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Edinburgh Tour Operators: Bright Bus, Lothian (Majestic, Three Bridges) etc.

cactustwirly

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Dont see why first dont have a low cost unit like stagecoach have in magicbus pick a few off Lothian buses best routes and give it ago

Probably because the tour routes have the potential to make more money for a comparatively low risk
 
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Robertj21a

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Dont see why first dont have a low cost unit like stagecoach have in magicbus pick a few off Lothian buses best routes and give it ago

Magicbus is largely targetted at Uni students rather than just the general public. Up against Lothian I wouldn't expect First to last long on local routes, whatever their fares.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Magicbus is largely targetted at Uni students rather than just the general public. Up against Lothian I wouldn't expect First to last long on local routes, whatever their fares.

Magicbus has been employed in a number of locations before and not necessarily all student related.

Can’t say about Glasgow but remember them in Newcastle. Think there were also Magic Minis in Inverness
 

GusB

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Magicbus has been employed in a number of locations before and not necessarily all student related.

Can’t say about Glasgow but remember them in Newcastle. Think there were also Magic Minis in Inverness
I don't recall Magic Minis in Inverness - the Stagecoach wiki article suggests they were used in East Scotland, but doesn't say where. Inverness used the IT logo initially, although Stagecoach and Bluebird Northern fleetnames would appear as vehicles were transferred from elsewhere. Having said that, Inverness had vehicles drafted in from all over the country during the Great Highland Bus War, so anything was possible.

EDIT: I sit corrected:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Bus_(Stagecoach)#Magic_Mini

The brand was also used in Ayrshire for a time to compete against Ayrways in Ayr and T&E Docherty in Irvine. The Ayr operation used minibuses and larger single-deck buses branded as Magic Mini, which were introduced in February 2004.[18]The brand has since been dropped in Ayrshire when the competing operators withdrew their services.

The Magic Mini brand was also engaged in a miniature bus war on the Black Isle to Inverness route in the Scottish Highlandswith local operator Scotbus, with Stagecoach in Inverness adopting aggressive tactics such as scheduling buses five minutes before the rival operator and undercutting fares. Competition between the two operators was acrimonious, climaxing in an arson attack on Stagecoach's Inverness depot.[19]
 

Jordan Adam

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I don't recall Magic Minis in Inverness - the Stagecoach wiki article suggests they were used in East Scotland, but doesn't say where. Inverness used the IT logo initially, although Stagecoach and Bluebird Northern fleetnames would appear as vehicles were transferred from elsewhere. Having said that, Inverness had vehicles drafted in from all over the country during the Great Highland Bus War, so anything was possible.

EDIT: I sit corrected:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Bus_(Stagecoach)#Magic_Mini

Thank me later :p

https://victoryguy.smugmug.com/Stagecoach-Bluebird-Buses/i-Ljt2XmG/A

6p6HT1g.png
 

Jordan Adam

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To save others having to search the page here's a full list with registrations.

Dennis Trident Plaxton President (Ex-Lothian)
32726 / V526 ESC
32727 / V527 ESC
32728 / V528 ESC
32729 / V529 ESC

Dennis Trident ALX400 (Ex-Stagecoach)
32789 / T679 KPU
32790 / V473KJN
32792 / X274 NNO
32793 / X377 NNO
32794 / X276 NNO

ADL Enviro 400 (Ex-Metroline)
33500 / LK55 KKT

DAF DB250 Plaxton President (Ex-RATP)
35010 / T210 XBV
35011 / T211 XBV
35012 / T212 XBV
35013 / T213 XBV
 

Whiteway215

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15 Sep 2015
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Location
Bath
To save others having to search the page here's a full list with registrations.

Dennis Trident Plaxton President (Ex-Lothian)
32726 / V526 ESC
32727 / V527 ESC
32728 / V528 ESC
32729 / V529 ESC

Dennis Trident ALX400 (Ex-Stagecoach)
32789 / T679 KPU
32790 / V473KJN
32792 / X274 NNO
32793 / X377 NNO
32794 / X276 NNO

ADL Enviro 400 (Ex-Metroline)
33500 / LK55 KKT

DAF DB250 Plaxton President (Ex-RATP)
35010 / T210 XBV
35011 / T211 XBV
35012 / T212 XBV
35013 / T213 XBV
I love the matching registrations to fleet numbers!
 

overthewater

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16 Apr 2012
Messages
8,153
What do people expect? Cheap and cheerful and it's the lowest cost option that will cause the maximum impact.
 

