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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2023 10:54:36 GMT 1
Alex was certainly a marmite character. Transdev need someone who can cut expsenses now, without making too much damage to the existing network, I don't believe Alex is the right person to do that, he's good at trying to expanding operations and use it and promote it as a means of growth, you see what he tried to do with Team Pennine and the branding. I think he's good at spending other people's money, don't think he is good at saving and cutting back on expenditure/money. At least he tried to do a lot than Arriva did with the Tiger/Pennine Operation, just think Arriva gave up with Tiger in the end, just essentially used as a dumping ground for buses Arriva didn't want anymore, i.e tempos, and some of the lowlanders.
It wouldn't surprise me if they was looking to ease out Alex anyway at Transdev, as I heard that the head office in France, wasn't happy with the amount of spending Transdev was doing on branding, best impressions, marketing ect. So I think him going to McGills is the best thing for Transdev now.
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Post by mk2mcw on May 8, 2023 11:00:53 GMT 1
So let’s get this right The guy posts on Twitter almost daily then suddenly with no cool down it stops. Transdev is loosing millions. Manchester City zap - closed York city zap - closed Ilkley - Harrogate extension from Keighley - closed Vazoom - quietly dropped Wharfedale work - dropped Lancashire work - dropped Investment in new vehicles - declined Average age of fleet - increased Management changes - very fluid Jump or be pushed ! Watch out Mc Gills your next ! What was vazoom?
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Post by SCH117X on May 8, 2023 11:13:35 GMT 1
The only things I find odd is the sudden halt in his Twitter posting, seemingly halfway through his holiday. It could be that it was something tied into his contract of employment after handing his notice in, who knows. But it just seems odd. The other thing that I found surprising was not referencing Transdev or the past 8 years or so of his career. You see it often on social media when people are announcing their next chapters in their career they'll always thank their colleagues or at least reference their employment; especially after 8 years of self professed 'amazing' times. Agree this is / was strange. There was a comment somewhere of financial irregularities being investigated; now taking that as correct and then being found not guilty would quite likely leave anyone not happy with their employer and the way they had been treated. In the meantime another employer makes them an offer which they accept and still aggrieved they wipe as much as they can of their relationship with the previous employer. What actually occurred probably will never be known unless third party spills the beans. Everyone seems to think he was solely responsible but surely other people their would have some say, for example they have a commercial director responsible for marketing and ticketing.
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rs
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Post by rs on May 8, 2023 11:14:10 GMT 1
So let’s get this right The guy posts on Twitter almost daily then suddenly with no cool down it stops. Transdev is loosing millions. Manchester City zap - closed York city zap - closed Ilkley - Harrogate extension from Keighley - closed Vazoom - quietly dropped Wharfedale work - dropped Lancashire work - dropped Investment in new vehicles - declined Average age of fleet - increased Management changes - very fluid Jump or be pushed ! Watch out Mc Gills your next ! What was vazoom? Vamooz I imagine... www.transdevbus.co.uk/corporate/vamoozAnother good idea in concept, but in reality just didn't work.
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Post by SCH117X on May 8, 2023 11:20:10 GMT 1
Vamooz originated out of a school bus from Ripon to Harrogate (now the S36) being funded by parents and sparked the idea that they could market services which would run if sufficent people pre booked. Quite how many did is questionable but the idea must have some sounding as it was taken up by some other operators (IIRC inc Reading buses and First Cornwall). They finally seem to have abandoned the idea last December www.transdevbus.co.uk/corporate/vamooz
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rs
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Post by rs on May 8, 2023 11:30:07 GMT 1
Vamooz originated out of a school bus from Ripon to Harrogate (now the S36) being funded by parents and sparked the idea that they could market services which would run if sufficent people pre booked. Quite how many did is questionable but the idea must have some sounding as it was taken up by some other operators (IIRC inc Reading buses and First Cornwall). They finally seem to have abandoned the idea last December www.transdevbus.co.uk/corporate/vamoozCornwall was the most successful Vamooz operation, quite a few trips ran. They did have use a coach on the majority of their Vamooz trips which was probably a lot more appealing than spending three hours on a service bus. Aside from a trip to Showbus I don't think Reading did that much either. Transdev's efforts were pretty disappointing too. Just seemed to be a way to try and eat into the private hire market using the school bus fleet. Lots of trips were planned but cancelled last minute because they didn't have enough takers. A friend of mine booked on one for Leeds Festival as it worked out cheaper than the train, but it was cancelled at very short notice because only about 60% of the tickets sold leaving some very unhappy customers to find alternative travel arrangements. With uncomfortable buses, limited destinations and unreliability it's easy to see how it failed.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on May 8, 2023 13:22:42 GMT 1
Personally I feel he was let go. If a subsidiary loses money, the board and the shareholders in France would have demanded action, and its standard business practice that the person at the top has to go. Of course there are many circumstances behind the loss, but in the business world it can often be a straight forward money game.
