Anglian Bus is no more

[90sWereBetter]

As of Monday 20th November, the Anglian Bus name is consigned to the history books, with all remaining services folded into KonectBus. The pvr for Anglian has dropped from about 95 to, no joke, 18 in the last three years, with more cuts coming when the 61 and 85 come off at the start of January.

I remember when Anglian were giving First a real run for their money in Norfolk/Suffolk between 2009 and 2013. They had the Norwich-Poringland-Bungay corridor to themselves, and were making real inroads between Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Norwich with the 61/7 network of services. Today, the 61 is down to about 5 journeys each way per day between Kessingland and James Paget Hospital only, while First's existing X1 and 1/1A are booming. First have also fought back impressively in Poringland and Bungay recently.

I wonder if Go-Ahead will merge Chambers and Hedingham in the not too distant future.

 

[ashworth]

Interesting to me that this thread has appeared here now.

I have an elderly relative who is moving to the village of Westhall on the Anglian Bus route between Halesworth and Beccles. It’s on the route originally numbered 60H but from last month became part of a roundabout Halesworth-Becccles-Southwold Service 90. There are only 4 buses each way Monday to Friday and the Saturday service has recently been reduced to 2 each way. Although she’s moving to be closer to her family, she doesn’t drive and will rely on buses. I’ve told her that she ought to have moved to Beccles or Halesworth so that she’s near shops but she says 4 buses a day will be OK. I have the feeling that service may not last many years. Anyone else have any views on this?

 

[overthewater]

Im still surprised GO ahead have never went after sanders coaches.

 

[chubs]

That's a shame, it was a good company in the 00's. They had a good plan to make inroads n the city and to the hospital for a while, but gave up before they really established themselves and offered serious competition to First who were running really clapped out junk on the routes and charging more. A bit unfair to say they have lost that many routes though, as the city ones just transferred to konect in one of the reshuffles.

Konect still has a lot going for it: reliable, punctual, friendly helpful drivers etc but some of the buses are really starting to get a bit tatty and in need of replacement or at least a refurb and repair of their suspension. Still miles better than First in the area.

 

[alex397]

Im still surprised GO ahead have never went after sanders coaches.

Maybe they have, but Sanders don't want to sell up. They probably haven't tried competing against them either, as i'm guessing their routes are quite marginal in rural Norfolk!

 

[transportphoto]

Maybe they have, but Sanders don't want to sell up. They probably haven't tried competing against them either, as i'm guessing their routes are quite marginal in rural Norfolk!

I believe they did try to buy Sanders at one point. The only route they’ve tried to compete with was on the Norwich to Cromer/Sheringham corridor. First have stepped up their game in Norwich recently too, as mentioned have really upped competition on the Poringland/Bungay corridor.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Surprised that the financials of Go Ahead East haven't garnered the column inches that other major groups' operations in East Anglia might attract. The 2019 results are out and they're quite sobering:

• Konectbus - operating losses increased from (77) to (127) but there was also an additional (574) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Hedingham - operating losses reduced from (708) to (236) but there was also an additional (648) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Chambers - operating losses reduced slightly from (302) to (291) but again there were additional (496) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Anglian - operating losses reduced substantially from (1611) to (963) but that was against revenue falling from 2266k to 1044k and exceptional of (118)

Roger French has recently opined on Go East Anglia and that they really should have knocked off a bit on the Manchester sale and gifted their East Anglian ops to First. With operating losses of £1617k and write downs of £1836k, that's a total loss of £3453k on a turnover of £17124k.

First Essex had a small operating profit but then had (£3100k) of exceptionals to record a loss of (£2936k) on a much larger turnover of £53000k. FEC was £1701k profit on £37515k.

You can understand Roger French's view!

 

[carlberry]

Surprised that the financials of Go Ahead East haven't garnered the column inches that other major groups' operations in East Anglia might attract. The 2019 results are out and they're quite sobering:

• Konectbus - operating losses increased from (77) to (127) but there was also an additional (574) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Hedingham - operating losses reduced from (708) to (236) but there was also an additional (648) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Chambers - operating losses reduced slightly from (302) to (291) but again there were additional (496) of exceptional write downs in fixed assets
• Anglian - operating losses reduced substantially from (1611) to (963) but that was against revenue falling from 2266k to 1044k and exceptional of (118)

Roger French has recently opined on Go East Anglia and that they really should have knocked off a bit on the Manchester sale and gifted their East Anglian ops to First. With operating losses of £1617k and write downs of £1836k, that's a total loss of £3453k on a turnover of £17124k.

First Essex had a small operating profit but then had (£3100k) of exceptionals to record a loss of (£2936k) on a much larger turnover of £53000k. FEC was £1701k profit on £37515k.

You can understand Roger French's view!

As their buses have different colours people tend not to think of them as one of the nasty big groups! And they appear to have a very charitable approach in East Anglia!

 

[chubs]

Most Konect and Anglian routes were ones that First abandoned many years ago, would they really want them back? I know they're working hard to actually be proactive in the area after 20 years of doing nothing but it's a lot of routes that don't make much (any?) money.

 

[overthewater]

Why is there still a set of accounts for Anglian Bus, I thought there disappeared. Konectbus will be more interesting once the next set of accounts appear, Same goes for Chambers and Hedingham, however you would think the last two would be merged into a single company. If this keeps on going on then maybe Chambers should be closed down and some parts moved to Hedingham and the rest to the others in the area.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Why is there still a set of accounts for Anglian Bus, I thought there disappeared. Konectbus will be more interesting once the next set of accounts appear, Same goes for Chambers and Hedingham, however you would think the last two would be merged into a single company. If this keeps on going on then maybe Chambers should be closed down and some parts moved to Hedingham and the rest to the others in the area.

Because the Go Ahead FY runs from July 2017 - Jun 2018 so Anglian was still operational.

 

[borage]

By the way, all Hedingham and Chambers services were reregistered in December under the Konectbus licence.

 

[overthewater]

Because the Go Ahead FY runs from July 2017 - Jun 2018 so Anglian was still operational.

That answers that.

By the way, all Hedingham and Chambers services were re registered in December under the Konectbus licence.

Which means they're all under the one set of accounts then.

 

[Cesarcollie]

That answers that.


Which means they're all under the one set of accounts then.

Well, only from December 2018. So in 12 months there’ll be another set produced for each company but (except for the new enlarged Konectbus) they will only cover about 6 months.

So from then on instead of several companies with large losses we’ll have one company with huge losses

 

[overthewater]

Maybe not, there could ask company house to have all in one accounts.

 

[Rick1984]

Anglia drivers were very friendly compared to the many absolute cretins that work for First there.

 

[Cesarcollie]

Maybe not, there could ask company house to have all in one accounts.

No, not possible. Separate accounts have to be filed at Companies House for each Limited Company in existence for each whole filing period, or part thereof. You can’t ‘ask’ or ‘choose’ how you want to file them.