the start of all their announcements for engineering works, as if to make us all sympathetic with their plight and to not feel in any way inconvenienced with the amended travel plans we are likely to have to make.

"Due to planned engineering works this weekend, the District, Circle, Victoria, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines are closed" is effectively what we were told for the past two days. Only the Victoria line saw complete closure, but for the journeys we wanted to make, the others may have all been closed, too.

I fully appreciate the need to upgrade the Tube and that owing to its intensive operation, this needs to be done overnight and for more extensive works, over weekend periods, when there aren't the massive peaks in demand. My 'beef' is the insertion of the word 'planned' as if to win the travelling public over.

"Let's put a smile on your face" - should TfL take a leaf out of The Joker's book?

Its place in the announcement hopes to persuade us that this is all 'part of the plan' (another quote from The Joker) and that we are unlikely to worry or be unduly aggrieved at the prospect of replacement buses, because it's all part of the plan. TfL must therefore believe that the removal of the word 'planned' is likely to cause Tube passengers great concern as the established order has been upset (yet another Joker quote).

As my comparison rant draws to a close, what can we deduce? Surely that The Joker needs to take over the control of the London Underground. It's the only sensible way to progress. TfL is playing right into his hands. (GWB)

New for Delaine

While the Internet permits, we're uploading a few photos of some acquisitions made by LEYTR operator Delaine Buses.

It's understood the company's acquisition of three new vehicles to their fleet is a first for the family-run company who was founded in 1890. Two acquired vehicles and a brand new one arrived within 12 days of each other and are depicted below.

Full details of the vehicles will be available in the forthcoming LEYTR magazine.

Connection issues

No sooner had we installed the Twitter application, the LEYTR computer chose to refuse to connect to the Internet! A dysfunctional modem is to blame and after many phone calls to our ISP, a replacement has been sent. Unfortunately, this too is not working as best it should. While we're convinced our nearly-new computer is not at fault, we're at the mercy of our ISP, who we've chosen not to mention as we don't want to be accused of libel!

The Internet connection problem is having NO effect on the production of the forthcoming LEYTR July/August magazine, which will be published on schedule at the end of the month.

In the mean time, please bear with us. As soon as normal service resumes, we'll get round to replying to the mountain of correspondence the LEYTR email account will no doubt have amassed over the past few days. (PW/GL)

Twitter

If it's good enough for Stephen Fry, then, quite frankly, it's good enough for the editors of the Lincolnshire & East Yorkshire Transport Review.

We've just joined Twitter. While appearing to be largely pointless in comparison to Facebook for our general needs, a direct feed at the top of the page on the blog seems to make sense - for those occasions when a daily post is not always possible.

For a sometimes-better-than-daily update, feel free to check to see what we're up to. It may not be anything particularly exciting, but then again we get the impression that Twitter's not that kind of social networking site. Just as well, really!

But what about Lincoln?

I, and anyone else who watched Tuesday evening’s BBC News at Ten, knew that National Express (NX) was very likely to default on its East Coast rail franchise yesterday morning. Newsreader Huw Edwards brought us all some breaking news at 2217 precisely, stating that NX’s chief executive Richard Bowker had issued his resignation.


Chief exec’s more-often-than-not jump before they’re pushed and with Bowker jumping, something big had to follow. It came as the London Stock Exchange opened for business yesterday, with the Department for Transport (DfT) and NX issuing statements to the effect that the East Coast rail franchise would be taken on by the government later this year until at least the end of 2010. NX had been in negotiation with the DfT to re-negotiate the East Coast franchise but the DfT chose not to budge and thus NX chose to pull out of its operation.

There appears to be some discussion as to whether or not the DfT is able to also take-back NX’s other two rail franchises: c2c, operating between Southend and London Fenchurch Street via two routes and East Anglia, (NXEA) operating throughout that area of England. As I understand it, if a train operating company (TOC) “hands back the keys” (- the much-used phrase of yesterday) on one franchise, they must also default on *all* their rail commitments.

In the BBC’s 1 o’ clock news yesterday afternoon, NX were quoted as saying that the DfT was “not allowed” to relieve it of c2c and NXEA. The DfT may have other ideas; it ultimately comes down to the precise way NX handed-back NXEC. It may have been done in a manner that sees it not being technically classed as a default, in the terms of its operation, in which case then perhaps NXEA and c2c will remain in the hands of NX. Additionally, having to re-nationalise a further two rail franchises is the last thing the Labour government wants right now.