He would have taken this badly hence how he stopped tweeting entirely. Half of his tweets would usually have involved his private life.
I’d warn the haters here not to get too excited though, an MD parachuted in from France might want the buses to be like those on the continent - a plain livery across every bus with the nonsense corporate “Transdev - Mobility inspired by you” fleetname on the side. In the Arriva thread everyone complains about them, but then here people want Transdev to be like Arriva, it makes no sense.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2023 13:33:04 GMT 1
Reminds me of the time when Blackpool Transport when from the fantastic metro branding, each route had their own colours, Line 14, Green and Yellow, Line 5, Red and Yellow, simple but worked with pool spare buses in the pool black and yellow livery, and when a new MD came in 2010, the whole thing was scrapped in favour of a universal black and yellow scheme for their buses. I wonder if we see a similar thing here?
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Post by stevieinselby on May 8, 2023 16:35:07 GMT 1
Since Alex Hornby's departure there has been a noticeable drop in standards. There have been a lot more off brand vehicles running on branded services for one. Keighley seems to have been the worst for it. Shuttle B7RLEs have been spotting running on local services amongst others The complaint for years has been that Keighley would rather cancel a service than run it with a spare Shuttle vehicle. Which is one of the problems with having buses liveried for particular routes or sub-brands. If you don't have enough correctly-liveried buses to run the day's service then you either run a wrongly-liveried bus (bad) or cancel services (really bad). The more different brands you have, and the smaller those brands are, the more likely this is to happen.
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lucyp
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Post by lucyp on May 8, 2023 17:27:31 GMT 1
What did he actually achieve during his time though? It's a commercial company, there to make profit for shareholders.
In 2010, long before he arrived in 2015, turnover was £52.3M, and profit £3.2M. In 2014, it was £51.1M and £790K In 2015, it was £51.7M and £1.25M In 2016, it was £49.6M and £21K In 2017, it was £49.8M and £1.1M In 2018, it was £61.1M and £1.3M In 2019, it was £62.8M and £2.4M In 2020, it was £55.3M and £Loss In 2021, it was £81.6M and £Loss
2022 figures are not yet available.
In spite of all those initiatives, acquisitions and taking into account inflation, the profit for the last "normal" year would have needed to be £3.87M to be the same in real terms as 2010, yet it was only £2.4M.
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Post by deerfold on May 8, 2023 20:32:29 GMT 1
What did he actually achieve during his time though? It's a commercial company, there to make profit for shareholders. In 2010, long before he arrived in 2015, turnover was £52.3M, and profit £3.2M. In 2014, it was £51.1M and £790K In 2015, it was £51.7M and £1.25M In 2016, it was £49.6M and £21K In 2017, it was £49.8M and £1.1M In 2018, it was £61.1M and £1.3M In 2019, it was £62.8M and £2.4M In 2020, it was £55.3M and £Loss In 2021, it was £81.6M and £Loss 2022 figures are not yet available. In spite of all those initiatives, acquisitions and taking into account inflation, the profit for the last "normal" year would have needed to be £3.87M to be the same in real terms as 2010, yet it was only £2.4M. That looks very impressive 2016-2019. I suspect there's few bus operations making the profits they were in 2010 in real terms, certainly after falling as it did (with much of that fall before Alex joined them).
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Post by platform5 on May 8, 2023 21:07:17 GMT 1
What did he actually achieve?
Some old buses were refurbished and publicly was top notch but as for the basics he accomplished nothing. The basics which keep a company in business long term.
He had a way of inspiring people to like him and his ways. Not those who could see through him though and this increased as time went on. The money he wasted on designing liveries and alike was unsustainable.
