Announced internally to Go North East colleagues earlier this week by a team briefing was the award of the Miscellaneous Works contracts for the 2020 academic year.
Subject (but unlikely) to change during the ‘cooling off’ period, Go North East has been awarded 31/61 of the contracts it operates currently.
The 30 lost by Go North East have been awarded predominantly to Stagecoach (x9), and also to other operators, including Gateshead Central Taxis, Stanley Travel, A-line Coaches, and Weardale Motor Services, L&G Coaches, amongst others.
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(28 Jun 2020, 2:17 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]Announced internally to Go North East colleagues earlier this week by a team briefing was the award of the Miscellaneous Works contracts for the 2020 academic year.
Subject (but unlikely) to change during the ‘cooling off’ period, Go North East has been awarded 31/61 of the contracts it operates currently.
The 30 lost by Go North East have been awarded predominantly to Stagecoach (x9), and also to other operators, including Gateshead Central Taxis, Stanley Travel, A-line Coaches, and Weardale Motor Services, L&G Coaches, amongst others.
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That's not good, but i would imagine this will allow a chunk of the older buses withdrawn, and along with service changes which interwork with school services?...hopefully no job losses either!
Wonder if Stagecoach Sunderland will operate any of these buses?
(28 Jun 2020, 2:40 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]That's not good, but i would imagine this will allow a chunk of the older buses withdrawn, amd along with service changes which interwork with school services?...hopefully no job losses either!
Wonder if Stagecoach Sunderland will operate any of these buses?
As these contracts are all just one-year contracts, employees are always protected under TUPE. If the employee spends 50% or more of their time on that contract, then they are able to transfer across to the new operator of that contract. So no job losses!
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(28 Jun 2020, 2:45 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]As these contracts are all just one-year contracts, employees are always protected under TUPE. If the employee spends 50% or more of their time on that contract, then they are able to transfer across to the new operator of that contract. So no job losses!
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That's good!, good and bad news all around then
Good news being jobs protected/older buses withdrawn
Bad news - losing the contracts
I would think this allow all of the Vykings to be withdrawn and most/all of the presidents to be withdrawn?
About time those horrendous Vyking's went
(28 Jun 2020, 2:17 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]Announced internally to Go North East colleagues earlier this week by a team briefing was the award of the Miscellaneous Works contracts for the 2020 academic year.
Subject (but unlikely) to change during the ‘cooling off’ period, Go North East has been awarded 31/61 of the contracts it operates currently.
The 30 lost by Go North East have been awarded predominantly to Stagecoach (x9), and also to other operators, including Gateshead Central Taxis, Stanley Travel, A-line Coaches, and Weardale Motor Services, L&G Coaches, amongst others.
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What miscellaneous works have Stagecoach won? Are these some scholars services and metro replacements?
(28 Jun 2020, 6:45 pm)AIG20 wrote [ -> ]What miscellaneous works have Stagecoach won? Are these some scholars services and metro replacements?
Scholars, yes.
(28 Jun 2020, 6:46 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]Scholars, yes.
It will be interesting to see which scholars services they have won. I read somewhere else that the ADL E400s at Stockton may soon be no longer required there due to losing the scholars contracts to another operator?
(28 Jun 2020, 6:57 pm)AIG20 wrote [ -> ]It will be interesting to see which scholars services they have won. I read somewhere else that the ADL E400s at Stockton may soon be no longer required there due to losing the scholars contracts to another operator?
Yes Coatham have won the three routes Stagecoach were operating so in a few weeks most of the E400s st Stockton will be redundant bar the one used on a school route in Durham. Likely these will find their way back North for contracts won up there again.
(29 Jun 2020, 8:30 am)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]Yes Coatham have won the three routes Stagecoach were operating so in a few weeks most of the E400s st Stockton will be redundant bar the one used on a school route in Durham. Likely these will find their way back North for contracts won up there again.
And arguably if the Durham one needs to be DD for capacity, then this won't be able to be operated by Stockton any more (unless they hold a dedicated spare bus for it) - would imagine it'll transfer to Sunderland, as they can always rob from the X34, should they have one off service.
(29 Jun 2020, 8:33 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]And arguably if the Durham one needs to be DD for capacity, then this won't be able to be operated by Stockton any more (unless they hold a dedicated spare bus for it) - would imagine it'll transfer to Sunderland, as they can always rob from the X34, should they have one off service.
I'm guessing it's tendered as a 70 seat so thereby gets allocated a DD. Sunderland operating it was the original rumour when they first got it, with Stockton helping out for the first few weeks and have operated it ever since. They appear to have ceased in the last few weeks mind, along with the Sedgefield ones. In September logically it would be operated from Sunderland.
Will Go North East withdraw all the school buses on the last day of term, which is the 17th July (obviously after the last school runs), and how many will be withdrawn due to the contract changes?
Not sure which ones interwork with normal services etc.
These contracts seem to flip flop between GNE winning the vast majority, and then the next year independents winning loads. There was the year when GNE lost loads, withdrew loads of buses and put the Vykings into a special events fleet, the next year they were all back in use and they had to draft in the 69xx fleet. They’ll probably get them all back again next time.
Must be funny if you are a user of a misc works service, one year it could be a full sized double deck, the next year it could be a GCT van.
(11 Jul 2020, 9:04 am)Wybus wrote [ -> ]These contracts seem to flip flop between GNE winning the vast majority, and then the next year independents winning loads. There was the year when GNE lost loads, withdrew loads of buses and put the Vykings into a special events fleet, the next year they were all back in use and they had to draft in the 69xx fleet. They’ll probably get them all back again next time.
Must be funny if you are a user of a misc works service, one year it could be a full sized double deck, the next year it could be a GCT van.
Certain runs are tied to various other contract routes, some schools and some all day services. The fact that GNE have been selling lots of vehicles suggests they're downsizing the fleet significantly. I have heard from various sources that a number of operators have won various routes but none have been confirmed officially yet. I know Weardale have a few Team Valley runs though including 937 and 941.
It appears that Arriva did not tender for the Nexus Miscellaneous Works Contracts this year based on the information in the contract awards. There were 9 tenders received and unusually 9 suppliers have been awarded contracts this year.
As its been more than 2 weeks since the "cool down period" - has GNE/Stagecoach gained any additional contracts?
I would imagine nothing has appeared on VOSA because of delays due to Covid-19 (people working from home etc)