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Post by sharksmith on Mar 8, 2017 19:20:05 GMT 1
News started to emerge yesterday that First were about to sell their Scottish Borders operations to West Coast Motors and this has now been confirmed. To those that know the area it will not come as much of a shock as services have been badly undermined by the opening of the Borders Railway in 2015. The sale includes Galashiels depot and outstations and is due to be completed by 25 March.
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Post by toommmm on Mar 8, 2017 23:34:28 GMT 1
News started to emerge yesterday that First were about to sell their Scottish Borders operations to West Coast Motors and this has now been confirmed. To those that know the area it will not come as much of a shock as services have been badly undermined by the opening of the Borders Railway in 2015. The sale includes Galashiels depot and outstations and is due to be completed by 25 March. Rotherham, the one down south about a year ago and now this. First seems to withering away especially so in Rotherham where I live |
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Post by driver6540 on Mar 9, 2017 0:03:29 GMT 1
News started to emerge yesterday that First were about to sell their Scottish Borders operations to West Coast Motors and this has now been confirmed. To those that know the area it will not come as much of a shock as services have been badly undermined by the opening of the Borders Railway in 2015. The sale includes Galashiels depot and outstations and is due to be completed by 25 March. As you rightly say, Not much of a shock, but a bit of a surprise that Lothian didn't get in there first and buy it to compliment their East Coast Buses operations. Haven't got the exact figures to hand, but i would think this purchase would mean WCM overtake McGills as Scotlands largest independent operator. How this will affect future operations is currently unclear, as many FSE services running out of these depot's are decker operated, and WCM aren't exactly renowned for running deckers. interesting times ahead then. |
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Post by gooderson1 on Mar 9, 2017 0:14:27 GMT 1
Following the closure of the operations in the North Berwick area and Lothian taking over the routes it is no surprise that what is left of the operations in the Borders Region has been sold. According to reports elsewhere 113 staff are involved. If this includes engineers, garage staff and drivers then the operation is not very large. It will be interesting to see First vehicles are used by WCM.
The routes operated are 61 and 67 (Sat and Sun only)
69 (Sun only)
70 (Daily)
71 (Mon - Sat)
72 (Daily)
313, 314, 363, 396 and SO3 (school days only)
X70 (Mon-Fri)
The X70 is the longest one am to Edinburgh and one pm return. Apart from the school routes the rest run to and from the border towns. Galashiels, Melrose Hawick etc and take on average 30 minutes to complete. It does not appear to be a big operation and I doubt if it will make WCM the biggest independent in Scotland(we not yet anyway)
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Post by rossbailey on Mar 9, 2017 13:53:23 GMT 1
Is the X95 Edinburgh - Galashiels - Hawick - Carlisle route not also run by First Borders?
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Post by gooderson1 on Mar 9, 2017 15:20:23 GMT 1
Galashiels could operate this service but it did not show up on the list of services operated by First in the Borders when I did a google search
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Post by squeaky on Mar 9, 2017 22:08:47 GMT 1
X62 and X95 are the biggest services - responsible for most of those 113 staff I'm sure - so seem a weird omission
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Post by gooderson1 on Mar 10, 2017 10:26:13 GMT 1
Given the reason for the sale:-The Borders railway it will be interesting to see if there will be any "tweeting" of services once the take over is complete. Looking at the X95 timetable this is a route that operates in two sections and does not appear to run end to end. The Carlisle end could possibly be run by an operator closer to Carlisle. Just a thought.
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Post by stevieinselby on Mar 10, 2017 22:16:05 GMT 1
Given the reason for the sale:-The Borders railway it will be interesting to see if there will be any "tweeting" of services once the take over is complete. Looking at the X95 timetable this is a route that operates in two sections and does not appear to run end to end. The Carlisle end could possibly be run by an operator closer to Carlisle. Just a thought. The X95 used to operate end-to-end, a half-hourly service from Edinburgh to Hawick, with one bus an hour continuing to Carlisle. It was only last year, when it was losing passengers to the new railway between Galashiels and Edinburgh, that the frequency on that section was halved and the through services canned. Yes, the two sections could be run by different operators, but I'm sure passengers would want assurance that the central section between Galashiels and Hawick would continue to have a half-hourly service and that tickets would be interavailable between the two routes ... otherwise that is a significant reduction in usable service. |
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Post by gooderson1 on Mar 11, 2017 10:30:58 GMT 1
According to the on line edition of The Borders Telegraph route X95 has suffered a 35% loss of passengers since the opening of the borders railway. It is also reported that the new operation under WCM will be called Border Buses Ltd which seems to indicate that it will be a separate operation from Perrymans.