I can not see him settling in well at Mc Gills at all. The honeymoon period won’t last !
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Post by northerner on May 8, 2023 21:13:50 GMT 1
Since Alex Hornby's departure there has been a noticeable drop in standards. There have been a lot more off brand vehicles running on branded services for one. Keighley seems to have been the worst for it. Shuttle B7RLEs have been spotting running on local services amongst others The complaint for years has been that Keighley would rather cancel a service than run it with a spare Shuttle vehicle. Yes, my biggest bugbear of Transdev! Glad to see common sense is finally prevailing at Keighley.
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Post by SCH117X on May 8, 2023 21:24:21 GMT 1
Turnover and profit figures alone fail to take into account expenditure that is needed rather than being desirable with particular note of the 2018 acquistion of Rosso with some immediate issues to resolve, the 2018-19 problematic introduction of the Harrogate Electrics, and the 2021 acquistion of what became Team Pennine in need of significant fleet replacements. 2010 notably saw the not good value rebuild of the 2003 Geminis commence apparently to make them better than what could be bought new but which given the extensive extent of works failed to extend their service life (3607 currently exempted). There was also the application of the gunge and muck livery on Starbecks fleet (butterscotch and burgundy offically) which was being replaced after just three years by red and black. Thet were quite capable of wasting money before Alex Hornby arrived.
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Post by Father Dougal McGuire on May 8, 2023 21:27:27 GMT 1
Re: Depots and Money The Burnley operations were the quickest to recover after "COVID". Mostly due to the more deprived estates and areas the routes cover where for example Harrogate would have been just breaking even. But the passengers in Burnley catch a bus because they have no choice, they use the bus because they want to get to where they're going, not because of fancy branding.
The current general rule of thumb is anything with the main colour as Yellow like the Irwell Line, LakeLine etc denotes a Rosso operated vehicle and generally less specced than "The *** Bus Company" services because Rosso is essentially their low cost unit. Hopeful Transdev Lancashire drivers can't apply direct to The Blackburn or Burnley Bus Company (or this was the case last year) then if they are good enough they'll be transferred onto mainline work unless it's Rochdale as that is entirely Rosso operated.
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Post by cwtransportphotos on May 9, 2023 0:59:01 GMT 1
Turnover and profit figures alone fail to take into account expenditure that is needed rather than being desirable with particular note of the 2018 acquistion of Rosso with some immediate issues to resolve, the 2018-19 problematic introduction of the Harrogate Electrics, and the 2021 acquistion of what became Team Pennine in need of significant fleet replacements. 2010 notably saw the not good value rebuild of the 2003 Geminis commence apparently to make them better than what could be bought new but which given the extensive extent of works failed to extend their service life (3607 currently exempted). There was also the application of the gunge and muck livery on Starbecks fleet (butterscotch and burgundy offically) which was being replaced after just three years by red and black. Thet were quite capable of wasting money before Alex Hornby arrived. If im reading your post correct, you're saying that the refurb of the B7tls was done to extend their service life beyond a newer vehicle - given you're reference to 3607 being the only one still in service... Transdevs vision was never to have these extend their service life beyond a brand new vehicle. Instead was meant for a mid-life refurb. I think we can all agree that the 53 reg B7s re-couped their cost multiple times over, especially seen as you note that 3607 is still in revenue earning service
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Post by Burnside on May 9, 2023 11:01:23 GMT 1
And interestingly, the President that was also used as a testbed for midlife refurbishment/new interior layouts is still in service too.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2023 11:49:12 GMT 1
Well Transdev certainly know how to get the best out of their vehicles, I still remember seeing B Reg and H Reg Olympians still being used in Blackburn on public services as back as 2013/2014/2015, as they used to do the Leyburn Road/Shadsworth/Lammack/Highercroft type of routes.
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rs
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Post by rs on May 9, 2023 17:43:52 GMT 1
And interestingly, the President that was also used as a testbed for midlife refurbishment/new interior layouts is still in service too. If anything that's had a tougher life than the rest of them as it spent a while travelling around different depots. It's looking pretty tired inside now and does go through phases where it seems to regularly disgrace itself and break down but on the whole it's still a pretty decent workhorse.
