Some of you may be aware of Regal Busways in Essex.
In the last 10-15 years or so, they had quite a large coverage in Essex, running mostly County Council contracts, and a few commercial routes, going to places such as Southend, Basildon, Harlow, Waltham Cross, Chelmsford etc.
I believe they lost a few contracts this year, and they have just announced they will stop operating quite a few routes in December. These are routes 1 (Chelmsford-Canvey Island), 3 (Chelmsford-Southend), B2 (Basildon area), and long school route 322 (Old Harlow-Saffron Walden) - I believe these are commercially operated. Routes 71/72 (Brentwood area contract) will pass back to Stephensons of Essex (they only won this route from Stephensons in September!).
This will leave them with only the following routes:
10/10A (Chelmsford-Pleshey) - infrequent 1-bus daytime service
104/106 - Basildon area hourly local service.
900 - Braintree Freeport shuttle bus.
They may also have some "closed door" school contracts, and they do operate private hire.
This is a great contrast to their recent history, where they had a wide coverage of Essex.
Regal have always been a "hit and miss" operator in my view - and probably more miss than hit.
While some of their buses look smart, most of them have usually been filthy, in various liveries, and battered bodywork, and often with A4 paper route numbers in the windscreen. They have repeatedly de-roofed buses under the same bridge in Chelmsford. Some of their drivers are very professional, with uniform and good customer service. But many are often wearing tracksuits and with poor communication.
It is unsurprising to see them cutting back. They have done very little to encourage passenger growth on their routes. For example, a recent evening council cotnract bus route in south-west Essex, the 250 between Loughton and Waltham Cross, was cut by the council over claims that not enough people were using it. There are now claims from local transport campaigners that many drivers did not issue tickets, and kept the money themselves, meaning council figures were skewed.
Will be interesting to see how much longer they will last.
In the last 10-15 years or so, they had quite a large coverage in Essex, running mostly County Council contracts, and a few commercial routes, going to places such as Southend, Basildon, Harlow, Waltham Cross, Chelmsford etc.
I believe they lost a few contracts this year, and they have just announced they will stop operating quite a few routes in December. These are routes 1 (Chelmsford-Canvey Island), 3 (Chelmsford-Southend), B2 (Basildon area), and long school route 322 (Old Harlow-Saffron Walden) - I believe these are commercially operated. Routes 71/72 (Brentwood area contract) will pass back to Stephensons of Essex (they only won this route from Stephensons in September!).
This will leave them with only the following routes:
10/10A (Chelmsford-Pleshey) - infrequent 1-bus daytime service
104/106 - Basildon area hourly local service.
900 - Braintree Freeport shuttle bus.
They may also have some "closed door" school contracts, and they do operate private hire.
This is a great contrast to their recent history, where they had a wide coverage of Essex.
Regal have always been a "hit and miss" operator in my view - and probably more miss than hit.
While some of their buses look smart, most of them have usually been filthy, in various liveries, and battered bodywork, and often with A4 paper route numbers in the windscreen. They have repeatedly de-roofed buses under the same bridge in Chelmsford. Some of their drivers are very professional, with uniform and good customer service. But many are often wearing tracksuits and with poor communication.
It is unsurprising to see them cutting back. They have done very little to encourage passenger growth on their routes. For example, a recent evening council cotnract bus route in south-west Essex, the 250 between Loughton and Waltham Cross, was cut by the council over claims that not enough people were using it. There are now claims from local transport campaigners that many drivers did not issue tickets, and kept the money themselves, meaning council figures were skewed.
Will be interesting to see how much longer they will last.
