High Noon for High Wycombe

Thursday 4th July 2024

It’s just over three weeks until Arriva’s exit from High Wycombe (along with Aylesbury) so I decided to pay a visit to see what the company will be leaving behind.

Despite imminent abandonment of the town Arriva’s website continues to extol its virtues…..

“High Wycombe is a thriving market town situated in the Chiltern Hills. It offers a bustling atmosphere, a great shopping experience and lively nightlife too. Once known as ‘the furniture capital of England’, history lovers can admire its 12th century parish church, charming Georgian high street and handsome Guildhall. The Eden Shopping Centre includes an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants, plus a bowling alley and cinema. Visitors cans also expect regular market days, a microbrewery and the famous Swan Theatre. We offer various routes in and around High Wycombe, linking the town to Reading, Amersham and a number of other towns and villages in the Chilterns. We also add extra services on match days for Wycombe Wanderers football club supporters too.”

… and the company still appears eager to recruit bus drivers for its about to be closed bus garages. I suspect any “amazing people” facing such limited job security will have sensibly given any recruitment offer a wide berth.

The website also includes a very helpful network bus map which shows bus routes operated by Carousel as well as Arriva’s, but not First Bus or Redline.

Arriva introduced this revised network in a fanfare of promotion last September explaining the decision to split cross town routes “to a hub-and-spoke model with pulse scheduling reflects changing travel patterns, promoting seamless connectivity across the town on more routes rather than on a small number of select corridors”.

Sadly it seems the “pulse scheduling” (whatever that is) hasn’t lived up to expectations after the company said “it has redesigned a simpler, more frequent bus network for High Wycombe using Optibus, the first time the planning and scheduling software has been used to wholly design a network”.

Arriva reckoned Optibus “allowed prompt visualisation of real-world running times within varying network planning scenarios”.

Hmmm, I’m not sure High Wycombe will be featuring as a ‘best practice’ “real world” exemplar in the next sales brochure from Optibus.

Here’s the network that existed prior to 3rd September 2023 showing the cross town routes…

… and here’s the network that’ll be reinstated on 28th July when Carousel take over the town routes Arriva leave behind, which uncannily resembles the pre September 2023 pattern with cross city routes reinstated once again. Presumably Carousel has done its “visualisation of real-world running times” based on a more varied “network planning scenario”.

I began my wander around the town network on a route 13 as it arrived outside the railway station from Totteridge. It was a former Max branded bus without the Max branding…

… and had an interesting collection of posters placed on the roof of the lower deck…

… which if you strained your neck to read would entice you to buy a Hemel Hempstead BUSNET ticket…

… and as you alighted from the bus, there was plenty of information to read about changes to bus routes over a month ago, but sadly nothing to reassure passengers about the upcoming changes.

As I wandered around I was impressed how busy the buses on local routes were…

…from late morning and over the lunch time period on a weekday in late June.

A journey on route 3 which provides a half-hour frequency to Castlefield…

… carried over a dozen passengers home and brought a similar number back into town.

From 28th July this route will be rejoined to route 13 to resinate the cross town route 33 from Castlefield to Totteridge, and what a piece of good foresight…

… the Carousel branded bus stops are still there from the pre September 2023 era, so will come back into their own again, once the new network begins.

Carousel has pledged to cover all the routes previously operated by Arriva and commendably has had reassuring information available on its website ever since Arriva made its announcement about quitting the town. But interestingly, the new regime from 28th July will see competition break out on the Henley to Reading corridor with Carousel taking over Arriva’s half hourly routes 800/850 between High Wycombe, Henley and Reading and Reading Buses committing to introducing a new ‘aqua 28’ branded route, also running every half hour between Henley and Reading.

This resurrects competition on the corridor when Carousel had a tiff with Arriva a few years ago. It didn’t last very long that time, and I doubt it will this time, as there’s probably not enough traffic to justify four buses an hour between Henley and Reading.