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Post by SCH117X on May 9, 2023 19:47:33 GMT 1
ransdevs vision was never to have these extend their service life beyond a brand new vehicle. Instead was meant for a mid-life refurb. I think we can all agree that the 53 reg B7s re-couped their cost multiple times over, especially seen as you note that 3607 is still in revenue earning service It was a pretty extensive rebuild including fitting new engines, gearboxes, rear axles and a new heating system as well as the normal mid life refurbed interiors each pair done costing the same as one new bus cbwmagazine.com/transdev-relaunch-popular-route-fleet/ and not entirely successful with a number of vehicles renowned for poor availability such that when they were split between Blackburn and York one depot was aggrevied at the vehicles they were given.
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Post by platform5 on May 9, 2023 23:10:30 GMT 1
“ aggrevied “ 😂
Two engineers walked out and went to work as HGV fitters, one aEM asked they didn’t arrive. Three came the next day, one of them did 197 miles from arriving to leaving fleet despite being painted into livery.
like it or lump it they were told. Result was an engineering contractor from a supply agency had to be brought it Mon - Fri staying in a hotel during the week and returning home on a weekend ! Astronomical costs were recorded for that period. Another my way or no way attitude from you know who.
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Post by asw22 on May 15, 2023 0:06:26 GMT 1
The first route branding that I remember is the 760 back in 1994. Not my photos but here are two from the mid 1990s. www.flickr.com/photos/98464140@N06/10177867783/www.flickr.com/photos/98464140@N06/10177925016/in/photostream/Others followed like the 662 Airedale Shuttle in 1999 and the 553/554/555 Huntingdon to Cambridge in a similar style. It was around 2004 when the 36 and The Zone brought in a different style to the rest of the fleet, followed by the 1s in Harrogate, 662 Shuttle, Starships, SpotOn, Mainline etc. Even in late 2005, I remember seeing a newish 662 Shuttle on the 719 route at peak times. There seemed to be a period between 2010 and 2015 when the new styles seemed to evolve steadily over time and I think that the now previous MD was appointed because the company was seeking growth. cbwmagazine.com/alex-hornby-becomes-blazefields-ceo/Lots of things have been tried since 2015, some successful, some less so. If you were to compare the network now versus say 2006 and 2015 there have been quite a few changes (including reductions in the 7 (Harrogate) and 67 (Keighley) to hourly) in the original business, an expansion into new areas (Rosso, Team Pennine) and expansion then contraction (Wizz, Wharfedale). Hopefully though the new management can realise that the long recovery from covid is happening without cutting too far. www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/domestic-transport-usage-by-modeThe 60 for example seems well used and hopefully can help following the loss of the 670 and 508 services in West Leeds.
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Post by Username on May 15, 2023 9:13:13 GMT 1
Turnover and profit figures alone fail to take into account expenditure that is needed rather than being desirable with particular note of the 2018 acquistion of Rosso with some immediate issues to resolve, the 2018-19 problematic introduction of the Harrogate Electrics, and the 2021 acquistion of what became Team Pennine in need of significant fleet replacements. 2010 notably saw the not good value rebuild of the 2003 Geminis commence apparently to make them better than what could be bought new but which given the extensive extent of works failed to extend their service life (3607 currently exempted). There was also the application of the gunge and muck livery on Starbecks fleet (butterscotch and burgundy offically) which was being replaced after just three years by red and black. Thet were quite capable of wasting money before Alex Hornby arrived. If im reading your post correct, you're saying that the refurb of the B7tls was done to extend their service life beyond a newer vehicle - given you're reference to 3607 being the only one still in service... Transdevs vision was never to have these extend their service life beyond a brand new vehicle. Instead was meant for a mid-life refurb. I think we can all agree that the 53 reg B7s re-couped their cost multiple times over, especially seen as you note that 3607 is still in revenue earning service Doesn't Harrogate still have one in service is 3614 or 3613 or something like that?
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Post by SCH117X on May 15, 2023 18:00:07 GMT 1
The original 3613 (YJ06TLU) was disposed of without being refurbed and replaced by B9 BF62UXZ 3614 is former 2765 (PO55 PYP) which yes you are right was refubished
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Post by SCH117X on May 30, 2023 18:27:42 GMT 1
Now rumours of being up for sale.
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