Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services

[robertclark125]

RE: Lancashire County Council Cuts to Bus Services
Out of interest, how much will the PVR increase or decrease at Preston Bus, as a result of these changes?

I also wonder what the knock on effect will be for smaller operators, in the next two to three years, as well as Stagecoach, Preston Bus, and Blackpool Transport. For a small firm, with maybe a few coaches, there may not be the incentive to go in for bus work, given that there is no tendered bus work available. Will more firms decide to close down, and maybe sell out to Rotala or Stagecoach? Fine for those who have a lot of contract work, such as Jacksons of Blackpool. Not fine for a very small firm.

Then look at the effect on Stagecoach, Preston, and Blackpool. Preston had done well in gaining some LCC tenders to places like Wigan, Chorley, Blackpool, and Fleetwood. But that work is all gone, so Preston Bus vehicles will now only be seen on the Fylde coast on the schools work it picked up in 2014. Plans by Rotala to expand the Preston Bus business within Lancashire are now, for the time being, over, and it must be said, a situation could occur where Preston Bus operates all the city services, and Stagecoach all the country services, with no competition between them. I know it's not what the Competition Commissioned envisaged when it approved the sale to Rotala by Stagecoach in January 2011, with one firm being dominant again, but the cuts by LCC mean any new starts wanting into the bus market haven't exactly got the safety net of a five year tender, and both Rotala and Stagecoach are concentrating as much of the cut resources as they have in their existing or altered services. So, once again, a monopoly is a likely situation, ironically, not through a takeover, but by budget cuts, meaning other firms haven't got work to go for.

The situation on the fylde coast is slightly different, in that, in recent years, BTS has done tendered work, but hasn't tended to stray off the fylde coast much. The other thing is, there are firms running commercial services already, so there is a bit more potential for competition, namely Catch 22 bus and Coastal coaches. There, two firms have the incentive to build up routes, and launch new ones.

Going back to Preston, one end result of these budget cuts, which should be considered, could result in both Stagecoach MSL and Rotala Preston possibly working together on joint initiatives, through ticketing etc. Again, it wasn't what was envisaged by the Competition Commission with the 2011 sale, but it may be what ends up happening. The phrase "we're all in this together" could well have a different meaning.