Is there much competition in Northampton?
I know that both Stagecoach and First have a reasonable level of operation, but don't know whether they are really competing with each other, or tend to stick to "established" territories...
When I worked for Stagecoach, certain persons from Perth had an interest in GRT (but due to being a private Limited company at the time were not listed)
There was a gentlemans agreement at the time to ensure they were competing each other as far as both the Transport Commissioner and Competition Commission (as it was then) were concerned
This resulted in a major change in services between the two operators shortly after Stagecoach aquired Nothern Scottish (Northern SOB), the press at the time had a field day
This all came to an end (well reduced) when GRT and Badgerline merged to form First
If you look at the areas where the two companies still operate as competitors you will see these previous agreements are still in effect
Northampton :
First operate the urban services
Stagecoach operate the inter-urban and rural services
Aberdeen (where I worked) :
First operate the urban services (FB)
Stagecoach operate the inter-urban and rural services (SB)
In Aberdeen some services are shared and duplicated, making it look like competition
These include :
SB 59 Balnagask (protracted from original Northern SOB service 55/59), competing with FB
FB 27 Aberdeen Airport, competing with SB
Glasgow :
I don't remember the breadvans operating in Monklands
What I do remember are the Magicbus routemasters, which were then replaced by Darts (ironically these ended up at Kelvin Scottish, but were promptly disposed of) and Volvo Alexanders (a few months old and second hand from Northern) were retained and are still with First Glasgow
When Stagecoach relaunched its Glasgow operation in the 1990s this included a number of express services along the M77 to Pollok, competing with First
Neither group of services survived, yet the services did seem busy, although incredibly frequest with Stagecoach using midibuses and First using anything available!
The competition seems to have moved to the M80 and seems as vibrant now as it was 10 years ago, even now I still see Citylink (Stagecoach) or megabus livery coaches on these local services which just don't compare to what First offer
Sadly commercial decisions come first
Low passenger numbers often result in early morning and late evening services being cut, reduced in capacity, or withdrawn
A competitor comes along to fill the gap, but we all know where that ends up!