Aqua 28 will operate via Shiplake, as does hourly route 800 (the hourly 850 goes via Wargrave), but Reading Buses has yet to publicise its timetable stating “full details are currently being finalised, and will be published soon”.

One thing bus passengers won’t miss when Arriva leaves High Wycombe is the multitude of, what are now, meaningless brands and liveries which can be seen around town including MAX…

… and Sapphire.

And even a livery that explains “your usual bus is in for a service today, so this is our spare….”. And, of course “enjoy your journey” but just don’t look at the dented panels below that exhortation.

Destination blinds were variable…

… as was the display of the company name.

But, that slipshod presentation wasn’t confined to Arriva. Carousel were also displaying some missing vinyls on replacement panels.

And Redline weren’t any better.

Whereas Arriva closed down its Travel Office in the bus station some time ago, Carousel still has a presence, albeit without a human to help.

And the leaflet rack outside, whilst good to see, carried a very limited range of timetables, with the high profile Chiltern Hundreds branded routes noticeably absent.

More positively a poster on display gave details of the new routes from 28th July together with the new network map.

Carousel’s Chiltern Hundreds brand which hitherto has promoted the four routes (101, 102, 103 and 104) each running hourly, combining to form a 15 minute frequency along the A40 to Beaconsfield “and onwards across the Chilterns”, is having a bit of an identity crisis.

That’s because the hourly 102 route to Uxbridge and Heathrow Airport has recently doubled in frequency through to the airprort thereby supplanting the 101 which represented hourly journeys previously running only as far as Uxbridge…

… but more radical is its conversion to double deck operation and being brought under the expanding FLIGHTLINE branding and livery.

It’s using buses cascaded from the Oxford Bus Company (previously branded for Brookes Bus) but so far only one bus has arrived with Carousel and been repainted…

… as well as having a luggage rack fitted on the lower deck.

In the short term it was noticeable the presence of a green double deck bus on the otherwise red single deck dominated corridor was causing confusion for some passengers boarding the bus and unsure whether it would take them to their destination.

There’s also potential confusion for Heathrow Airport bound passengers as Carousel’s sister company, the Oxford Bus Company’s coach operated ‘airline’ branded route serves High Wycombe Coachway, on the edge of town, providing a much faster hourly service to Heathrow Airport taking just 37 minutes compared to Flightline 102’s 79 minutes.

Other highlights of my wander around High Wycombe was noting the First Bus X74 offering a range of liveries…

… as well as buses from Red Eagle…

… and Redline…

… and the PICKMEUP branded DRT minibus meandering into the bus station every so often with a maximum load of one.

It was interesting to see work was underway to give the bus station concourse a lick of paint during my visit, perhaps as a portent for better times ahead.

High Wycombe has had a chequered history of bus operators over the last few decades including at one time Go-Ahead owned Wycombe Bus abandoning the town to Arriva, but now it’s the turn of Arriva to do the abandoning to Go-Ahead owned Carousel which is set to dominate bus operation in the area. Let’s hope that means better times for the town’s bus passengers.

Roger French

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70 thoughts on “High Noon for High Wycombe”

  1. “Pulse scheduling” is how the Swiss railway network operates. At interchanges, trains arrive and depart around the same time so transfer times are minimised.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Carousel have taken a lease on the Arriva garage at Cressex … the current Carousel garage is rather small, and a doubling of their fleet would’ve been rather cosy !! I believe that hand-washing of buses is usual there.

    One wonders if there will be a consolidation of sites eventually.

