Stagecoach could get its way in Preston.

[jackh]

Yes, that's right. The end is nigh possibly for Preston Bus! It was reported in the Lancashire Evening Post on Tuesday that employees of Preston Bus were informed of a possible takeover from Stagecoach at the Deepdale Labour Club.

This would obviously be a bitter end to the ongoing rivalry between the two firms since Stagecoach launched competing routes against Preston Bus back in 2007.

However, a takeover from Stagecoach could fall through as shareholders of Preston Bus which mostly are employees of the firm have until the 22nd January 2009 to decide on the deal.

www.lep.co.uk/news/Stagecoach-to-buy-39bus-war39.4829759.jp

[Davidc]

Interesting news. My brother works for Stagecoach. Will see if he has heard anything when he gets home from work tonight.

He has always said that it would be difficult for any other company to take over as it would put them into direct competition with Stagecoach. The only way for this not to happen would for Stagecoach to take over. Will have to see what happens but it would be a shame to loose Preston Bus.

David.c

[bernardf]

Remember Hartlepool Corporation?

[jackh]

Stagecoach went hostile on Darlington Transport by offering free travel on their services therefore making the municiple give up and call it a day so Stagecoach gets their way. However years down the line they sell their Darlington operations to Arriva!

[guyarab]

Stagecoach's predatory moves put paid also to Lancaster & Morecambe's and Barrow's municipal operations. I believe. I don't like this way of "doing business" and hope Preston can stay alive!

[6u3zr]

Jan 2, 2009 20:50:44 GMT 1 guyarab said:

Stagecoach's predatory moves put paid also to Lancaster & Morecambe's and Barrow's municipal operations. I believe. I don't like this way of "doing business" and hope Preston can stay alive!

You are correct to an extent but both Lancaster and Barrow lost very experienced and able managers (Tom Moore and Derek Gwynne) at deregulation in 1986 and were managed quite poorly following that - their joint fiasco in Kendal in 1988/9 sealed their demise and both were pretty much on their knees financially when Stagecoach made attractive offers.

Neither had what might be called good bus territory - Lancaster is a fairly affluent town, Barrow's primary concentration of social housing is within an easy walk of the town centre - so I'm afraid that these two were fairly easy pickings.

The situation in Darlington was'nt quite as simplistic as Jack suggests. Whilst Stagecoach employed some fairly uncompetitive tactics (primararily stop-blocking, but also some freebies) the local authority expected an unrealistic return in exchange for practically no investment. I took a few rides in Darlington in this era. I certainly enjoyed Darlington's Seddon Pennine but I suspect that Joe Public would have been more won over by the almost new Stagecoach Volvo/Alexander that had been at the stop for some time before the Darlington service left.

Preston Bus is a fairly well run operation from my experience and understanding, with some lucrative routes. They don't appear to have overstretched themselves recently in terms of infrastructure investment - indicative of a realistic and sensible management.

If there was going to be a future in ex-municipals I'd have thought that Preston would be in the last five (with Blackpool, Nottingham, Cardiff and Lothian.)

So it goes...

[rwilkes]

"Neither had what might be called good bus territory - Lancaster is a fairly affluent town, Barrow's primary concentration of social housing is within an easy walk of the town centre "

Lancaster now is an area of high bus growth up 54% from 2001-7. This is despite a big growth in cycling and walking

and Barrow got 24% growth over 2.5 year recently.
Its a shame in many ways if Preston is to go under, but Stagecoach is the best of the big 3 for getting motorists onto buses. In some of their cities2/3 of the bus users are people who have left the car at home

[guyarab]

Some good comments there 6u3zr, but I still think there were sharp practices involved. As to your final five municipals, I would inert Reading as a forward thinking, council run operator, but haven't Nottingham and Cardiff suffered in some ways recently - with the latter coming under fire from the Traffic Commissioner? Lothian have recently had to make some service cuts to what I thought was an excellent operation (except for its exact fare policy).

I stand to be corrected (not literally of course - I am seated as I write this diatribe!

[Davidc]

I would think that Stagecoach would be the best operator to take over Preston Bus. Not that I want to see the end of Preston Bus. They are a good operator with a well run set of routes and have done well to keep Stagecoach away for this long.

Apparently Transdev have been looking to complete their coast to coast operations with the acquisition of Stagecoach North Wests Preston operation. But Brian Souter wanted to keep the X routes (X2 and X61) which Transdev where not to keen on so things have not gone ahead. If it had gone ahead then Transdev would be on for getting Blackpool Transport to complete the set. I always though it would have been logical for Transdev to go for Preston Bus, but as I have said before it would have put them into direct competition with Stagecoach which I doubt they would have wanted.

