Sillienss At Swanley (4)

A Torrid Time

It was only in 2023 that GoCoach was bought by or merged with Hulleys of Baslow.

In a rather surprising move, the independent Derbyshire operator Hulley's of Baslow has bought Go-Coach of Swanley and all its operations. 

A letter from Go-Coach's Owner, Austin Blackburn, to Go-Coach staff confirms that the sale went ahead on 1st December. Austin Blackburn is remaining with the combined organisation and will be Engineering Manager for both Hulley's and Go-Coach.

Austin Blackburn has been keen to cut down his workload (he estimates he has worked around 70 hours a week for many years), and has no family succession for the Go-Coach business, so was keen that it should be sold to another independent with the same kind of philosophy, rather than one of the larger groups.

Go Coach vehicles began appearing at Hulleys Baslow depot.

Some of them ...

... have now ended up with Andrews of Tideswell ...

... after Hulleys collapsed leaving eye watering debts.

Fortunately, GoCoach's owner was able to extricate his business from the mess before the debacle.

Just over a year earlier, GoCoach had lost the contract to provide frequent buses to the Amazon warehouse just off the Fastrack A Route.

So tough times for the high quality operator in the Sevenoaks and Swanley areas, south east of London.

But the company survived the turmoil and surprised us all by starting a competitive service between Swanley and Dartford on 1st September inst. Arriva had hardly made an effort to promote their 477 and the service had recently been reduced from half hourly to hourly.

Yesterday's blog asked a number of key questions with some suggesting that GoCoach was silly to enter a competitive battle against a national operator with far greater resources.

But if we examine the huge difference between Arriva's attitude and that of the newcomer, it is not to difficult to see why blue has announced capitulation to yellow.

The Go Coach (Bus) leaflet is bright, informative and very attractive.

Longer distance fares are competitive ...

... although short hops would not make for an attractive financial investment!

There is an attractive leaflet ...

... which includes a rather rudimentary but adequate map ...

... plus the timetable of an associated school service.

The full 477 timetable is there, of course ...

... and Roger French snapped a rack of the leaflets on his recently enjoyed 477 ride.

Sadly the online stuff is poor by comparison. The timetable is there, but why, please, do we have to suffler a separate table for each of the five weekdays.

All five are exactly the same!

The on-line route map is also very poor.

During the launch week, GoCoach./Bus offered a extra ride on a London Routemaster,

Good PR!

The difference in attitude between GoCoach/Bus and Arriva is utterly astounding with the latter being largely disinterested. Obviously the yellow lot have something new to sell - but you would expect the company to keep up its standard.

But what will happen when GoAhead runs its 477 from the end of October; with local fares and all the way to Orpington? (That’s  assuming GoAhead will run much the same as Arriva.)

You will not be surprised that fbb is still waiting for a reply to his request for a GoAhead timetable. How long will he have to wait? Will it arrive before the service starts?

Will the fat bloke's postal order timetable ever come?

Yaroooh you fellows! Where's my tuck box?

 More Silliness blog : Fri 19th Sept