At the eastern extremity of Britain…
It’s actually not just in Plymouth where First is flexing its muscles. From the middle of last month, First Eastern Counties has reintroduced the X3 from Norwich to Watton via Dereham, the 23 Norwich city service to Eaton and has added the 55 between Norwich King’s Lynn and Terrington St Clement.
The most controversial of these seems to be the 23. It competes head-to-head with Anglian Bus 121, a route Anglian subsumed into its network six years ago, after First withdrew.
Following First’s re-commencement, there’s been a bit of a furore locally, with residents accusing First of trying to capitalise on Anglian’s goodwill. You know the usual thing: family-owned business providing a valued service; and words like “loyalty”, “unnecessary” and “boycott”.
But, let’s drill down a little. Though First operating at ..46 runs two minutes ahead of Anglian’s ..48, something that on its own might seem reprehensible, First is running at twice the frequency. Two buses an hour must be to the benefit of Eaton’s residents. This isn’t “me too” competition: it actually offers additionality, even if the bus fare is some 50p return more expensive.
I wonder what the reaction might’ve been had the reverse happened, with Anglian competing head on against First.
First’s X3 Norwich-Dereham-Watton competes with 2009 Oscar runner up winner Konectbus’ network of services, between Norwich and Dereham; and between Dereham and Watton. Here, Konect has recently upgraded its limited stop service 8 Dereham to Norwich. The Str8 launched in September and was upgraded to hourly from the end of November. The Dereham-Watton section of both Konect’s 11 and First’s 23 offer near enough a half-hourly service in one direction only and are nine minutes apart in the opposite direction, to First’s advantage.
In the reverse situation to the 23/121, First’s 55 operates hourly to Terrington, to fellow 2009 award winner Norfolk Green’s half hourly on the Inter-connect 505 to Spalding. First’s hourly service operates five minutes ahead of one of the 505s per hour. Notice the similarity in numbers.
… and at the opposite extremity
Meanwhile, from the extreme east via a straight line to the extreme west, Arriva Buses Wales is from this month operating a service against Mid Wales Motors, between Aberystwyth and the village on Penrhyncoch. Or, is it the other way round?
Here, Arriva lost its hourly contract with Cardiganshire council to Mid Wales—but decided to keep running anyway. Yet, even here, things are not what they seem. For one thing, the Mid Wales service 526 is subsidised, while Arriva’s is commercial. And although Arriva operates five minutes ahead of Mid Wales, Arriva has doubled its service, providing buses at half-hourly intervals.
This might seem curious when you consider the population of Penrhyncoch is said to be just over 1,000 souls. But Arriva’s timetable is efficient. To operate hourly would otherwise mean a bus and driver standing down for 31 minutes in every 60. Far better to keep the wheels turning. One of Arriva’s now serves a large Aberystwyth supermarket. Another case of additionality.
(Is anyone able to add any local knowledge? Please use Comments)
Monday, 18 January 2010
Davids & Goliaths—Two Extremes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Unfortunately for the most part, First Eastern Counties hasn't managed to succeed with these routes. The X3 gets about 3-4 passengers while the competing Str8 journey gets three times that number, indeed Konect has had increased passengers since First started competing against them! Probably doesn't help First that Konect are using brand new Tempos with leather DP seats while First are using some rather clapped out P reg Wright bodied Scanias.
Plus to run these routes, FEC has had to cut back on town services in Kings Lynn, and until last week coaches were regularly used on the services much to passengers and drivers annoyance.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that council tendered services were intended to fill gaps in commercial networks. The Aberystwyth-Penrhyncoch service has now trebled in frequency, one of which is tendered and two commercial. Surely Ceredigion must be aware that, if Arriva is prepared to provide it commercially, the tender is unnecessary.
However, with a new tendered Aberystwyth town service now provided twice daily - known as the 501A - and not actually serving anywhere important, but acting purely to utilise an otherwise stationary vehicle, Ceredigion's service tendering arrangements are peculiar at best. The 501A has carried just penny numbers of passengers since it began, and I may be the only user.
The same can be said for the evening town services, no longer provided by Arriva and consequently not accessible as part of the local ticketing system...
To be honest, most of the justifications the blog author offers for these additional First services seem weak to me. They may be offering "additionalities" for now, but I don't think it takes a genius to work out that these would likely be pared right back if First were to succeed and become the sole operator of the routes concerned.
At the end of the day, ordinary passengers want reliable, high-quality, high-frequency, simple-to-use, services. They do not want multiple operators of mostly-empty buses chasing each other up and down identical routes like an episode of Wacky Races - and especially not when other routes in the area are being cut back to provide the resources for this duplication.
First should consider its priorities. It claims to be unable to maintain service levels, low fares levels, vehicle investment, etc., on many of its established 'monopoly' routes ("due to the recession", of course). Yet it still apparently has plenty of money to throw at wasteful, unsolicited, potentially destructive strikes against other operators, in various parts of the country. Furthermore, its new Terrington service appears to be a further example of First creaming off revenue from a short commercially-viable section of another operator's longer, inter-urban, tendered route. Inevitably, local taxpayers will be landed with the bill for that.
I agree with Chris that the Arriva case is slightly different and that, probably, the council should cancel the tendered route and let Arriva get on with it. However, could it be that the council doesn't believe the route really is commercially viable, and suspects that Arriva would plan to then de-register again and force another tendering round in short order?
Why is it always First that never does anything quite right?
Re Service 55 - does this not run from Kings Lynn to Terrington?
Generally, as a consumer, I am not too bothered about competitive choice. Availability, suitability and value for money I regard as more important. This applies to hospitals, bread and bus travel.
Most passengers just want a reliable service at a fair price. There are network benefits in having concentrated operations, both for operators and passengers.
These short term skirmishes normally occur where an incumbent contracts, a lower cost local operator jumps in and then the incumbent decides to defend their territory. Often this is due to pressure from head office. The result is that if the big operator wins there will be a delayed retrenchment, if the little operator wins then its takeover time.
With hindsight most come to the conclusion that X was a cut too far, but such knowledge is lost within a couple of years and the cycle starts again.
The Penrhyncoch saga looks like it's going to run and run!
Arriva eventually withdrew its 526 and 527 services, leaving Mid Wales Travel to get on with it.
Now though, they seem to be getting back into the market, with Traveline showing a pretty major reshuffle of Arriva's services around Aberystwyth (yet again).
So, now we're getting the brand new service 5. A particularly cunning new route that, unlike Mid Wales Travel's service, takes in the Morrisons supermarket, major government offices and the large residential area of Comins Coch.
Significantly, the hourly '5' is also extended back from the town bus station to the University's main campus. A useful link seeing as the University now has significant operations at Penrhyncoch. Possibly also a sop to those staff and students who found their annual Arriva-provided travel pass no longer covered this route when Mid Wales Travel became the sole operator.
Post a Comment