The livery was fresh and striking. I preferred it GNER's more traditional red and Riviera blue.

NX were also keen to point out that they would be more than happy to operate the East Coast franchise when the recession ends. This seems to have incensed Transport Secretary Lord Adonis who, yesterday in a statement to the House of Lords, vented his anger at NX by telling his Lordships that it is “wholly unacceptable” that TOCs should reap the benefits of rail franchises when times are good but default on payments when times are bad.”

But what of Lincoln? In February, the Office of Rail Regulation, following discussion with the DfT and other TOCs, gave NXEC the go-ahead to operate six return journeys between London King’s Cross and Lincoln Central stations, with the option of at least one daily extension to either Grimsby Town or Cleethorpes. How will this fair now? Will the planned new journeys commence in December as had been provisionally planned? If not, will the new, nationalised East Coast company choose to operate them? We think the answer to both questions will, unfortunately, be no.

Neither of these trains would've ever operated to Lincoln; NXEC were to deploy 125mph Class 180 'Adelantes' on the forthcoming service.

We have two very well-placed sources within NXEC (one of whom is a member of the LEYTR), and after a couple of frantic emails yesterday afternoon, the response to our Lincoln-based query was “To be honest, no one has a clue right now”. Perhaps it’s best to let things settle. NX are to continue operating the East Coast franchise until a pre-determined date later this year (when a £40m under-written loan from the DfT expires), so matters are too ‘up in the air’ for the time-being.

It’s a shame that NXEC will soon be no more. Having travelled countless times aboard the same franchise when operated by the now defunct GNER (whose demise was virtually identical to NX’s – they bid, or rather Sea Containers, GNER’s parent company – far too high for the prestigious route), NXEC seemed to have handled the transition period well and initially improved facilities for first-class passengers. Not everyone has been enamored by NXEC though.

A cracking shot of a Dundee-bound HST crossing the Tay Bridge.

The national press has chosen not to get bogged down with the minutiae of why NX has effectively defaulted; just as well, really! It’s rather surreal on the surface: passenger numbers continue to *grow* and net profit from fares also continues to *grow*, too. But, neither is growing at anywhere near the rate NX envisaged when it negotiated with the DfT for the East Coast franchise two years ago, commencing operation on 9 December 2007. There was no sign on a ‘thumping recession’ looming then and NX faced some fearsome competition, too, with bidders including First, Arriva and InterCity Railways - the latter being a consortium comprising Virgin, Stagecoach and GNER.

NX’s winning bid of £1.4 billion was more than that GNER bid two years earlier (£1.3 billion) and it had to default as it bid too high; NX had no extension to the franchise so effectively bid £0.5 billion more for a franchise that had two years less to run.

One of NXEC's strengths was its online presence. Its website is absolutely superb - based on a design that many other operators now employ.

On the subject of Virgin, old ‘Beardie’ will be rubbing his hands together right now. He’s not hidden his desire to get his hands on the East Coast franchise, which would result in Virgin Trains having the exclusivity of operating both Anglo-Scottish rail lines. Now if this were the bus industry and if Virgin was 100% Stagecoach (the latter has a 49% stake in the former), the Office of Fair Trading would have much to say about that, and so too would the Competition Commission. It would be interesting to see if the rail industry is any different! (GL)

We'll leave the last word to 'Prezza' though:

Back to the Future

I made an observation yesterday as I walked through Cleethorpes' central business district. One bus service has reverted to near-identical operation in every aspect from a decade ago. Actually, almost 11 years ago.

For it was during September 1998 that the relatively new unitary authority of North-East Lincolnshire received its first low-floor bus service in the shape of a re-vampted Service 12, operated by Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes. In actual fact, Alexander had delivered the three, new ALX200s on the Dennis Dart SLF chassis early and full service commenced to the old timetable over a month early!

Service 12 was minibus-operated, linking the small commuter village of New Waltham, to the south of Grimsby, with Cleethorpes and out to the much larger, ever-growing village of Laceby. Within Cleethorpes, Service 12 operated a circuitous route, passing many group dwellings and sheltered accommodation for the elderly, and was the lifeline for many people. Back then, N-reg Mercedes-Benz 709D minibuses operated the service.

Being replaced by brand-new S-reg Dennis Dart SLFs was a much welcome and common-sense solution. The three new vehicles, 401-3 (S401-SDT), now numbered 33804-6 and allocated to Stagecoach's Hull depot, were very well-received and made a fair amount of special guest appearances in the local press at the time.