    I’ve always found that passenger loadings are pretty good on Wycombe routes …. almost fully-seated departures are the norm on many routes …. which makes Arriva’s departure all the more surprising. Perhaps it was the well-publicised issues with fleet availability that did for them.

    it would be interesting to hear about a return visit from you in the autumn ….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Will Arriva survive in Colchester?. GoAhead seem to be gaining ground there. They have won a number of ECC contracts in Colchester. Having a garage there could be useful to them

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  3. Although Wycombe has had very many services changes over the years the current route network is uncannily like that operated by Thames Valley and London Country. The road network on the steep sided valleys precludes radical changes. Let’s hope that Wycombe finally gets a stable operator in Carousel after 40 years of unnecessary turmoil

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  4. Reading Buses had a bus liveried out for Aqua at their open day last weekend and for a 2014 bus very smart it looked too. Assuming they are running every 30 mins we’re looking at a PVR of 3 or 4 depending on the lay-over time.

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  5. High Wycombe was part of my first full day as an ENCTS Pass holder – 10/11/2017. Walton on Thames to High Wycombe via Heathrow. Then on to Oxford on a 275. Back to High Wycombe via Aylesbury, then home to Walton on Thames. Oxford is no longer possible for a day out from home and Aylesbury may be in a similar position too.

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  7. How fortunate have Go-Ahead been? Seeing Bournemouth, Southampton and now High Wycombe custom dropped onto their established networks in those places without the need to really expand their operations (save Wycombe).

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    1. They’ll pick up North Kent year, since Arriva won’t be hanging around long after November when they hand over Fastrack.

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        1. I suspect Harlow will survive,. Ware might go though and Colchester is looking at risk

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          1. Suspect only thing keeping Colchester going is the P & R plus the 133 from Braintree to Stansted airport.

            First are pushing hard on the 3 cross town routes Arriva operate.

            GoAhead in form of Hedingham picked up routes from First bur equally lost some to First and Stephensons.

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        2. I think most people in Wycombe believed the reason Arriva cut out the cross town routes was because it was easier to cut out services when they felt like it.

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    2. They may have been fortunate in Wycombe, benefiting from Arriva’s already tepid offering being fatally undermined by Redline on the Aylesbury route as well as suffering from poor reliability.

      However, I’d suggest that the Bournemouth and Southampton moves have been the result of a long term strategy in both areas from Go Ahead. Yes, it required the self harming of Yellow Buses and probably the post Covid impact on First in Southampton, but they have been very clever in pursuing a plan that has ultimately succeeded. They’ve built a firm base on the back of Uni work (esp in Soton) and been the better operator in both conurbations.

      That said, and to be fair and temper the praise somewhat, the Carousel operation is one of the more slipshod operations in the Go Ahead stable (along with the saddening Hedingham/Chambers operations). It really does need some TLC as Roger’s photos show.

      BW2

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  8. Three cheers for cross-town routes: (1) they make the map simpler – imagine the number of colours you’d need if the London Underground split its Central, District Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Hammermith-and-City lines each into two! (2) at least some cross-town journeys will be quicker and easier. (3) cross-town routes can call at a bus station, and can be timetabled on a pulse basis, to make connections better – though a network is always better for passengers if all buses run to a common frequency (anathema, I know, to bus managers); especially if that common frequency is every 15 minutes or less, at which point the wait for your connection becomes less of an issue

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  10. Those “Carousel branded” bus stops are actually nothing of the sort! The costly two-legged bus stops were introduced in both Aylesbury and High Wycombe in the mid-2000s by Buckinghamshire County Council to promote the new “Rainbow Routes” network in each town. The (then) 33 just happened to be branded RedRoute 33 hence the red plate and pinstripe around the post. Other colours still exist around the town, though (as in Aylesbury) their significance has been lost as the former cross-town routes have been split in two to ‘improve punctuality’.

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    1. Lincolnshire County Council used similar posts for their InterConnect network (and a few other routes) when they were still vaguely interested in public transport. Their most consistent feature in Lincolnshire is that they’re usually fitted parallel to the kerb at the far side of the (typically narrow) pavement, so the flag can’t be seen from the road – meaning the stop is almost invisible to bus drivers.

      A good idea, perhaps, but as ever the implementation has been less good.

