Network Review = Service Cutbacks
First West Lothian developed a service from the Livingston area to Edinburgh Airport. It was numbered 600, presumably to match the pattern of Lothian Regional Transport (a k a Edinburgh City) route numbering scheme.
In 2019 the 600 was improved ...
... with posh branded double deckers and an improved Monday to Saturday frequency of every 30 mins - every hour on Sundays.
Although First have "gone away" this service is clearly promoted on line by a part of First's web site. There is a route map as well, So a casual net surfer would expect to be able to get from the Airport to Livingston ...
... and on to Whitburn. It no longer runs, obviously.
In fact McGills 600 now runs only from Kitkliston to Livingston, no airport link is provided.
The present frequency of what is now purely a "normal" but much shorter local service is still every 30.
Under the May Network Review the 600 vanishes in a puff of smoke and is replaced by part of a new route 23 but it will have a significant route change. fbb will get to the rest of the 23 in a jiffy.
But what about Livingston to the Airport? Enter a brand new Scottish Citylink 902, which started on 1st March this year.
It runs hourly seven days a week.
Of course it doesn't serve all the places that the former First 600 embraced; but it is better than nothing. It also restores some longer distance links that have faded away in recent times.
Next, the current McGills X22 which runs from Shotts ...
... into Livingston and then on to Edinburgh.
From May this service will run only between Livingston and Edinburgh.
The X22 way out west is replaced by the other chunk of the new 23 but only as far as Whitburn. McGills will not run to Harthill or Shotts. Currently McGills offer no timetable or route map for the new 23.
The X24 will still run to Edinburgh via Broxburn but now via Dechmont and not Pumpherston (that is served by the new 23 on a different route from the 600 - pay attention at the back!).
BUT, the X24 buses will start from the Hospital (very small H bottom centre on the above map) and Deans will no longer be served.
The X25 from Livingston to Edinburgh is withdrawn - apparently ...
... but, despite the map, it doesn't run to Edinburgh for most of the day - so the occasional services that do - won't.
The rest of the X25 is thus renumbered 25.
The new 25 will only run to Armadale; Blackridge will not be served.
In passing, please note that First Bus services 21 and 22 ...
... complete with timetable ...
... and map, are also all on-line.
Needless to say, they don't exist.
What about LRT (which always sounds like an embarrassing disease of the private parts)?
These competitive services are no use for covering the communities that McGills are abandoning.
But we are used, these days, to this sort of attack on bus services by a pruning saw but ...
... the really big chop is that McGills have announced ...
THE TOTAL WITHDRAWAL
OF ALL SUNDAY SERVICES
for the
Eastern Scottish business.
This is, fbb thinks, unprecedented. Sunday cut backs, evening and early morning reductions, withdrawing sections of commercially weak route; all these are standard techniques to try to regain some profitability.
But ALL Sunday buses chopped?
The company blames the usual.
(In passing, note the misuse of the word exponentially.)
... BUT ...
We all know that every reduction means that some passengers will now be unable to travel and they may have to find alternative means of transport and thus no longer use the remaining services.
If this were Tesco, would the management be closing off sections of the stores? Would all shops be closed on Sundays?
Or maybe would Tesco be seeking to promote special offers and thus encourage more trade from existing customers and tempt in new customers?
What extra promotion have McGills used to improve their passenger numbers?
What sort of bus-equivalent of special offers have been tried?
If course, it could be that McGills have over-reached themselves by purchasing a failing First Bus business.
At the moment the Midland Bluebird bulk of the business is untouched.
Are we to expect a "network review" for Falkirk, Stirling and Cumbernauld in a month or so?
And there's more.
The May edition of Buses Magazine reports eye watering loses for Transdev Blazefield ...
... the former Fearnley group. This, together with loss of tendered work in Lancashire, suggests that, again, the company has expanded too far too fast.
Has anyone got a spare £3.7 million to cover the two years' losses?
For how long can the group sustain the haemorrhage of cash?
Answers on a postcard to the usual address!
Tomorrow we Hop off to Leicester.
Next Wobbly Website blog : Wednesday 19th April
Changes are also afoot in the South Coast with changes at Morebus, following their adoption of the Yellow Buses network. Changes to route numbers from Saturday, 27 May 2023 to remove the duplication of current numbers. This also includes route changes east of Christchurch: https://www.morebus.co.uk/changes-routes-and-times-27-may-2023
ReplyDeleteThere has been a decline in bus use since we'll before deregulation and it will continue unless a major change of policy from National Government to deter car use. (I cannot see any party doing that as it's not a vote winner). Some routes will grow if you splash a bit of money on marketing but look at Team Pennine, all them newly coloured pink buses, branding, printed timetables and it appears to still be a poor performing business. Operators will continue to cut their cloth accordingly......and I doubt Franchising will turn the tide.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall the 600 stopped serving the Airport in First days whilst the X22 extension to Shotts was to cover a tendered service that had been withdrawn
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in the East Midlands, Centrebus won the 47 Newark to Lincoln tender from P C Coaches. So P C Coaches have registered a commercial operation at the same time. So there are now four buses a day between the two places, two together of course! Newark to Lincoln at 10.15am and 13.15 and return at 8.50am and 11.50am.....
ReplyDeleteI don't know where FBB does his shopping, but my local Tesco has closed its in-store bakery and deli counter since Covid, whilst cutting back on the number of staffed tills and ramping up the prices. There are still a few special offers, but fewer than before. I'm sure he would be complaining loudly if it was a bus company!
ReplyDeleteI cannot find any refernece through First's own website to the services mentioned above. It is possible to find some information through a google search which is reporting files still on their server but this appears to be the only way to discover them. All the other links relating to the former Scotland East operations, including news items, redirect to the new McGill's run site.
ReplyDeleteNo FBB we should not talk about the Garden of Eaten as gardening leave.
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ReplyDelete