Interloper Versus Incumbent
Bright Bus in Edinburgh is First Bus in disguise. Fed up with the competitive intrusion of Lothian Regional Transport (LRT) into First's West Lothian territory ...
... First decided to hit the incumbent where it might hurt. LRT's tour business has always been very lucrative.
Over the years the incumbent has accumulated a monopoly of Edinburgh City tours by buying out the opposition or acting as an agent for the national City Sightseeing brand. Currently LRT offer four different tours, three of which are impinged upon by Bright Bus. The one that remains unchallenged is the "Three Bridges" Tour ...
... which, as its name subtly suggests, takes you to view the three Forth bridges.
If you take this tour, you have an uninspiring bus ride (closed top) to South Queensferry ...
... where you join a boat trip to view the bridges from their spectacular underbellies and, poissibly, spend some time on Inchmaholm Island.
As yet, Bright Bus is leaving this alone, possibly because of the tie-in with the boat operator.
So the main tour, is, as expected, the standard Edinburgh City Tour. All tours used to leave from Waverley Bridge which was outside the station and exceedingly obvious.
They have now been banished "round the back" to St Andrew Square which, no doubt, improves the environment on Waverley Bridge, but really spoils thee attractive north side of the Square.
You do wonder how many opportunist customers will be lost because they do not see the line of brightly coloured buses as they come out of the station or walk past on Princes Street.
For 2021, Bright Bus have introduced a second tour of which more tomorrow; but the standard City tour passes all of the obvious Edinburgh sights and sites.
The tour runs along Princes Street then crosses over to do a double-back twiddle via the Castle and the old town.
The tour then calls at Scottish Parliament, Holyroodhouse ...
... and Dynamic Earth Science Park.
A leisurely amble back via the foot of Calton Hill ...
... returns open top passengers to St Andrew Square.
Lothian Regional Transport (LRT) runs TWO Edinburgh City Tours; one under their own brand.
Its route goes the "opposite way round" to Bright Bus, starting via Calton Hill ...
... and Dynamic Earth. The tour ends via the Old Town, the Castle and the so-called "New" Town which is also old!
The "New" Town was developed between 1767 and 1850 ...
... whereas the "Old Town" is a hotch potch of historic buildings and roadways based on the mediaeval plan of the city.
Spot the differences between the LRT tour and the Bright Bus route!
But LRT operates a second city tour under the City Sightseeing brand.
Its route is similar,
... (almost?) identical, with Bright Bus ...
... and back to base as usual!
Tomorrow (computer systems permitting!) we look at the new tour from Bright Bus and explore the fares charged by the competing operators.
WARNING
Today, the next stage of the transfer of the fbb "comms" to a new supplier should happen. Already fbb has lost emails on his phone and the connected telly is no longer connected. Will daily blogging survive this upheaval?
Dunno!
UPDATE : The problem with the telly was nothing to do with "comms" change. The relevant wire had fallen out of the back of the router/modem! Poking it back in restored connectivity. The phone problem is more complex, however, and in the hands of our technical adviser, viz No 3 son.
It's Already Happening!
Those who have read the Williams Shapps Report on propose changes and the creation on Great British Railways may be interested in this (lengthy!) press release from First Group. Expurgation by fbb:-
FirstGroup plc (‘FirstGroup’ or ‘The Group’) is pleased to announce the agreement of National Rail Contracts (‘NRCs’) with the Department for Transport (‘DfT’) for its South Western Railway (‘SWR’) and TransPennine Express (‘TPE’) train operating companies. The new NRCs will commence on 30 May 2021, when the current Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (‘ERMAs’) come to an end.
New NRCs for SWR and TPE have a two-year term to May 2023 with options to extend by up to two further years to May 2025
FirstGroup bears no revenue risk and very limited cost risk under an annual budget agreed with DfT; there is also no significant contingent capital risk
Annual fees on NRCs consist of a fixed management fee plus performance fee based mainly on the delivery of customer-focused performance metrics
National Rail Contracts are a new contract structure for agreements between train operating companies and the DfT and the contracts for both SWR and TPE are among the first wave of NRCs to be announced. NRCs replace the previous revenue risk-based franchising system.
For SWR the fixed management fee is £3.3m per annum and there is the opportunity to earn an additional fee of up to £9.9m which is the maximum attainable performance fee. For TPE the fixed management fee is £2.3m per annum and there is the opportunity to earn an additional fee of up to £5.2m which is the maximum attainable performance fee. The punctuality and other operational targets required to achieve the maximum level of performance fee are designed to incentivise the highest level of performance for customers.
Although these are short term post-covid schemes, they are what the future structure of the network under GBR will look like.
Next Edinburgh blog : Thursday 27th May
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