(10 Aug 2024, 12:01 am)R852 PRG wrote Those of you expecting them to do anything less than try and misappropriate BSIP funding rather than stake their own investment into a frequency increase want to give yourselves a shake. Obviously no signs of any consultations on the allocation of BSIP funding, indicative of yet more arbitrary decision-making by our local authorities. I've used the 21 and its previous incarnations for as long as I can remember, yet the business today has still failed to grow it commercially without a handout. We know they live hand to mouth. But, hey, at least they've been able to secure some BSIP funding, after shitting the bed with the 599 and somehow managing to lose it to a startup.

Ostensibly, the appointment of the current Head of Commercial appears to have been a decision borne out of a sad combination of convenience and desperation. When I first learned of the appointment, I genuinely laughed out loud. I spent four years living in Aberdeen, through which he held the Commercial Director post with Stagecoach Bluebird. The 727 service between Union Square and Aberdeen Airport traverses the Great Northern Road, the main artery into Aberdeen from the north/northwest suburbs, and maintains the constant stream of offshore workers travelling to and from the airport. In fact, during the pandemic, the main vaccination centre in Grampian ended up situated at the arena at P&J Live, serviced solely by the 727. 

At the outset of my time in Aberdeen, the 727 operated on a Monday-Friday 10-minute daytime frequency and 15-minute weekend frequency, with a consistent allocation of branded E400MMCs. When I say the 727 used to move large quantities of people, this is no exaggeration. During the Great Driver Shortage of 2021 (which somehow continues to exist today in some places), the 727 was knocked down to a 15-minute weekday frequency and a 20-minute weekend frequency. Now, you might argue that such a reduction in frequency could work so long as the allocation of deckers was maintained. But the allocation ended up being, for a long period until the BYDs of today arrived, a bunch of *absolutely shocking* hybrid saloons, while those MMCs were generally seen swanning about on the 201/202 out to Royal Deeside to see the Queen at Balmoral. I've heard wishy-washy comments trying to explain some of these service revisions and allocations away as 'right-sizing' the Bluebird operation, a genuinely bizarre observation once made by somebody situated miles from Aberdeen, but I don't and doubt I ever will accept these arguments. 

But I still maintain that the rot established itself in the Kevin Carr era. Carr himself was little more than a custodian of the business, and I don't believe there really was any plan to try and grow it beyond aimlessly continuing the branding initiative Peter Huntley introduced, and buying whatever the cheapest vehicles available at the time were in the name of regenerating the fleet, irrespective of their suitability, such as those B5TLs being ordered for the X9/X10. More damning, arguably, was the appointment of senior managers who were considered a safe pair of hands, the natural choice for the job, who knew the business (more in the sense of familiarity with its setting than competence), but were in the same token the lifeblood of the decline which characterised this period. One wonders what could have been, had Huntley not left over the Hexham/Ashington fiasco. He was just 55 when he died, and, had he never moved on - which would be understandable at that age - he might well have remained Managing Director up until the pandemic, or perhaps just before, if we assumed a typical retirement age. And if Gilbert was still meant to be in the summer of 2018, just imagine the business he might have inherited. 

I honestly believe Gilbert gets an unfair hearing. My own little revisionist history of Go North East is that he was dealt a bad hand by the pandemic and ultimately was just a convenient scapegoat for the years of mismanagement that predated his arrival, his insistence on pressing ahead with ill-thought-out concepts which the circumstances of the pandemic couldn't accommodate notwithstanding. I might have preferred to see him go down with the ship, as a point of integrity more than anything else, especially amidst a depot closure, but I think he genuinely cared about Go-Ahead values and sought to develop the business. I also think Gilbert is unfairly typecast as something of a one trick pony, but this is a point of criticism you can irrefutably extend to Featham's approach:

1. Reorganisation of local management structure, introducing additional layers of management in a top-heavy bureaucracy
2. Comprehensive review of drivers' conditions, all while spoiling for a bloodbath
3. Buy drivers out of their conditions to improve scheduling efficiency, engaging the union in said bloodbath
4. Overpromote grads - who generally know bugger all about bugger all - in the name of developing the leaders of the future, who would in any other circumstance be labelled egregious underperformers and afforded no second chances

Given the existing comprehension barriers, rigidity of thought, and apparent inability to think beyond a prescribed set of instructions, at this point, they might as well move local management - both at SLT and depot level - offshore, and see if we're actually any worse off. And throw in the existing commercial team for good measure, for their fecklessness and insubordination. There'd be a guaranteed cost saving, at least.

Don't disagree with what your saying, in fact agree with all of it.

One thing you have to consider though is the upcoming franchising, GoNorthEast (correct me if I'm wrong) is the only area which GoAhead owns which currently has any plans for it and is also, at the same time, one of the least profitable.

If you were GoAhead, would you want to spend a lot of money on an area which you won't be running in x number of years because no-one has a clue what x is or you could spent the money elsewhere like Brighton which you'll be guaranteed to be running, unless something changes. I know which I'd do.

Also you have to remember franchising works on lowest costs, so it's in your best interest to have the lowest driver wages etc.

It's all wrong but sadly this limbo for bus operators is going to bring this around, and franchising literally promotes the race to the bottom as it's the only way to make money.

The fact the LA is giving money to routes like the 21 is disturbing though, and is something which really should be getting discussed more. I know it's easy to bash GNE, as they're crap, but the LA's are giving tax payers money away which is meant to be 'improving' bus services. These people literally have no accountability as they're mostly unelected, especially the likes of Tobyn Hughes - what has this bloke actually done...? and also have no accountability from shareholders etc. They're basically untouchable, especially when people vote Labour in regardless.