Step Back

I am trying to keep up with all the comments as they come in, trying to allow as many as possible to get through whilst keeping put all the spam (running at about 5 spam for each proper comment). Most of these can be found at the bottom of each post and via the right hand side bar. Occasionally however we get a comment which deserves a posting of its own where it can be read properly and not get missed.

There has, understandably been a lot of excitement over the past week concerning the sale of First’s Plymouth Depot to Stagecoach. Some has shown how little people understand of how the bus industry works, and indeed is regulated. Some has shown that bus driver rumour is alive and well. And there have also been some measured and informed comment. It’s a free world and I for one am grateful that Graham keeps this little bit of it that way.
But maybe it’s time to step back for a moment and look beyond the froth.
I don’t know the numbers, but the sale looks like a good move on First’s part. It’s a good move from the point of view that numerous non-DDA vehicles no longer need to be replaced, while those which are DDA compliant can be moved to Kernow to oust older stock there. Kernow have enough on their plate, I’d imagine integrating the former Greyhound routes and coping with the extra PVR that brought. Sure First have lost a major engineering base, but as others have said Kernow has been self-sufficient for a while now, and of course management has long known that Plymouth possibly wouldn’t feature in the engineering structure of First in the southwest.
So what of Stagecoach, what have they bought? On the face of it they have a depot on the very edge of their network, and not much else. They have chosen to register what appears to be a smaller PVR than currently is run from the depot, although it is suggested that they have some of their own work to move in to take up the slack. No doubt that will ease resources across the rest of their operation, but that in itself raises an interesting point. If their current depots are bursting at the seams, and if the new Exeter facility doesn’t have the capacity to do all the engineering required for the fleet, what was their “escape route” without Plymouth? I know that it is impending redevelopment which is forcing their move in Exeter, but it seems odd to plan a replacement which can’t cope with the work (I don’t know, I’m taking some of what has been said on here about it as fact). So how long has Plymouth been planned as part of the scheme?
Many have expressed surprise at the lack of a Stagecoach Plymouth city network, apart from the 2 which as others have said is almost a public “staff bus”. Perhaps this shows how dire things are in Plymouth, that there isn’t room for two operators. Or perhaps it is the “DDA effect” again, Plymouth isn’t worth the investment and there isn’t sufficient slack in the national Stagecoach fleet right now to do anything. But the whole doesn’t quite add up in my mind, I think we are still missing one important piece of the jigsaw. It will be interesting to see what transpires, whenever the jigsaw is complete, perhaps it already is.
Finally, I guess we are all here because we like buses. But as Martin Sutton (then MD of Western National) told me at Laira Garage on my first morning as management trainee, “this is a people business”. Let’s spare a thought for the staff at First who don’t know what the future holds. They’ve been facing uncertainty for a long time now, in one form or another. True, they might now see the light at the end of the tunnel, but there is still some way to go yet.

And this blog is also a “people business”, or rather a “one man operated bus[iness]” (to misquote the sign once found on many WN buses), thank you Graham for the updates keeping track of all this, and the extra work of letting all the comments through.