      A. Nony Mouse

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  11. ”Carousel has pledged to cover all the routes previously operated by Carousel ….” – second Carousel should be Arriva?

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  12. Don’t see Harlow being a pickup for GoAhead, nothing really to bolt it onto, so it would have to cover all the overhead costs. If it does close, I’d assume Vectre or Central Connect or whatever they are calling themselves now would be interested. Colchester might fit nicely with East Anglia, assuming they’ve not lost confidence in their ability to make money out there.

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    1. Arriva could consolidate the Ware routes into Harlow probably enough garage capacity

      Interestingly First seem to be showing interest in Harlow. They have set up a couple of routes competing with Arriva on the Chelmsford Harlow Corridor . It could be they are as well just a useful way to get the buses to Harlow for the ECC contracts they gained

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      1. Looking at Bus Times they are just positioning trips but from Chelmsford to Harlow is a lot of dead running.

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    2. First Bus are putting on another new service in Colchester that competes with the Arriva service 1

      I think the Arriva operate P&R contract is up for renewal I would expect at least 4 companies to be interested in it

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  13. I commend your detailed analysis of the situation but conclude that the average bus user must be utterly, utterly confused. Without doubt further car ownership encouraged.

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  14. I don’t think Go Ahead have been ‘fortunate’, they have achieved the removal of their competitor by superior management and network design, and to have been willing to accept a loss or little profit in order to achieve their goal. In High Wycombe Arriva’s unwillingness to invest in fleet over the past 5 years will have helped. It will be interesting to see what I Squared do with Arriva’s shambolic and down at heel U.K. bus operation .

    I am sure more retrenchment beckons, Colchester and Northfleet could well be next

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    1. Carousel doesn’t get much new investment either, it seems to survive on hand me downs from Oxford and London. How that’s going to work once Oxford is almost entirely electric will be interesting to see.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. It would probably be useful for Go Ahead to have a garage in Colchester. They now have quite a lot of work in the area. Some of the long distance routes they have could sensibly be split between two garage although bus companies seem reluctant to do that nowadays

      Routes I think would lend themself to a garage split are the Clacton to Colchester routes and the Colchester to Sudbury routes

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      1. Why do that? I doubt Sudbury and Clacton depots are especially well performing so why remove some of the better paying work? Doesn’t make sense.

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        1. It is not removing the work. It would make for more efficient timetabling of those long routes

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          1. By definition, you are splitting work between two garages so you are removing some work from Sudbury and Clacton and moving it to a Colchester base and so reducing the viability of those two garages

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    3. | It will be interesting to see what I Squared do

      I’ve heard it muttered that I Squared are only interested in reducing costs even further, which can only mean even poorer quality and further retrenchment by Arriva UK Bus.

      Given that Go Ahead and Stagecoach are now owned by multinationals, I suspect both groups’ UK Bus operations may also be subject to cost pressures from those owners.

      Stagecoach may be at more immediate risk given that they’re owned by a financial institution (a former part of Deutsche Bank) and have few operations outside UK bus now. Go Ahead has at least got its international operations for the owners to play with before they start looking at UK buses.

      A. Nony Mouse

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      1. Stagecoach at risk? They’ve just placed vehicle orders that will cost them around £150m, before any Zebra grants are received.

        One advantage of being owned by a bank is access to cheaper money….

        KCC

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        2. | One advantage of being owned by a bank is access to cheaper money….

          Stagecoach are owned by DWS, not Deutsche Bank.

          As an asset management company DWS’s expertise is sweating its assets. If they’re allowing Stagecoach to make an order for vehicles then they either see external funding availability (such as Zebra) to cover the costs or they consider that parts of the business are profitable enough to justify investment.

          That doesn’t mean that other parts of the group won’t be put under pressure. It’s well known that parts of some Stagecoach subsidiaries are knife-edge; there’s a reason that the East Midlands company (LRCC) rarely receives new vehicles, for example.

