SPT Tendered Routes

[PaulMc7]

Robroyston residents in transport blow as bus services axed AGAIN

ANGRY Robroyston residents have hit out at further cuts to bus routes in the area.

www.glasgowtimes.co.uk

Outrage as the 19A loses its SPT subsidised evening service.

The anger passes from the money grabbing shareholder focused capaitalist greedy First to the publicly accountable, publicly funded, run by elected officials and totally skint SPT.

Oh and the usual war cry of public ownership of course.

If you don't use it, you lose it.....

I gave First criticism for the X2 because it was obvious that if the 19A that was actually handy failed then an express route with barely any stops at all was obviously going to fail. The train station isn't even too handy for the ones complaining about having no bus so you have to wonder if they're even leaving their house often at all. The 8 is barely ever busy there too from experience so I wouldn't be surprised if that was ever changed to not serve the Asda leaving only the SPT 72 which I've never seen busy either there

 

[lastbus]

Robroyston residents in transport blow as bus services axed AGAIN

ANGRY Robroyston residents have hit out at further cuts to bus routes in the area.

www.glasgowtimes.co.uk

Outrage as the 19A loses its SPT subsidised evening service.

The anger passes from the money grabbing shareholder focused capaitalist greedy First to the publicly accountable, publicly funded, run by elected officials and totally skint SPT.

Oh and the usual war cry of public ownership of course.

If you don't use it, you lose it.....

This should be discussed in SPT tenders rather than here given the service is operated by JMB on behalf of SPT.

 

[156478]

This should be discussed in SPT tenders rather than here given the service is operated by JMB on behalf of SPT.

The 19A and the X2 were heavily discussed in this thread.

First Glasgow were mentioned in the news article also.

 

[lastbus]

The 19A and the X2 were heavily discussed in this thread.

First Glasgow were mentioned in the news article also.

First have not operated the service for months.

 

[overthewater]

So why should we as tax payer pay for empty buses? council only got away with it because no one was using it.

 

[Scotrail88]

So why should we as tax payer pay for empty buses? council only got away with it because no one was using it.

This is always the great argument.

This is fine. But when a private company it shouldn’t be allowed?

 

[overthewater]

This is always the great argument.

This is fine. But when a private company it shouldn’t be allowed?

Because when a Private company does it, most times there is still passengers, which is complete different. In that case council should be stepping in,

 

[Scotrail88]

Because when a Private company does it, most times there is still passengers, which is complete different. In that case council should be stepping in,

still passengers in this case according to the article?
There is always passenger - just not always enough irrespective of private or public purse in this case

 

[overthewater]

There passengers and then they passengers, If that lady is the only person on the bus then SPT is basically running a taxi, and some cases its cheaper to actually RUN a taxi. West Lothian found this out the hard, so did North yorkshire council.

When we start talking about the cost per passengers, that were the trouble is, I can let £10 per passenger slide etc but once you start hitting £20, £30, £35, you have to start asking questions. It would be rather interesting to see what the cost per passengers is on the 19A . might be cheaper to speak with First to divert one of the X3 journeys at night to go off at the slip road and go around Auchinleck, Drive

 

[PaulMc7]

If SPT were to get First involved would it not be easier to reroute the X85 or X87? Still a route to Auchinloch from Robroyston so could serve Glendale and Briarcroft then onto Auchinloch and Lenzie

It wouldn't even miss out any of their current route because Langmuirhead Road comes out beside The Golden Pheasant anyway

 

[Voyager lad]

If SPT were to get First involved would it not be easier to reroute the X85 or X87? Still a route to Auchinloch from Robroyston so could serve Glendale and Briarcroft then onto Auchinloch and Lenzie

It wouldn't even miss out any of their current route because Langmuirhead Road comes out beside The Golden Pheasant anyway

I’ve often thought this would be a good idea, one X85 per hour could be renumbered to an X86 and go via Robroyston, but terminate at Lennoxtown Whitefield or Lennox Castle to even out timings. Buses out to Campsie Glen are often dead past Lennoxtown, and if it was a real issue, the 89A could extend from Torrance through to Lennoxtown and on to Campsie Glen permanently to retain 2 buses every hour. It’s probably not the best solution, but one that could work.

 

[PaulMc7]

I've always looked at the SPT services that carry fresh air and thought there is definitely a workable solution to use resources effectively but SPT do nowhere near enough to find it

 

[awsnews]

The agenda for the forthcoming SPT Operations Committee is now on their website. Despite all the changes over the last few weeks the cancellation of 3 MyBus contracts has managed to only be reported within the financial impact item. The actual contract changes and amendments to services aren't recorded with an exception of listing a delegated award for the 208/218 to McColl's Travel.
SPT do not permit reproduction of their information by electronic means, so no extract included in post.

 

[overthewater]

People view it themself here: http://www.spt.co.uk/corporate/2020/11/operations-committee-36/

Mind you it seem they have managed to save over a Million in costs. Maybe we will see further cost cutting coming in play down the line.

