Citybus Go Cornwall
Anyone following this blog will be aware of the situation with Western Greyhound. We all know it has been for sale but have been waiting patiently to see who actually
buys it, if indeed anyone was interested. If you have been reading all the comments left on this site you will be aware of several suggestions that Plymouth Citybus / Go Ahead were looking to purchase as
least part of the operations.
Yesterday there were tweets on Twitter suggesting that Go Ahead have indeed purchased the South East Cornwall and North Cornwall
operations and will trade as Go Cornwall.
I am still waiting for an official announcement but I have recieved this from "a driver" who will remain anonymous:
Western Greyhound have sold their Liskeard operations to Citybus as from 23:59 today the Liskeard depot and all operations will be known as Go Cornwall.
all staff have TUPE over and citybus have brought 9 optares from WG these being 701/2/3/4 mini optares and 957 959 960 961 & 962
The routes are going to be 572 573 574 576 and the 593 but only as far as Liskeard and there will be a connecting Western Greyhound bus to Newquay
The plan is to run optares on all routes apart from 576 that will be Enviro 200's
As I write this article up, no official announcement has appeared, but I will check again before I post it in the early hours of Monday morning! The official Press Release is now included below:
NEWS RELEASE – 7thDecember 2014
Plymouth Citybus acquires Western Greyhound Liskeard area bus services
Plymouth Citybus has acquired vital Western Greyhound bus services in the Liskeard area. It will take over on Monday 8th December 2014 to run in South East Cornwall, safeguarding bus driving 31 jobs in the area, and continuing to run the Western Greyhound timetables that are currently in place.
Plymouth Citybus, part of the national transport group Go-Ahead; will take on services previously run by Western Greyhound in and around the Liskeard area. Including the 572 between Looe and Plymouth, the 573 between Looe and Liskeard, the 574 between Liskeard and Callington, and the 576 between Plymouth and Bude, via Callington and Launceston. It will also run the section of service 593 between Plymouth and Liskeard. Western Greyhound will continue to run the 593 between Newquay and Liskeard and through tickets will continue to be available.
Plymouth Citybus intends to take over the lease of the depot off Culverwood Road in Liskeard, along with acquiring 9 low floor buses which will be branded under the new name of ‘Go Cornwall Bus’.
Plymouth Citybus currently run a fleet of 180 buses in Plymouth and its travel to work area, carrying in excess of 16.3 million passengers a year.
Bringing the new ‘Go Cornwall Bus’ under the Plymouth Citybus umbrella means it will be managed by a company who currently enjoys a 91% passenger satisfaction rating and has been awarded Investors In People Gold status.
Richard Stevens Managing Director at Plymouth Citybus said "We are really delighted to be able to come to an agreement with Western Greyhound to take over these routes and safeguard not only 31 local jobs, but securing vital bus services in South East Cornwall. We have a wealth of experience of running buses in the area and have this year started providing services to The Rame peninsular and into Liskeard, complementing our service between Callington and Tavistock. I would like to personally welcome the staff into the Citybus family and assure them that they are in good hands."
Mark Howarth Director at Western Greyhound said "We recently put Western Greyhound up for sale and we believe that the deal with Plymouth CityBus for the Liskeard area represents good value for both our employees and for bus users. We started our first operations in South-east Cornwall in August 2004, stepping in when DAC closed down their operations there, and stepped in again when local bus operator Phil Hambley of Pelynt retired. Frequencies have been steadily increased with through services introduced between the Cornish resort of Newquay and Plymouth, and more recently increasing the peak-hour frequency between Liskeard and Plymouth to half-hourly. A network based on connections at Liskeard was developed together with integrated ticketing with First Great Western trains on the Looe Valley corridor. I am delighted that Plymouth CityBus will be able to take this network to the next phase of its development. I would like to publicly thank all our staff who have worked so hard under often extremely difficult circumstances, and I would like to thank the public for their loyal support over the past 10 years.”
Although Western Greyhound has had a number of difficulties in recent months, mainly as a result of two arson attacks, it was for many years an award winning company winning national awards for high quality year after year.
Mark Howarth added, “The Company still continues in discussions with interested parties for the rest of the business and an announcement will be made in due course.”
The current services will remain and fares and times will continue unchanged from Monday. Plymouth CityBus will continue to honour all Western Greyhound weekly and season tickets until their expiry and both CityBus and Greyhound wish to make this change as easy and seamless as possible.
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The statement ends "The current services will remain and the times and fares will be continue unchanged..." but the Plymouth Citybus timetable shows no services north of Launceston to Bude on Saturdays?
ReplyDeleteI have asked about this as I wonder if its an error in the timetable?
DeleteI wonder if Plymouth citybus is going to repaint these Optares into a swoop design or into a different design for these services.
ReplyDeleteI've just seen the go cornwall logo and now think that there will be a swoop design on these buses but maybe a different color
ReplyDeleteI believe the plan is that eventually they will all be red with swoop - and the Go Cornwall fleetname. It would be nice to see the swoop appear on the green Solos though...
DeleteI did actually predict this myself when it was announced WG where doing service cuts, 'Western Greyhound will sell its operation, most likely Go-Ahead' will take over. I wouldn't be surprised if they now either join PCB and GCB into Go South Coast or create a new division Go-Southwest
DeleteSurely one would assume that the buses will eventually be in a green version of the PCB swoop livery?
DeleteWho on earth would design a square logo in green and then plonk it on a red bus????
The logo itself is just white and yellow, the same as the standard Citybus logo. It will work just as well on red or green. I would like to see it on green with white swoop but I am sure they will alll end up red which makes sense for the company.
DeleteSurely the name is "Cornwall Go Bus"? Its the same logo as Citybus's and we don't call it "City Plymouth Bus"???
ReplyDeleteShame they didn't resurrect the Countrybus fleetnames. Cornwall Country Bus sounds a lot better than Go Cornwall.
ReplyDeleteThe 576 timetable now shows a Saturday service to Bude.
ReplyDeleteYes, Thanks to whoever it was that pointed this out. I sent it on to Citybus who clearly have corrected it straight away!
DeleteI guess this is the beginning of the end. The fact that the administrators are splitting the business up means some parts will probably be left over and shut down. Good news for the staff who are lucky to be TUPEd across but bad news for any left over if no-one wants their part of the business.
ReplyDeleteIf the rumours are true then it does sound like there is a buyer for the rest of the business.
DeleteWhat administrators? It's not in administration.......... is it?
DeleteLet's not jump the gun here.
It was put up for sale. If no buyers are found for the rest, it will continue to trade all the time that the owners are willing to put money into the business (on the assumption that it is running at a loss, of course). The owners might then decide put it into administration or to wind it down gradually..... but we don't appear to be at that stage just yet.