You mean you have not read up on the plans that the East Midlands Combined Authority has after a mayor is elected on May 2nd? All across the country authorities are taking control of bus services, following an Act in 2017. Manchester, Liverpool, West Yorkshire, West Scotland, South Yorkshire to start with. I feel sure there are more
True, they seem busy whenever I see them. Remember they operate on mainly key trunk routes now, having cut out most of the less profitable routes over the years. Higher costs, £2 fare, fewer pass holders and fewer people buying period tickets may see lower profits now?
Seems Langley Mill, Derby and Kinch in Loughborough currently suffer with a lack of available vehicles.
They simply don't want to spend money adding additional vehicles to ensure all trips operate - why bother when you can run fewer buses and take more or less the same revenue? Most will wait and get on the next service that runs.
In Spondon, many will catch the i4 and indigo instead, so no loss there.
You also have franchising looming, leading to an apathetic approach in general.
One might see full buses, but are they making a profit? Are they covering their overheads or even their direct costs? On the buses I see, passengers are mainly ENCTS passholders (revenue value).. Throw in some other passengers maybe already maxed out with caps, staff and their families on passes (plus any staff member who has been blocked from using his reciprocal pass, and quite frankly, I don't see a lot of profit. Sod all in fact. Zilch. Now you could say the end of prepaid fares like on the Mango etc and maybe replacement with £2 fares is killing "cash in hand". I would wager that when the Mango (card certainly) was in full flow, there was several million pounds in a bank account earning interest. Businesses can place money on the money markets for short periods for a return. Of course, at certain times a bus may appear to be busy, but is it across all the hours of operation? Is it making £50 an hour, every hour? If not, don't expect new buses. Hey, with franchising, the Government gives the Authority loads of money to buy new buses, and the franchise holder just runs the services. If performance drops, they get replaced. Just like on the railways. What makes me laugh, is that people honestly think the Government gives the bus operator the full difference between the full fare and the £2 fare. And there you have a problem, that affects country operators more than City operators. I'll assume there is an exit strategy after the General Election.
I get the idea but there is no reason at all why Trent couldn't just drop the frequency of some routes to make the PVR better match vehicle availability and then you run less trips, use fewer buses but at least they are reliable. Long gone are the days of Trent being 'The really good bus company'.
But, if you reduced the frequency how do you know that a "much better bus company" won't come in and just register services. There has been talk in the past of Trentbarton selling to another operator. Since 2020, the chances of that crashed to "not a chance". We saw what happened with Bournemouth and others. There has to be a buyer or the "vultures" circle and just set up with no liabilities -just like with Wilko Stores. Why does it happen? Because loyal customers walk away. People who have choice of mode make that choice (but many wish they didn't have to). So, if your costs start rising, where do you go? Try to attract new business, maybe people turn from cars and try the bus. Do they keep catching the bus if it breaks down, doesn't turn up? You only have to look at some of the comments TB and Kinchbus get on social media. Trust me, the only people who complain are those that care. Over time, they walk away.
On a different subject, why are so many Red Arrow coaches off the road and for so long? Can't get parts, can't afford parts, can't afford to even run the coaches (cos Versas are cheaper). Not a good image for what is claimed to be a premium service. But TB spin it nicely. It is a premium service because it doesn't stop much.