Regime change x 3

Saturday 16th March 2024

This month sees three high profile public transport networks change hands.

Firstly in Northampton, unō withdrew from its operations last weekend (9th March) after 11 and a half years in the town to be replaced by Stagecoach. Secondly next Thursday (21st March) Stagecoach ends its 27 year tenure operating the Sheffield Supertram as it hands the tram keys back to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for direct operation from Friday (22nd March) and thirdly, next weekend (24th March) the second tranche of Greater Manchester’s franchised Bee Network begins with Stagecoach moving into the large Queens Road and Oldham bus garages taking over commercial operations perviously run by Go North West and First Bus from those bases.

unō quits UoN

I took one last ride on unō’s three town bus routes in Northampton last month finding a mix bag.

The routes had been given individual brand names representing flowers which at one time were included on the sides of the buses but in more recent times the practice all but ceased.

Busiest route was the 19 linking the town’s University halls of residence at Boughton Green (also called Scholars Green) in the north of the town with the main campus site at Waterside (to the south east of the town centre) three times an hour. One journey each hour was numbered 19A and took a slightly longer route via KIngsley (the pink route on the above map).

I don’t know if unō had let AI lose on the timetable compilation but departures were not to an even spread during the day making for departures from Waterside at, for example, 05, 18, 40, 07, 29, 42, 06, 31, 53 etc etc depending which hour of the day it was. It didn’t make much difference to my travels though, as the bus I caught from Waterside was 10 minutes late (so much for AI) partly because it took some time to load the large crowd waiting to travel.

University students travel at a discounted rate but must show their ID to obtain this as emphasised by an ‘in-your-face’ notice on the cab door with those living at Scholars Green receiving complimentary travel to the campus.

It’s a 37 minute cross town journey to the halls of residence at Boughton Green and proved to be busy with many non student passengers travelling too.

The return journey to the town centre was just as busy especially with ‘ordinary passengers’ travelling into town for shopping.

The second service unō operated was route 21 which had nothing to do with the university but linked the town centre’s cramped ‘Bus Interchange’ on a slightly circuitous route via Eastfield, Northampton College and Weston Favell to Blackthorn and Rectory Farm to the east of the town.

Thankfully it was an AI free timetable running to an even 20 minute frequency and carried a reasonable number of passengers but nowhere near as busy as the 19/19A.

Finally, unō’s third service was hourly route 18 from Waterside campus via the town centre and railway station to what’s called a Park & Ride site as well as a car park for the University both close to the Sixfields football ground to the west of the town centre, where the route ends. There didn’t seem to be any reason for this route to run.

The Park & Ride site was almost empty as I passed through in the late morning and only one other passenger was on the bus on the outward journey with just a few returning who could have travelled on Stagecoach’s alternative network of routes once we neared the station.

Maps and timetables on prominent display were always one of unō’s strengths and these could be found at the campus…

… and on board the buses, even if it was out of date showing a long withdrawn route 17 branded as Poppy.

And that was it. Last Saturday was unō’s last day in Northampton.

I paid a return visit to the town yesterday to see how Stagecoach’s replacement routes were doing.

Here’s an extract from Stagecoach’s Northampton network map before the new routes.

And here’s the map from last weekend. Spot the changes.

To make it easy, I’ve highlighted eight of them.

Unō’s busy cross town 19/19A from Waterside campus to the hall of residence is replaced by a modified route 4 with double decks providing much improved capacity and all the more so with a doubling of the timetable to a 10 minute frequency to the town centre and up the KIngsthorpe Road to Asda and Eastern Avenue North where every other bus continues as before on a circuit of Sunnyside as a 4 with the other alternate journeys going to Scholars Green halls of residence as a 4A/4B, the latter denoting an hourly variant via Kingsley as the 19A had done.

Route 21 has been replaced by an eastern extension of route 8 so it now runs cross town from Kings Heath to Rectory Farm every 20 minutes.

And finally that route 18 to the car parks no one uses. That continues with Stagecoach providing the same roughly hourly service as unō had done but also now operated by double deck buses – and Gold standard at that.

Only three other passengers travelled on the out and back journey I made, and one of those, like me, was just sampling the new regime. And both car parks were almost empty too.

I was very impressed to see Stagecoach had rebranded all the posters …

… and timetable displays …

… and there were helpful pop up notices in the North Gate bus station explaining the amended departure stands for the newly numbered routes.