 

[christopherrfc]

Latest round of tenders

http://www.spt.co.uk/documents/latest/Ops290121_Agenda7.pdf

 

[smtglasgow]

I know this is whole other debate, but thinking about the contracts that First have lost in the East End of Glasgow (46, 89/90), it’s the punters that will suffer. If you rely on buses to get about, you’ll have a First pass - you’d be mad not to. So now to get about in the evening you’re paying out single fares for every additional journey. I know this happens everywhere (and these routes were run by other operators until a few years ago), but having an area with – to be kind – multiple challenges where the dominant operators passes can’t be used on tendered journeys seems self-defeating – passengers numbers will drop even further.

Also – ARG travel?? Is that Coakley rising from the ashes again? Coakley and SPT contracts – what could possibly go wrong???

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Kevin's Coaches and Hobson Travel.

Never heard of them in my life. Do they have run anything commercially or tendered at the moment?

 

[Stan Drews]

Also – ARG travel?? Is that Coakley rising from the ashes again? Coakley and SPT contracts – what could possibly go wrong???

Aye, that’s the current incarnation of Mr Coakley.

 

[PaulMc7]

Shame about the 205 as well as 46 and 89/90 going from First to elsewhere. Not used the 46 often at night or the 89/90 but the 205 was certainly handy. Used that plenty of times and it's been fairly busy each time and not solely just with concession holders

 

[lastbus]

Kevin's Coaches and Hobson Travel.

Never heard of them in my life. Do they have run anything commercially or tendered at the moment?

Both currently operate school contracts and rail replacement work. Kevin’s coaches is a relatively new company and this will be his first venture into service work if he takes the contract on.

 

[sannox]

It is certainly an issue where the commercial operator is different from the evening subsidised operator and people are using operator specific passes. You have to think that can hurt both commercial and subsidised operator from different angles - day operator because people shy away from using their passes or day tickets and subsidised operator as people may be less likely to use single fares.

As said in this thread, I think the coverage factor and cost rules for SPT over actual network usability or passenger need.

There is something to be said for improving the bus network and fare structure in Glasgow over just the tripper card which many of the operators listed don't use.

I note McGill's and First didn't win any of their existing routes on tender.

 

[Observer]

Both currently operate school contracts and rail replacement work. Kevin’s coaches is a relatively new company and this will be his first venture into service work if he takes the contract on.

Not really surprising when corona is killing private hire for the last year and now this year it seems. Tendered service work is at least a stable income.

 

[AlexanderPS]

Not really surprising when corona is killing private hire for the last year and now this year it seems. Tendered service work is at least a stable income.

Agree with this. Due to schools work uncertain its not surprising that they are diversifying. Good luck to them if they take up on the work.

 

[route101]

I know this is whole other debate, but thinking about the contracts that First have lost in the East End of Glasgow (46, 89/90), it’s the punters that will suffer. If you rely on buses to get about, you’ll have a First pass - you’d be mad not to. So now to get about in the evening you’re paying out single fares for every additional journey. I know this happens everywhere (and these routes were run by other operators until a few years ago), but having an area with – to be kind – multiple challenges where the dominant operators passes can’t be used on tendered journeys seems self-defeating – passengers numbers will drop even further.

Also – ARG travel?? Is that Coakley rising from the ashes again? Coakley and SPT contracts – what could possibly go wrong???

Yes, I had that issue on the 31 when I took a First bus in to work and Stagecoach back, had to pay single fare on Stagecoach, which was cheaper than first. Should be agreement to accept each others tickets, not the punters fault. Also little mentioned is why a few times the first tendered service fares are different to the non tendered fares.

Usually these tendered routes are quiet at night as the daytime users are the elderly going to the shops.

 

[awsnews]

I think it is more significant that what is listed is less than half of the contracts up for renewal at this time so I would expect a few more changes to become apparent over the next few weeks. I guess the big question will be what will happen if SPT (Strathclyde Partnership for Transport) can't fund all the increased tender prices and have to drop some of them entirely.

 

[Scotrail88]

There is also the point that none of those mentioned state what changes are contained within them.
Some of those could also have some big changes within them.

 

[Stan Drews]

I would expect the prices submitted to have gone up, as these are minimum subsidy contracts. The operator keeps the revenue, so effectively takes the risk associated with the drastic drop caused by Covid. Whilst this will come back to an extent, I don’t think there are many in the industry expecting to ever get back to 100%. It’s noticeable the report seems to suggest some of the ops have submitted lower prices than the current contracts, which appears to be a huge risk over the coming few years.
It will certainly be interesting to see what SPT do about the many contracts where they consider the prices submitted to be excessive.

 

[sannox]

What sort of vehicles will these operators be using on these routes? I'm guessing they'll use an SPT vehicle rather than one of their own?

 

[awsnews]

What sort of vehicles will these operators be using on these routes? I'm guessing they'll use an SPT vehicle rather than one of their own?

The agenda item linked above includes that data. In summary as it stands only one of the proposed contract awards utilises an SPT vehicle, that being the 141. There will be four vehicles returning to SPT.

 

[gnolife]

What sort of vehicles will these operators be using on these routes? I'm guessing they'll use an SPT vehicle rather than one of their own?

Its all the operators own apart from the 141, which will use an SPT one (its the second column from the right on this scteenshot)