David.c

[jackh]

Jan 3, 2009 16:20:17 GMT 1 Davidc said:

Apparently Transdev have been looking to complete their coast to coast operations with the acquisition of Stagecoach North Wests Preston operation. But Brian Souter wanted to keep the X routes (X2 and X61) which Transdev where not to keen on so things have not gone ahead. If it had gone ahead then Transdev would be on for getting Blackpool Transport to complete the set. I always though it would have been logical for Transdev to go for Preston Bus, but as I have said before it would have put them into direct competition with Stagecoach which I doubt they would have wanted.

David.c

So really, all Stagecoach want with Preston is the town routes and the express routes out to Blackpool, Manchester and Liverpoo. I know the X2 is doing quite well, well enough I imagine for Stagecoach to have made changes to the route to avoid having tachographs fitted and costs in relation to more drivers required to comply with law. Also, Stagecoach are to be putting Enviros on the services as well this year.

Transdev would still have access to Southport through the 2 service unless Stagecoach would still want that and Blackpool with the 61 and 68. Would the outstation at Fleetwood have been included as well?

Either way who ever ends up be successful in buying at Preston Bus, job losses will be inevitable as the administrative function of the operation of Preston Bus will be surplus to requirement of the new owner. If Stagecoach are successful in buying them, there would be more chances of drivers losing their jobs as their current "Citi" routes would be withdrawn or the services combined with the number of buses required dropping.

[Davidc]

The town routes and express services must be bringing in the money for Stagecoach. Though they do also operate a number of Lancashire County Council services so money would be coming in that way as well.

The X2 and X61 routes are tachograph equipped and yes Enviro400s are due some time soon for the X2. Reliability seems to be the issue with these routes and also the Blackpool services. Not sure if the Fleetwood out station would have been included but it would leave a small number of Stagecoach vehicles some distance from any other main Stagecoach operation.

I have read that admin staff would be lost from Preston Bus if a takeover by Stagecoach took place. Stagecoach would want to keep things ticking over at Stockport. I don't know what would happen to the routes that now have both Preston Bus and Stagecoach operating them. Bring them all in line with each other operating at a high frequency. There's very little chance that Stagecoach would be able to operate the routes with just Solos. Bigger vehicles would be needed but I doubt the East Lancs Esteem would be brought into the fleet due to them being non standard.

There's going to be a lot of changes if a take over does take place and with the end of the current bus station looming it could prove interesting over the next few years.

David.c

[SF07]

Does seem weird that Stagecoach and Preston Bus have been at loggerheads for a while and now they're talk of a takeover. Would be a shame if Stagecoach do take them over, as it doesn't necessarily it's a good thing, look what happened with Yorkshire Traction services in the West Yorkshire area. If Preston Bus is going to be taken over, then I believe it would be better to be by someone else, particularly a company which has a strong portfolio, which would be Transdev.

Other possible one could be a possibility for First to establish themselves in Lancashire, given that the only other First services in Lancashire are the 20 to Bacup, 589/592 to Burnley and a couple of services out of Wigan. Another one would be for Arriva to increase on their services that run into Lancashire.

Or maybe even Centrebus may want to show more ambition after taking over Hudds Bus Company and taking over quite a few services in Leicestershire from Arriva and Woods Coaches.

[jackh]

I don't think Centrebus would be able to afford such a takeover of a large company like Preston Bus. They wouldn't be able to get the equity for such a move.

Arriva could always make an attempt at buying out Preston Bus as a get back at Stagecoach for competition in Merseyside. However Arriva cut back from Preston a while back, the closest they get to Preston is Chorley with the 362 service.

I would prefer to Transdev to take over Preston Bus, but they would have too much at stake if Stagecoach took it up to themselves to compete against Transdev in Blackburn.

[rwilkes]

I think any takeovers will rarely go the way we would like them to. At the moment most bus users would rather have a bus service which was run by Transdev or Go-Ahead. But some companies within the big 3 are really good. I think that in 10 years they will all be much better and there will not be much to chose between them. However, wherever the local council is in favour of buses and does not have any infantile objections to the fact that bus companies are profit seeking businesses like supermarkets will generally get a better bus services sooner.

[humberside]

Jan 6, 2009 16:54:17 GMT 1 @jackh said:

I don't think Centrebus would be able to afford such a takeover of a large company like Preston Bus. They wouldn't be able to get the equity for such a move.

Not that I see it hapenning but Centrebus Holdings may have the finance

[rwilkes]

Preston is to sell, negotiations underway - from 'Transit'

[jackh]

It looks like that Preston Bus shareholders are in favour of the takeover bid from Stagecoach.

[6u3zr]

I've also heard that today.