There was even an updated network map on display next to the former travel office window.

Notices at the bus stop on Waterside campus explain how staff and students wanting discount travel need to obtain a ticket on the Stagecoach app…

… while students living at Scholars Green also needing the app for their free travel arrangement.

Stagecoach have done a good job taking on these additional routes and it looks like a very smooth transition. The shipping in of redundant Gold branded buses from Cambridge has obviously helped to meet the increased vehicle requirement and there wasn’t any sign of buses missing for lack of drivers.

Gold liveried buses are now everywhere in the town on all different routes. Hopefully they’ll be rebranded into standard livery soon.

Sheffield Supertram

Stagecoach may have gained operations in Northampton but from Friday next week the company bows out of Supertram exactly 27 years after it took over the operation in March 1997. And that was three years after the new trams had began running in the city on 21st March 1994. At the time it was a much welcomed rescue bid from Stagecoach as the financial position in those first three years of public ownership had become untenable with too few passengers switching from cheaper parallel bus routes and failing to grapple with a complex ticketing system on the tram and initially a limited offer of just one line to and from Meadowhall.

Stagecoach was given a contract to last until 21st March 2024 and soon turned the performance round overseeing an expansion of the network and growth in passengers. Interestingly the contract contained no clauses covering arrangements for an exit or renewal so next Friday brings an end to its involvement.

With South Yorkshire’s elected Mayor, Oliver Coppard’s high profile intention to “take back control” of all things bus and train in the region it’s no surprise from next Friday that’s exactly what will happen to Supertram. It will be operated by a newly incorporated South Yorkshire Future Trams Limited (SYFTL) to be known as South Yorkshire Supertram.

Supertram employs 320 staff with 100 drivers and 100 conductors as well as maintenance, cleaning and administrative staff. Their employment is transferring over to SYFTL with one exception and that’s managing director Tim Bilby. He’s been with Supertram since 2012, becoming managing director in 2017 and is taking the opportunity for personal reasons to step down from next week. Tim has done an excellent job leading the operation for the last six years, creating a family atmosphere among the staff who I have a hunch will miss both Tim and Stagecoach as employers.

As Stagecoach bows out, Supertram’s fleet comprises 32 units, with seven Stadler built TramTrains entering service fairly recently in 2018, but the balance of 25 Siemens built trams are fast approaching the end of their design life of around 30 years and maintenance costs are inevitably rising to keep them fit for service not least because of the harsh gradient conditions to be found on parts of the network. A costly extensive refurbishment programme is going to be necessary. Add to that increases in the cost of electricity and inflationary wage increases for staff as well as changes in the city centre with increased availability of car parking and a post Covid recovery in passengers still not complete and you can see the new Mayoral controlled operator will face a challenging few years ahead, especially with the level of bus and tram fares also being a hot political potato.

“Taking back control” may not be quite as easy as Mayor Coppard (pictured below) thinks.

A £6.3 million operational loss is projected for 2024/25, the new operator’s first financial year, with operational costs of £23.6 million and revenue of £17.3 million. This deficit will be funded by a 2% South Yorkshire Transport Levy on all South Yorkshire council tax payers. I’m not sure what residents of Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham think of that.

Manchester

And so to the third regime change and phase 2 of Mayor Burnham’s Bee Network which comes into operation next Sunday (24th March).

This sees Stagecoach taking over the bus routes previously operated by First Bus out of Oldham bus garage and Go North West out of the large Queens Road bus garage as well as operations based on Middleton. The garage premises including staff and buses will pass from First Bus and Go North West over to Stagecoach and no doubt there’ll be the usual ‘teething problems’ and ‘settling in’ issues during the first few weeks which are only to be expected in a change as big as this.

I’ve yet to be convinced the costs surrounding the huge upheaval associated with all these changes are going to be offset by benefits, but no doubt all will become clear next year when the transition is complete.

Also, next weekend, Diamond North West take on a small franchise based on Oldham while First Bus have two small franchises based on Rochdale.

As Greater Manchester’s bus network becomes progressively yellow all eyes are on the announcement at the end of this month of the winners of the huge Tranche 3 covering the south of the conurbation with Stagecoach the current operator of most of the routes. Mobilisation for that franchise is spread over the next nine months with the new operator taking over on 5th January 2025.

With Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Combined Authorities all heading down the franchising route we can expect to see many more ‘Regime Change’ in the months and years ahead.

Roger French

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