It will be interesting to see if the new operation take on the First vehicles allocated to the area.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Mar 11, 2017 16:53:15 GMT 1
News started to emerge yesterday that First were about to sell their Scottish Borders operations to West Coast Motors and this has now been confirmed. To those that know the area it will not come as much of a shock as services have been badly undermined by the opening of the Borders Railway in 2015. The sale includes Galashiels depot and outstations and is due to be completed by 25 March. As you rightly say, Not much of a shock, but a bit of a surprise that Lothian didn't get in there first and buy it to compliment their East Coast Buses operations. Haven't got the exact figures to hand, but i would think this purchase would mean WCM overtake McGills as Scotlands largest independent operator. How this will affect future operations is currently unclear, as many FSE services running out of these depot's are decker operated, and WCM aren't exactly renowned for running deckers. interesting times ahead then. Apart from routes in Dalkeith, Lothian have mainly only wanted ex-First routes to or from Edinburgh. This could have encouraged them to consider routes X62 and X95. Maybe First and WCM liked the simplicity (not to be confused with First Glasgow SimpliCity!) of a full network sale. This means that WCM will have expanded by buying Oban & District - once part of Midland Bluebird - then Dunoon & Rothesay from Stagecoach, Berwick from Perryman's - previously Arriva - and now Borders from First. |
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Post by Arriva Wakefield on Mar 12, 2017 8:11:16 GMT 1
According to the on line edition of The Borders Telegraph route X95 has suffered a 35% loss of passengers since the opening of the borders railway. It is also reported that the new operation under WCM will be called Border Buses Ltd which seems to indicate that it will be a separate operation from Perrymans. It will be interesting to see if the new operation take on the First vehicles allocated to the area. Perrans is being renamed Borders Buses according to a staff notice I've seen posted elsewhere. |
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Post by driver6540 on Mar 12, 2017 23:37:23 GMT 1
According to the on line edition of The Borders Telegraph route X95 has suffered a 35% loss of passengers since the opening of the borders railway. It is also reported that the new operation under WCM will be called Border Buses Ltd which seems to indicate that it will be a separate operation from Perrymans. It will be interesting to see if the new operation take on the First vehicles allocated to the area. If i've understood your post correctly, (forgive me if i haven't). The existing First vehicles are not part of the sale. Only the depot's, routes and staff have been acquired. The 113 staff involved will possibly TUPE transfer to WCM, and the existing buses will be be redeployed for further use within First's network. |
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Post by gooderson1 on Mar 12, 2017 23:48:28 GMT 1
You have understood my post correctly. I have found numerous posts on various websites, including the BBC and local papers about WCM taking on the routes, garage and out stations based on Galashiels. Nowhere are vehicles mentioned. I would like to know where WCM(which will be known as The Border Bus Company) are going to obtain vehicles to run the services from the start date at the end of this month. The choice is aquire enough vehicles from other sources or hire/aquire all the First vehicles based within the Borders area currently operated by First. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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Post by SCH117X on Mar 13, 2017 18:23:06 GMT 1
At least it will be the end for one of the worst bus company web sites www.firstborders.co.uk/ and why was it separate to the rest of the First web site anyway. |
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Post by driver6540 on Mar 15, 2017 0:11:03 GMT 1
Following the closure of the operations in the North Berwick area and Lothian taking over the routes it is no surprise that what is left of the operations in the Borders Region has been sold. According to reports elsewhere 113 staff are involved. If this includes engineers, garage staff and drivers then the operation is not very large. It will be interesting to see First vehicles are used by WCM. The routes operated are 61 and 67 (Sat and Sun only) 69 (Sun only) 70 (Daily) 71 (Mon - Sat) 72 (Daily) 313, 314, 363, 396 and SO3 (school days only) X70 (Mon-Fri) The X70 is the longest one am to Edinburgh and one pm return. Apart from the school routes the rest run to and from the border towns. Galashiels, Melrose Hawick etc and take on average 30 minutes to complete. It does not appear to be a big operation and I doubt if it will make WCM the biggest independent in Scotland(we not yet anyway) Having done a bit of research, you are quite right in stating WCM are a long way behind McGills in terms of being Scotlands largest operator. Silly me, i was getting ahead of myself making proclamations like that. From what i can see, following this takeover WCM will have @300 vehicle and *450 staff, But McGills currently stand at approaching 550 vehicles and *1000 staff. (Unless iv'e read duff info). |
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Post by gooderson1 on Apr 6, 2017 9:59:37 GMT 1
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Apr 22, 2017 21:34:13 GMT 1
Borders Buses are in the process of bringing some Enviro 200s, MetroCities and Scania-Enviro 400-MMC buses into service. They are also hiring some First buses in the meantime. Plenty of photos are available here. www.flickr.com/search/?text=border%20buses |
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Post by driver6540 on Apr 24, 2017 22:15:50 GMT 1
I believe Borders Buses are to receive the WCM "house" colours of red and cream for the new fleet. It is understood the former Perrymans operation will follow suit. From what iv'e read the Perrymans name will disappear and both fleets will run under WCM's Borders Buses brand.
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