'Shuttle Bus'

[RollingJ]

Sorry, but you 'sound' good - you just aren't. You keep trying to tell me something I have known for longer than you have been alive - if your claims elsewhere on this forum are true, and this 'shuttle' is a total politically inspired idea.

 

Ishall ignore any more of your attempts to defy logic.

[Guest busdriver1]

21 minutes ago, LovePotion said:

I have answered this on page 1. There is no set date, as the plans are still being finalised. But there are key details that have not been arranged, so it is likely to take months at the very least. 

As @cgksheff has said, First South Yorkshire are on target for 10% margins. They are a familiar brand in Sheffield and chosen by many. It would make sense for First to operate the service, especially if fares are chargable, as these can be linked in with the First Day, Week and Monthly tickets.

Would you be so kind as to read the relevant comments. First Bus UK is in profit. First South Yorkshire is just one fairly small part of it and is loss making as is Stagecoach Yorkshire. TM have been steadily getting smaller since they were taken over by Trent Barton (as predicted) and Ashley Travel do not operate buses. Powells on the other hand do and work on minimal margins so might well end up as the preferred i.e. cheapest operator. Most likely they would carry concessions and Citywide ( or whatever they are called this week) tickets for free and charge for all others.

 

2 minutes ago, LovePotion said:

Well I do agree with the latter part of your first paragraph. The shuttle bus project is political point scoring from the incompetent council. The city centre doesn't have the destination value to warrant a shuttle bus any longer. I can only see it being viable if it was interworked with a longer distance service, for example, the 57 runs from Stocksbridge to the Moor market now, they could extend the 135 to run to the rail station, providing a link to the station and Sheffield's few remaining shops, without the additional resources needed for a self contained city centre service.

You want to take buses to the Station where cars can get stuck or at best get into difficulties?  That, I hope will never happen.

[cgksheff]

1 hour ago, RollingJ said:

First Bus overall.

Now try and tell me something I don't know , and give me the answer to my initial question - when is this white elephant going to arrive?

Have never heard of creative accounting?

[RollingJ]

3 minutes ago, cgksheff said:

Have never heard of creative accounting?

I have heard of creative accounting, and I also remember that some time (pre-covid) when First were rather desperate to get rid of the whole SY operation, Go-Ahead (and maybe others, I can't remember) had a real good look and then said 'no thanks - not interested, it wouldn't be viable'. This was in a trade publication, not the general press, so you may have missed it.

[RollingJ]

@LovePotionIf your post above was in reply to mine, please note I was referring to another bus operator, not Firsts various employees - but you love going off at a tangent, don't you?

Edited July 25, 2022 by RollingJ

[RollingJ]

Just now, LovePotion said:

Your post definitely seemed to be about First.. 🤔

It was 'about' Firsts SY operations, but most crucially, it pointed out that other operators did not see it as commercially viable to acquire them.

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, LovePotion said:

That may be but it doesn't mean unprofitable. For example, Unilever might not be interested in buying Henderson's relish, as the profit is small and they may not deem it worth their while.

 

If First really wanted rid of SY, they could sell their buses to independent operators, sell the land to one of the millions of property developers and make their staff redundant. I believe they would do that if they weren't making a profit. Aston Express did just that and they had far less finances than First have to fund redundancy payouts.

Underlined and high-lighted bit - which ones?

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, LovePotion said:

Any company nationwide, for example, they sold most of their Manchester buses to a company called Diamond.

You said earlier 'independent operators' - make your mind up.

[RollingJ]

Diamond - who took over the Manchester operations - is not an independent, it is part of a major transport operator, Rotola.

[RollingJ]

Hulleys is no longer the family-owned  (small) business it was - it was very recently sold, but to whom I will have to investigate when I have time, the website has not been updated as yet.

 

Sorry - I mis-spelled, try Rotala.