Pier Buses of Clevedon in North Somerset have closed down. The Bristol Post reports that the company alleges that First have deliberately been running their X6 service late in order to pick up passengers who would otherwise have caught Pier's X7 service between Clevedon and Bristol. First deny the claims.
The closure gives First a monopoly on bus travel between Bristol and Clevedon on route X6. Pier have said they intend to take the matter to the Traffic Commissioner and the Office of Fair Trading.
Just proves the stupidity of competition in the bus industry, as people will board the first bus that comes along if the route is similar.Where I live there are four operators, and they all operate too where I wish most days to travel, and I board the first one that comes along. I have no interest in who operates what and have no interest who might go out of business because the main operator will still be there.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of how the theory of deregulation doesn't deliver all that is promised. What, I wonder, were the timings on this corridor to enable late running to scoop up extra passengers? The end result is reduced frequency and no mechanism of any kind to keep fares at an appealing level.
ReplyDeleteJust what the industry needs to stifle medium to long term stability.
Newport Transport in South Wales have financial problems as well. The biggest one relates to the Pension scheme which has a £4.7M deficit
ReplyDeleteIt is all a bit messy. The deficit seems to relate the Pension scheme prior to it becoming an arms length company. It appears only 18 employees are still members. How many are already in receipt of the pension is unclear. It cannot be huge numbers
There are some suggestions that Newport Council will fund the deficit but that may be illegal at most I suspect it may be able to fund the shortfall for any pension rights prior to becoming an arms length company but not beyond that
There are indications that Newport Tranport's problems extend beyond the pension issue as well
Not a great surprise when you take on a large bus group, do you honestly expect them to play nicely when you cream off their traffic?
ReplyDeletePlenty of niches that an operator can exploit, but easier to blame everyone else for what are problems of your own making.