(22 Feb 2023, 5:07 pm)Adrian wrote Funnily enough, I thought exactly the same!
You'd think Coastliner was raking it in, the way Hornby, Stenning and the rest of the old boys network go on about it, but the reality is it's time for a big whopping begging bowl to be headed in the local authority's direction.
I've thought this for a while too tbh, brandings is something that is far too heavily banked on, I imagine it has some benefits but not as much as some would have you believe. Have seen a figure on another forum that suggests the cost to Best Impressions has been in the ballpark of £236k over the last 2 years.
As for Coastliner, supposedly the 843 to Scarborough does alright but "Britain's Most Scenic Bus Route" the 840 section between Malton and Thornton-le-Dale/Whitby doesn't so much, apart from some points in peak summer, I see somewhere in the region of anything from 10-30 people on it when I've seen it depart Whitby, most of whom are concession pass holders with NYCC providing one of the worst rates for bus pass reimbursement rates across the country (supposedly a few year back they tried to class the 840 as either an express or tourist service so that concession bus passes couldn't be used for free travel but that never took off). I'm sure the 840 used to have some level of council support on the Thornton-le-Dale to Whitby stretch in the winter months but unsure if this is still the case. It seems heavily pushing people to vote in a Twitter poll to win some title that looks good on articles/publicity potentially isn't enough to save a service and retain/grow passenger numbers either!
I've seen suggestions in a leak that York depot was losing in the region of £500k a year whilst Malton was losing around £1 million in a year. The total loss in 2022 was suggested to be £4.9 million overall once fuel and living wage costs/rises plus reduction in fuel duty rebates were factored in.
Copied from Ray Ramsay on a Facebook post
"You may be aware that both myself and XX attended a business review meeting on the 14th November.
At that meeting we were informed that the company had some serious issues to tackle and as such some serious actions it intended to take, 2022’s figures were showing a significant loss.
It was reported that Malton depot was losing around £1 million per year and that York depot was losing around £500,000 per year – clearly the losses cannot continue.
The losses were identified as stemming from the bus recovery grant, which the company had enjoyed since Covid, being assumed to cease at the end of March 2023, coupled with a massive increase in the cost of Gas, Electricity and Diesel.
The Fuel Duty rebate which public service operators enjoy is also due to be reduced. Inflation is currently above 10% and also there will be an increase in the Living Wage of 6.6%. – the increase in fuel costing the company over £3 million in itself.
In real terms this equates to a £4.9 million loss to the business for 2022.
Therefore in an attempt to stem the loss the company has decided that there will be no new buses (except for the ones currently ordered and paid for) for 2022/2023, there will be a 12% commercial fare increase in April of 2023.
We were shown a chart which was listing services in 4 categories, 1 - Making Money, 2 - Good but could be improved, 3 - Losing money For Retender, 4 - for Exit.
City Sightseeing services were in category 1 and will be retained for 2023 with a full service planned as well as improvements to increase efficiency.
Coastliner was in category 2 where improvements will be made to reduce waste as well as increase efficiency, and the Whitby service is planned to be withdrawn unless a tender is offered. If a tender were to be offered on this service then the company would actively bid for it.
In York the local services, Castleline and the NY Sponsored services were in category 4, and are not making money so it is proposed in April 2023 to put these services back to the Council for retender. The company will retender for these services, but at a vastly improved rate to the one we currently have. There may also be a possibility at this stage that First York could reduce some of their services and there is a possibility that we could pick up some of their runs after tenders are issued.
Service 22/23 was earmarked in category 4 for withdrawal in April 2023 (the company may retender but it is not known at this time if that will be the case).
I asked the question - was York and Coastliner going to be merged together due to the new depot being built at Rawcliffe? – the answer was simply “nothing is off the table”- it was also said that the company will look to reduce the operational scope of both York and Malton depots and focus on strong commercial bus operation.
In light of the cost-cutting taking place the “Amazing Awards” have been cancelled for this year as it’s hard to be seen to be celebrating success whilst making cuts – and the magazine that gets delivered to our homes on a regular basis is to be withdrawn. The bonus for joining the company will also be gradually withdrawn.
Contract Engineers would also be phased out – with the company looking to recruit and retain its own employed staff.
One standard uniform across the group will be introduced next year to further cut costs.
With all these cuts - the company would still see a loss for 2022 of £250,000, not good but far better than several million.
On a positive note – I can confirm that the move to Rawcliffe is still on and we at York are still on track to be moving there in early January, a temporary workshop will be erected shortly and portable buildings will be delivered for us to work out of, a small extension to the end of January has been agreed for Hospital Fields Road and this is expected to allow the movement of equipment to the new site.
That’s all the news for now – anything new or any updates I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.
Trade Union Rep.
PRESUME ALL OPCOS OF TRANSDEV WILL BE FACING SIMILAR CUTS"