Service 12's route had ostensibly remained the same, though at the western end of the route, an extension to the much smaller villages of Irby-upon-Humber and Aylesby had taken place, at the request of the local authority. These villages had a two-hourly service, with the main hourly route bifurcating at Laceby Crossroads to serve each on alternate basis.

There was a steady decline in the operation of Service 12 during the early part of the 'naughties'. The biggest blow was the removal of the dedicated trio of low-floor vehicles to Hull by 2002. As we understand it, despite the money Stagecoach received from North-East Lincolnshire Council, the service still ran at a loss (NELC subsidised certain sections rather than the entire route or entire journeys). A route reverting back to three-step entry is only going to compound profitability issues further.

Consequently, it was in 2007 - with the Aylesby and Irby extensions having long since been removed - that Service 12 merged with the flagship Service X1 linking Grimsby with Hull. Service X1 reputedly made a loss as a direct result of the Humber Bridge toll charge each crossing incurred, and when victory came Stagecoach's way (after a long, public battle, which saw the possibility of the service be withdrawn without replacement) - in the form of toll reductions for stage-carriage services - they went all out and threw to alleged loss-making services together to see what happened.

Gary Nolan, managing director of Stagecoach East Midlands, said in the trade press that such was the upsurge in patronage with this new X1 conglomerate route that better vehicles were being sought (ex Hull Volvo B10M/Plaxton Paladins - yes, they are Plaxton Paladins were being used, overheating regularly). It seems that the new X1 was being exposed to far more of North-East Lincolnshire's population - thanks to the erstwhile Service 12's meandering route - and people were making use of this very handy link from the back-streets of Cleethorpes to Hull city centre.

However, due to EC Drivers' Hours regulations, Service X1 was split on 20 April. Service 12 was resurrected, though only a shadow of its former self if the truth be known, and the X1's route in Cleethorpes forwent the densely-populated 'wiggle' it had hitherto operated in favour of one concentrated more on the seasonal tourist market (i.e. along Cleethorpes' seafront, terminating at the Pleasure Island theme park). Service X1 has been re-named Humber Flyer in a Trent Barton-esque move and registered in two sections with "guaranteed connections" (same bus, same driver) at Humberside Airport.

As for Service 12, and the raison d'être for today's entry, this follows a virtually identical route to that it did back in 1998 and, ironically, it is allocated two low-floor Dennis Dart SLFs with Alexander ALX200 bodywork. These buses were new to Western's AA Buses subsidiary in November 1997 - 9 months before the groundbreaking low-floor buses for Service 12 entered service in North-East Lincolnshire.

Having moved to Grimsby depot from Mansfield, and their bright-pink Pronto livery replaced with the more respectable Stagecoach swirls, 33765/6 (R465/6 LSO) are now regular performers on the new route. The present Service 12 timetable is hourly frequency between 0900-1400, after which there's a curious gap (presumably for operational reasons) of 90 minutes. West of Grimsby, the route is different to that of 1998, now operating via the Grange and terminating at the Bradley Park estate. Between New Waltham, Cleethorpes and Grimsby, the route offers a very poor attempt to convey commuters, with an 0803 arrival into Grimsby bus station and then nothing until 0940. Back in the day, arrivals were from 0835 and hourly to 1735 (this journey departed at 1740).

2009
Route name: Service 12
Route description: New Waltham-Cleethorpes-Grimsby-Laceby
Vehicles used: S-reg Dennis Dart SLFs
Frequency: Hourly, totalling 10 end-to-end journeys

Back-in-the-day, 1998
Route name: Service 12
Route description: New Waltham-Cleethorpes-Grimsby-Bradley Park
Vehicles used: R-reg Dennis Dart SLFs
Frequency: Hourly 0900-1400, 8 end-to-end journeys

During 2003, Stagecoach's chief executive and joint founder, Brian Souter, toured the country giving informal talks to his employees. These talks had a theme: Back to the Future. Souter was convinced that, having been forced out of retirement that year as a result of - some would say - a very poor investment through the purchase of Coach USA, the need to take stock, to stand still and to assess each company's local operating area, was needed.

That was back then. In 2009 the theme is very much different, unless of course you live along Service 12's route in which case you could be forgiven for thinking New Labour has just been elected; the president of the US has been a naughty boy with someone called Monika; and a little-known Internet search engine has just come on the scene. (GL)