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      2. Most of the Arriva Southern Counties operations are at best marginal and little scope to improve them. It will be interesting to see what the new owners do with them

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  15. Passenger loadings in High Wycombe seem pretty reasonable so why does it struggle so much. Is traffic congestion the problem ?

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    1. Traffic congestion is a problem at rush hours.

      And if the M40 has problems causing one or more lane closures, you get instant gridlock.

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  16. I think, without competition, GoAhead might be encouraged to invest in Wycombe. If passenger numbers are as good as Roger suggests, then the numbers might work?

    It’s interesting, isn’t it, that competition in smaller towns no longer seems to work. Since Covid, the competitive numbers just aren’t there any more.

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  18. I ended up in High Wycombe while undertaking £2 forays on buses after initially sampling the Shepperton branch for the first time in literally decades.

    The London Bus Map showed I could reach Heathrow on Diamond’s 555, which despite being a premium destination is included in the £2 bus fare initiative.

    While contemplating my next trip at Heathrow a red Carousel Enviro appeared on the 102. I hopped on board clutching my bank card “High Wycombe please” Driver tapped loads of buttons, nothing appeared on reader. I looked at him, he looked at me. I asked, how much is it? Driver stuck two fingers up at me. “Is that £2?”….”Do I get a bit of paper….never mind!”

    It was an enjoyable journey aboard a rather grubby bus. Bustimes had one green bus on the route, little did I realise you were aboard when it whizzed past in leafy Beaconsfield while I was trying to work out whether I had inadvertently entered into the world of Carousel’s Freeflow tap on tap off system.

    Boarding in High Wycombe bus station when schools are coming out is a bit of a lottery with dead buses cluttering up stands, but I caught Arriva 6 to Bourne End to rejoin the National rail network. A journey on a cumfy Gemini that began with a straight forward £2 transaction led to a journey that opened my eyes to challenges of bus operation passing a sea of stationary traffic heading into town from the M40. Buses need political vision not digital intervention to solve its woes.

    Pink bus stop poles have appeared as part of piecemeal commercial initiative in Brighton, so we may encounter each other again soon!

    John Nicholas

    P.S. I might have to pass through an Orange Wall to get there, if Winning Here posters become reality!

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    1. | ”Do I get a bit of paper….never mind!”

      You get that on ‘the really good bus company’ if you pay by card.

      Some TrentBarton drivers really don’t like issuing tickets when they can just have you touch-in, touch-out instead. If you insist, you get a ticket for whatever was the last journey they sold as cash rather than the journey you asked for.

      Others will at least ask you if you “need a receipt”, although it’s still touch and go if you get a ticket for the journey you’re making rather than for whatever’s in the machine.

      The data being received by bus companies for £2 journeys must be totally skewed as I find that happens on a lot of trips regardless of operator, small or large.

      A. Nony Mouse

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      1. While travelling by Arriva in the Midlands, I tended two pounds in cash. Driver said ticket machine wasnt working, I replied “oh well, u might as well put it in the tea fund then”!

        John Nicholas

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    2. Bath and region is part of First West of England Ltd and have tap in and out contactless card fares and the Ticketer machines, some of which work then stop working and come back to life.

      It seems like a ideal system, but I don’t think that the machines can cope with the bouncy ride on the rough roads, so sometimes I can’t tap in or out and passangers joining mid-route get waved on, with the driver’s hand over the reader : happens too when the bus is running late, eg from Bath Spa Bus station!

      Arriva in Stevenage, have the same machines, but not tap in and out, this is the Arriva Southern Counties, a latter area from the original Aylesbury and District of the then Luton bus, which did already include Hitchin – which at the time didn’t serve Stevenage (except via Letchworth).

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  19. Most journeys on Cardiff Bus, including free concessionary ones, produce a paper ticket (except tap in/tap out). Apart from Day Tickets and others which will be required later, these go straight into the litter bin.