A shame, but something that perhaps nobody had appreciated (I certainly had'nt) is that a significant number of shareholders are former employees and councillors near, at or beyond retirement age.

In these uncertain times - and with a substantial windfall guaranteed to the shareholders as opposed to negligible returns over the last few years - perhaps this outcome was always an inevitability.

As a young bus-spotter in the mid '70's Preston's Marshall bodied Panthers were the space age compared to the East Lancs/BET standard bodied Leopards that I grew up with in Barrow. I will cherish that memory.

[rwilkes]

Final confrirmation
www.lep.co.uk/news/Preston-Bus-takeover-confirmed.4905349.jp
It is worth looking at the reasons - the governemnts 'bus friendly' attitude egged on by bus driver unions and many politicians in all parties

Peter Bell, the managing director of Preston Bus, said: “I am proud of the contribution Preston Bus and its employees have made in serving the local community over many years.

“The company faced an uncertain future as a result of the current economic climate and legislative changes, including the new Transport Act, the Government’s plan to change the fuel tax arrangements for bus operators, and suggestions that operators should not be fully reimbursed for carrying customers with concessionary bus passes. All of these issues could have seriously undermined the business and, as a result, the Directors decided it was in the best interests of employees and the business to approach potential purchasers”.

[jackh]

Adult Single Fare

These will fall into three categories, dependent on distance travelled:

80p, £1 & £1.20 Travel within one zone will be 80p.

In the case of crossing fare zones, the value will be £1 for crossing one boundary and £1.20 for crossing two boundaries. The Orbit fares will operate differently and the £1.50 fare will still apply on longer journeys.

Click the link at the bottom of this page, to see a detailed Zone Fares Map.

Child Single Fare

There will be a child flat fare of 60p per journey for any journey within the Preston Citirider zone.

N.B. Where the journey is on a Lancashire County Council subsidised service, the child fare will remain half of the appropriate adult fare.

Multi-Journey Tickets (on-bus)

Tickets will be available on both Stagecoach and Preston Bus.

Preston Citi Dayrider £2.60

Preston Citirider 7 day Adult £8.00

Preston Citirider 7 day Child £7.50

Preston Citirider Group Dayrider £5.00

Penwortham Routerider £7.00

Multi-Journey Tickets (off-bus)

Weekly Monthly Quarterly

Preston Citirider Adult £8.00 £32.00 £87.00

Preston Citirider Child £7.50 £25.00 £65.00

Park & Ride Tickets

The full range of Park & Ride tickets will remain in operation, unchanged.

Discontinued Tickets

The following tickets will no longer be available for purchase, but existing tickets will still be honoured, until the relevant expiry date with existing conditions attached:

Easiconnexion (adult & child), Easifamily, Easi Route 3 weekly, Saverstrip (£10.80 version),

Easiweek, Easimonth and Easi3month (adult, child and student).

Children will no longer be entitled to travel free

www.stagecoachbus.com/uploads/PrestonCitiZoneFares.pdf

[LukePA]

They have not taken long to apply Stagecoach logos to buses:

stagecoachnw.fotopic.net/c1645297.html

[jackh]

Here are some photos of the Preston Bus fleet now with Stagecoach fleetnames.

jacksbusphotos.fotopic.net/c1187957.html

[Davidc]

Close but no cigar. Nice photos their Jack. I spent today traveling around in Preston making use of my Stagecoach megarider now that its valid on Preston Bus service. No longer have to get a separate ticket. I only got to the bus station at 12.00 so missed you by an hour or so.

Two Preston Bus Solos have been re-painted in Stagecoach livery, 47753 & 47754, (though nether seemed to be out and about today) while the rest are slowly gaining Stagecoach fleet numbers. Stagecoach Solos 47018,47019 and 47020 are now allocated to the Deepdale Road depot and often operate Preston Buses route 3.

The service changes on the 22nd March should see a major shake up of all services affected by the take over. Stagecoach have already announced a number of services that are to be with drawn including Preston Bus routes 24/25 and Stagecoach route 33. Preston Bus drivers are not happy as there will be a lack of work for all the drivers so some are hoping they can go for voluntary redundancy.

David.c

[matt west]

looks like there repainting now

eagle50043.fotopic.net/p56345817.html - yuk

[Davidc]

Yeah Esteems, Solos and Tridents are now in Stagecoach colours.

I don't think the Esteem looks that bad. The Solos and Tridents are just the same as all the others with Stagecoach. I am trying to keep up with the number of buses re-painted and as of Friday 13th there where 4 Solos, 1 Esteem and 1 Trident. But I have a feeling that's changing day by day.

lve got pictures of most of them on my site, link in sig below

David.c