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Recent content by PhilStockley

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    Transpora Group

    Respectfully, I think you’re confusing driving hours regulations with the regulations for registering local bus services. The 15 mile limit is all about whether a service has to be registered or not. No doubt it will be revealed in due course if there are any other stops, or indeed if it’s...
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    Why do rail replacement bus services (nearly always) seem to have generic destination displays?

    In my part of the world, Southampton, I would say operators generally perform well there with the vast majority of vehicles that can display destinations having them programmed. However, sometimes it pays to use them tactically. Example: Just before Christmas I spent a couple of Sundays doing...
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    Xelabus Discussion (including Yellow Coaches and Eastleigh/Hampshire operations)

    Immediately west of M3 junction 13, if you look on a map it’s essentially the triangle of Falkland Road, Belmont Road and Cox Row. ‘Good bus territory’ as the saying goes, but too small to support a high level of service on its own. Agree, but the problem is it’s a sprawling area of low...
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    Xelabus Discussion (including Yellow Coaches and Eastleigh/Hampshire operations)

    Xelabus have multiple buses operating departures from Barton Peveril College (Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh) between 1605 and 1615, for which a 1540 one way trip to Velmore is a convenient positioning move, so I think the timetable is correct.
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    Bluestar Discussion

    Not so much the bus station, but famously he sold the depot for more than he paid for the entire company, so I suspect he would be very happy to take the blame for that! Yes, I think there were odd journeys that were operated by SBL rather than MM. Anything with a VR would definitely have been...
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    Bluestar Discussion

    It actually wasn't until 2006. Prior to that, Marchwood Motorways operated a number of routes under a franchise agreement with Solent Blue Line (30, 31, 32, 52 and the 18 for a period), where the routes were MM routes running with MM vehicles and staff on MM registrations - so legally...
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    Transpora Group

    For the avoidance of any doubt, that’s emphatically not true.
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    HCT Group in Administration (was Bristol Community Transport to cease trading)

    Thanks for asking, and yes, a couple of years ago when we very thin on the ground for senior people, I agreed to act as statutory director for most of the subsidiaries - as a consequence of which, even though my time with HCT came to an end just over a week ago, I now have the dubious pleasure...
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    Rail replacement washout on SWR

    Thanks for the kind comment. Both things are in fact true. A number of 'cancelled' diagrams did run - I was one of them, and I spoke to several other drivers in the same situation. Also, in some cases, buses were diverted to cover gaps - another vehicle from the company I was representing was...
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    Rail replacement washout on SWR

    That's fairly straightforward to answer. The entire bus industry, in common with many other industries, is experiencing a serious labour shortage at present. In that situation, operators of local bus services are (sensibly) prioritising their regular scheduled commitments, which is why you...
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    First Hampshire & Dorset (Wessex, Dorset & South Somerset)

    Very interesting account. I once did an 8 hour rail replacement standby duty in Wool, so you'll get no sympathy from me! :lol:
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    West Country Independents

    Yes, exactly that.
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    West Country Independents

    ...which is precisely why we and NSC agreed it was a good idea to do the change quickly and before too many people became attached to the link. Don't forget residents along the 55 route have the option to travel to shops at Yatton and Clevedon (including Tesco at the latter) by travelling...
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    Transdev Blazefield

    I’ll offer you a perspective as a VAMOOZ operator (as well as a good friend of AH, for what‘ that’s worth. Others have made the point very eloquently that success and failure are difficult to define. The bus industry often defines success in terms of territory - essentially a life-sized version...
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    Manchester Community Transport to Close

    At least half the routes were retendered last autumn (before my tenure) because the contracts expire in April. The fact that we now know we can’t retain any of that work and the remaining half (which is already loss making) can’t support the overhead is a big reason why the timing is now. So...

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