    Andrew Kleissner

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    1. There’d be absolutely no point ticket inspectors checking provincial buses nowadays. On almost every bus I travel on, people take their ticket and put it in the bin as they’re walking to their seat.

      As a kid I was always taught I should keep my ticket for two reasons: in case an inspector got on, and in case anything happened as it was my proof that I was insured.

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      1. When I use a concessionary pass I rarely receive a paper ticket. I haven’t tried it yet but I wonder whether venues who offer a discounted entry ticket if you arrive on public transport will accept a concessionary pass as evidence you travelled by bus?

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  20. Whilst Wycombe will become almost all “red”(except First), Aylesbury will still see at least 3 Arriva “blue” buses an hour on Routes X4/X6 to Milton Keynes (which have been worked from MK Arriva Midlands depot for some time) and the X5 to Hemel which will transfer to Hemel Hempstead Arriva Southern Counties depot. After over a decade of competition in Aylesbury (but which started in earnest in 2019) the “independent” sector have won! The “town” routes were all mopped up in the autumn of 2023

    The only hint of competition remaining is to Milton Keynes between the Arriva X4/X6 and Red Rose 100, but they all go via different routes (X4 via Leighton Buzzard, X6 via Buckingham and 100 via the Linslade By-pass and thereby offering the fastest option.

    John Wood, Wendover

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  21. I have a original copy of the pre Arriva days, in the Wycombe Bus era map, downloaded from the website, somewhere…it will be interesting what will be different.

    Apart from the missing original bus station, which was demolished and covered by the outdoors shopping area, making Tesco’s a long walk from the new bus station!

    Wycombe Bus wasn’t doing the links to Aylesbury, as far as I can remember. In the past Motts operated in to Aylesbury bus station too.

    The loss will be the coverage of the Arriva Explorer ticket, that used to be valid on First Bus to Slough. Plus the new services probably won’t accept it either.

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    1. An almost doubling of resource has just generated a small amount of extra passengers, Does not sound to be a good investment

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  24. The sight of Arriva still bigging up High Wycombe as a place and advertising for staff shouldn’t really be surprising, given 2.5 years after leaving Guildford the website still has the T&Cs for using the bus station there on their website (https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/help/bus-stations—conditions-of-use), and them still having an ‘Arriva Surrey’ Facebook page posting promotional stuff or links to passenger surveys.

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  25. You called it Roger, High Wycombe Change, with the local seat being won by Labour.

    It sits on top of an orange wall that stretches from Eastbourne to North Devon which includes Teresa May’s former seat in Maidenhead.

    A jubilent Kier Starmer stated “Change starts now”,

    There is a manifesto commitment for a Great British Railway, however buses…

    Let local authorities take control of bus networks and remove the ban on publicly owned bus services.

    Give mayors powers to create more integrated transport systems and to promote active travel networks.

    A patchwork of inconsistent standards still requiring me to carry a pocketful of Smartcards and Apps until I’m eligible for a Concessionary pass.

    Your blogs demonstrate that Britains buses need a cultural change to transform the low expectations of bus users.

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  26. Labour doesn’t have a plan for buses other than more franchising at an unknown cost. The railways will be further nationalised because that’s what the unions want as the Labour Government will bow to their excessive pay demands, and reliability and passenger service will deteriorate. Through the BSIP process most local authorities have displayed cluelessness as to how to develop their networks. Independent Operators are doomed.

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  27. There is life in the old dog yet, Arriva’s new X1 Milton Keynes to Luton Town Centre is on their website, but does not go to the Airport and does not use the Busway, so still takes 1hr 15 minutes whereas if they used the busway they could have done it in an hour. And it uses coaches. Hopefully good competition for Stagecoach MK1.
    Surely best to have used coach seated single or double deck buses and use the Busway?

    so Stagecoach extend from Hitchin to Stevenage, plus 2 PVR

    Arriva reorganise 100/101 Stevenage – Luton and increase frequency, plus 4 PVR

    Stagecoach add in a new Luton to Luton Airport service , plus 1 PVR

    Arriva introduce X1 Milton Keynes – Luton, plus 3 PVR

    + 10 PVR, £1.5m in costs per annum.
    What will Stagecoach do next I wonder?

