BusAndTrainUser Verify

Saturday 10th August 2024

All is not well on a rural bus route in Bedford.

As you can see from the above headlines in last week’s trade press (Route One) and the Bedford Today online news website, a row has broken out between the respected locally based Grant Palmer bus company, Bedford Borough Council and Stagecoach.

Just the job for another investigation by BusAndTrainUser Verify.

Back in history Stagecoach used to run routes 125 and 126 north of Bedford but for the last 11 years the equivalent tendered route, numbered 25, has been in the hands of Grant Palmer. It runs between Bedford and Rushden via a number of villages in the former counties of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. During its tenure of the routes Grant Palmer states it’s invested in the service with new buses (it mentions four), contactless payment options and capped fares.

Here’s the tendered timetable which applied until 31st July showing an approximate hourly service from Bedford as far as Harrold via Oakley and then either Pavenham or Stevington with five journeys extended to Rusden via two different routes as shown on the above map.

With the tender contract coming to an end, the company gave notice to Bedford Borough Council it would run part of the route, including the busiest journeys on Mondays to Fridays, as a commercial venture from 1st August registering with the required notice a slimmed down timetable comprising six journeys between Harrold and Bedford, two of which commenced in early morning peak times at Sharnbrook.

Grant Palmer’s stance on the ensuing row is…..

….instead of discussing options with the bus company about ways in which journeys could continue through to Rushden serving villages such as Poddington as well as the provision of a Saturday service, perhaps through a de-minimus arrangement or a modified tendered timetable to the previous one, Bedford Borough Council went ahead and sought tenders for a similar timetable to that which had existed until 31st July, in the knowledge Grant Palmer’s registration was taking effect from 1st August and there’d be consequential duplication.

In the event, Stagecoach won the tender, but because invitations to tender and the resulting confirmatory award were finalised late in the day, it had insufficient time to register the service with proper notice and consequently is currently allowing free travel until the registration takes effect. I’m told the current position is “the registration for service 25 by Stagecoach continues not to be approved by the Traffic Commissioner”.

Grant Palmer’s upset arises not only from a publicly funded bus route competing with its risk taking venture of trying to run part of a rural route commercially but, in the short term that competition being providing free to passengers. The company is currently consulting lawyers about what legal redress it can take not least because it believes “the Transport Act 1985 precludes such an occurrence. Local authorities are subject to a duty laid down within that legislation ‘to conduct themselves as not to inhibit competition between persons providing or seeking to provide public transport services in their area’.”

On the other hand, Bedford Borough Council’s stance on the row is…

…. “Following the deregistration and change of the rural routes by Grant Palmer the council then had to speedily undertake a transparent tendering process in which Stagecoach has successfully been awarded some services in North Bedfordshire to ensure these villages continued to receive public transport.“

Councillor Jim Weir, deputy mayor and portfolio holder for environment, said: “We are committed to providing high-quality public transport options for residents of Bedford borough. Our goal is to deliver outstanding service and we look forward to working with Stagecoach on the above services.”

Looking at this situation dispassionately ….

… on the one hand one could commend Grant Palmer for taking an initiative to run part of a rural route commercially but on the other hand it’s timetable smacks of cherry picking not least there being no balancing return journeys from Bedford after 16:10 in the afternoon peak and what did it expect the Council to do to ensure the villages were served without impacting on the proposed commercial proposition.

The company’s investment claim of ‘four new buses for the route’ is pushing things a bit as the timetable only required two and although Grant Palmer have commendably been regularly buying new buses – two in each of the last four years – it’s not certain these were dedicated to the 25. They weren’t operating on the service yesterday.

I know that because I headed out to Bedford yesterday to take a look at what’s actually happening on the ground, expecting to find some much welcome busy buses on this rural bus route.

Route 25 buses depart from the bus station’s stand R which is one of the through bays on the west side. A poster in the shelter displayed the Grant Palmer departure times but there was no information about Stagecoach journeys.

The electronic display was showing departures by both operators.

I arrived in time to catch the 12:10 Grant Palmer departure. The next Stagecoach departure was 18 minutes later at 12:28.

The bus didn’t arrive until 12:12 coming in from a journey on route 74 from Hitchin (due in at 12:02).

The driver efficiently got myself and the three other concessionary fare paying passengers on board and we set off at 12:14 setting down one of the passengers just three minutes later at Linden Road.

Ten minutes later the second passenger alighted at Pavenham Park with the third passenger travelling all the way to Harrold, where we arrived still a few minutes late at 12:45. The bus immediately set off back to Bedford with no one on board.

The bus shelter at the terminal point in Harrold had a Stagecoach timetable on display but there was no reference to Grant Palmer’s service.

I wonder whether it had been covered by the Stagecoach display.

I waited in Harrold for the next Stagecoach departure back to Bedford – the 13:02, which is a ‘short’ out from Bedford and operates inwards via Stevington – there’s another Bedford bound Stagecoach journey at 13:17 which comes through from Rushden.

Harrold residents are spoilt for choice at lunch times – three journeys to Bedford within about half an hour (12:44, 13:02, and 13:17) with another Grant Palmer one half an hour after that as 13:44.

But it was a case of more buses than passengers, as I was the only passenger boarding the Stagecoach 13:02 departure (two had alighted as it arrived from Bedford) with one staying as she was taking a long way round return home to Stevington (doing it via Harrold), and after she alighted it was just me back to Bedford. I asked the driver how long he thought the free fares was going to last but he just explained it was all down to a row between Grant Palmer, the Council and Stagecoach.

Back in Bedford that bus left on its next journey to Rushden at 13:40 with a change of driver and four passengers but I was intrigued to see what would happen half an hour later at 14:10 when both a Grant Palmer and Stagecoach 25 are timed to leave simultaneously, albeit the latter operates via Stevington and continues to Rushden, but both buses serve Clapham, Oakley, Carlton and Harrold.

How, I wondered, would the hoardes of home going lunch time shoppers divide their loyalties between the two operators?

Grant Palmer’s bus arrived on the stand first, coming in at 14:04 from Ampthill (the 13:56 arrival on route 68).

But the driver needed a calming vape break and in the event didn’t jump back in the cab until 14:11 when he changed the blind to route 25.

Meanwhile the Stagecoach bus arrived on the stand at 14:10 so even though stopping behind the Grant Palmer bus got first dibs on all the passengers.

All three of them,

It departed at 14:12 followed immediately by Grant Palmer with no one on board.

I always caveat my analysis in these investigative travel experiences – they’re just based on a very small unscientific sample and should not necessarily be taken as representative of the overall picture. But …… in this case, on a lovely sunny Summer school holiday Friday, I’d have expected to see more passengers if there was a commercial proposition to be had, irrespective of any short term competition or free fares.

I’d recommend a rethink by Grant Palmer before any more costs are incurred, not least legal fees. It’ll take months if not years of revenue to recoup even just those.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras.

Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.