tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post8523431658496510278..comments2024-03-25T22:17:35.616+00:00Comments on Public Transport Experience: Saturday Varietyfatbusblokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06833340546527596517noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-62995772416131770972020-10-12T08:08:02.623+01:002020-10-12T08:08:02.623+01:00There are two core issues with that argument:
a. I...There are two core issues with that argument:<br />a. It assumes school runs are a significant part of the business, if it was as smaller adjunct to a tour/private hire operation it may have been insufficient income to support the rest of the business.<br />b. It only applies to LTA contracts, it doesn't work as commercial or privately contracted (either direct with the schools or with the parents) school runs which have become a major sector in parts of the country (in the city I live in the City Council withdrew funding for almost all school contracts several years ago). A number of the recent failures of smaller operators have included issues with private schools ceasing payments to operators even when the school was still receiving income (particularly aimed at the private fee-paying schools who were charging full fees, make a profit and wouldn't support their contractors at all).<br />That said, you are right that you can't be absolute, the loss of the hire/holiday market won't destroy school transport but it doesn't help and will be massively effected, if for no other reason that it reduces potential competition.dwarfer1979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-29803932944058144472020-10-11T12:27:16.175+01:002020-10-11T12:27:16.175+01:00If a coach firm runs school contracts for LTA'...If a coach firm runs school contracts for LTA's, then the LTA would've been paying them throughout the Spring and Summer as per the normal contract . . . so Government (via the LTA) were actually assisting those firms financially.<br />It was and is the same as those bus companies running local bus contracts . . . the LTA maintained those contracts throughout, thereby providing an essential income stream for some time.<br /><br />The coach firms whose business was predicated on holidays and day trips had no business left; so would always find financial survival more difficult (pace Shearings et al). Drivers would've been furloughed from April to October, but we're now coming to the end of that scheme. It's very sad for those long-established firms, but if you rely on one strand of income, then eventually the worst will happen.<br /><br />Saying that school transport will fold, because the holiday coach firms have gone, isn't quite right.greenline727https://www.blogger.com/profile/03033268278026535109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-18657534083840375822020-10-10T09:59:11.186+01:002020-10-10T09:59:11.186+01:00One could debate for ages the relative merits of d...One could debate for ages the relative merits of different sectors of the leisure industry and still not reach a conclusion. <br /><br />But what the government hasn't noticed is that very many of the same companies who run "non-essential" tours, holidays and, ironically, theatre trips, also run school transport. <br /><br />If coaching fails, access to education may prove impossible for many children (and the local authorities charged with arranging the provision) in rural areas.<br /><br />Worrying times, for so many reasons.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-42271493182198017452020-10-10T07:54:47.791+01:002020-10-10T07:54:47.791+01:00Of course, you might be wrong about driving on the...Of course, you might be wrong about driving on the right in Leeds. Perhaps there are doors on BOTH sides, and the driver sits in the middle? Or (like those old French "autorails") s/he actually drives from the front of the top deck?Andrew Kleissnernoreply@blogger.com