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  28. One likely reason why the local routes are so well used is that High Wycombe is surrounded by steep hills. We went on a vintage bus running day there a few weeks ago, and some of the older vehicles had quite a struggle to get up some of them! Graham L.

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  29. I have never understood the logic of painting routes/destinations on the sides of buses. It seems inevitable that, at some point, the bus will be needed on a different route for whatever reason, leading to confusion for passengers. Much better to have a changeable display, whether electronic or rollable paper.

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  30. Hi Roger,
    Nice to see you do a good blog on the HW area and the upcoming (much welcomed!) transition to Carousel.
    The only thing I thought I could add to is regarding the Aqua 28.

    I strongly suspect this will be routed via the villages of Binfield Heath and Dunsden Green (not massive, but they have strong schools traffic into Reading/Henley, a lot of commuters who like the option of leaving the car at home as the A4155 between Henley and Reading is one of the worst quality A roads in the Thames Valley, tourist traffic for walkers in the Chiltern foothills etc..)

    If they route to Henley College (2000 pupils from all over the region) after the town centre at the Henley end, this would also justify the additional service as the large volume of students originating from Reading often prefer Reading’s service as they can use a town route on the way there for no extra cost in a season or day ticket, the train is further away from the college than the bus could get and more expensive, and parking at the college is an absolute pain given the number of students coming from rural areas keen to use their first cars!

    I went to the college myself,and used to cycle in because of the poor quality of Arriva’s service – there were many like me who used alternatives because of the poor quality, I suspect many are ripe for the picking when Reading’s service starts.
    Carousel will do well enough on the more interurban town to town traffic, and of course, all traffic north of Henley.

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  31. Arriva Possibilities

    Pulls out of Kent and GoAhead Take Over

    Pulls Out of Colchester and GoAhead take over

    Pulls out of Harlow and Ware with First Bus taking over. Probably closing Ware and consolidating it all into Harlow

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    1. Go Ahead Group seem to be a company that is overstretching themselves. Much like First Group did.

      We see recently in Southampton and Poole and Bournemouth area were they are now the dominant operator. Which maybe good for them. But is bad for competition and customers. I’m surprised the local transport commissioner has allowed Go Ahead to monopolise services.

      When Stagecoach took over Preston Bus they were forced to sell it due to competition concerns.

      Liked by 1 person

  32. Arriva new American Owners seem to want to concentrate the business in few areas like Merseyside, London, Yorkshire, Wales and the North East. Rumours has it that they were trying to sell their Leicester/Derby operations to National Express or Rotala/Diamond.

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  34. The amazing people recruitment poster has now gone at High Wycombe Bus Station, probably somebody from Arriva, read Rodgers article!

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  35. This article just goes to show what anarchy deregulation unleashed. How do you think the poor old passenger views this constant change and upheaval. Eventually we will have integrated regional networks but we’ve gone through a lot of pain to prove British exceptionalism in public transport doesn’t work.

    MikeC

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think deregulation worked for a while to an extent but those times are long gone. I personally can’t wait for some stability to ensue be it from franchising or nationalisation. The amount of public money that already gets ploughed into these companies is vast so I believe it’s time local authorities had more say over how that is used. Plus at a time when margins are more pressured than ever, I think it will benefit the private operators in the case of franchising at least. Agree on the point about passenger experience. Such frequent changes mean many have long given up and found other means of travel. And while there may be beacons of light such as Brighton, Edinburgh, Nottingham – they are by no means a reflection of the vast majority of operations.

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