Robertj21a

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I'm still surprised that Edinburgh clearly doesn't have a low emission zone in the centre.
 

F Great Eastern

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Location
East Anglia
In Dublin Cityscape tried to undercut everyone by running a batch of 15 year old Plaxton Presidents and charging £10 for a tour, undercutting their two rivals who charged a fair bit more but with far more modern fleets. It caused all three operators to suffer revenue abstraction as whilst two operators could be profitable the third operator and the price pressure didn't work out.

Initially you had
Dublin Bus (DoDublin) - with a mix of ALX 400 / Enviro 400 vehicles
Dualway (City Sightseeing) - Mostly Gemini 2/3 and ELC Olympus / Myllenium Vyking and a few ALX 400 / Olympians.
Dublin Coach (Cityscape) - Fully Plaxton President / Tridents.

End result was that Dualway, fed up with low margins, sold out their operation to BigBus, who had to keep operating in City Sightseeing for a transitional period (to finish the contract off) and now are operating under their own name. City Sightseeing now have an interim agreement with Dublin Bus. Dublin Coach had issues with reliability and were supposed to come back in Spring but haven't and there is talk that they have sold up to someone, who will now become the City Sightseeing Franchisee, meaning that the City Sightseeing tours will have been operated by 3 different operators in the space of 3 months.

It'll be interesting to see how Lothian react, since what I've seen in Ireland in the tours market and commercial sector is when a new entrant comes in and undercuts everyone on price, the market leader often matches them and can hold out for longer as it has the volume to do so and for every price cut the new entrant makes, every time the biggest operator cuts prices in response, it continually damages the yields of the new entrant.

Getting yourself in a war on price can be counter productive.
 

Robertj21a

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It's ok all these are euro4 and can be modified to Euro6 without too much hassle, if that's the jist of the comment!

I thought Euro 4 to Euro 6 was viewed in cost-effective terms as poor, although I'm also surprised that all of these have already been upgraded to Euro 4.
 

In Focus

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13 Sep 2018
Messages
615
Getting yourself in a war on price can be counter productive.
It didnt stop Lothian entering markets as the "cheaper operating company" so it will be interesting to see how they react to First entering a few if their lucrative money spinners.
 

F Great Eastern

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East Anglia
It didnt stop Lothian entering markets as the "cheaper operating company" so it will be interesting to see how they react to First entering a few if their lucrative money spinners.

If you already have the volume and a well known name in the market it makes a difference.

I've seen situations where a long dominant existing operator was trading at £15 and a new operator came in at £14, the old operator went to £13 and the new operator went to £10. Overnight the existing operator cut to £9 and what followed was the an absolute hammering for the new operator who had to retreat.

The problem was that by constantly lowering their prices, they were destroying their yields whilst at the same time failing to take any market share of their rival away and were losing more and more money. New operators for sure need to compete on price, but they also need to know when to stop.

Those with deep pockets and high volumes will always want to keep driving the price down because they can sustain that for long periods whereas others can't. Same as Ryanair are saying now that their profits are down as fares are down a fair bit, but they can sustain those prices for the long haul, whereas others won't be able to.
 

spw24

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13 Feb 2011
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Location
bristol
32789/902-4 are on the fleet list as registered
32789 ACZ7489
32790 TSU640
32792 ACZ7492
32793 ACZ7493
32794 ACZ7494
 

winston270twm

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26 Oct 2012
Messages
1,899
Cheap and Cheerful it's why Primark and Sorits Direct are doing well whilst "top names" are falling by the wayside ..:)

The new paintjobs will be worth more than the bus they're applied too.....

The big names are falling by the wayside as they are too slow to adapt to changing market conditions, First Group is also one of those falling by the way side. Also, it didn't stop 99p stores & Poundworld going in to administration..... :smile:

I thought Euro 4 to Euro 6 was viewed in cost-effective terms as poor, although I'm also surprised that all of these have already been upgraded to Euro 4.

It is, as Euro 4 doesn't come with Adblue tanks. Euro 5 to Euro 6 is a simpler upgrade.

I expect they've come already upgraded to Euro 4 from previous employment.
 

A330Alex

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13 Feb 2019
Messages
222
From Andrew Jarvis:
“They’ve nearly all been retro-fitted with updated Euro 4 engines to keep emissions as low as we can for a start-up business. but the vast majority can be upgraded to full Euro 6 compliance for the Low Emission Zone.”

Disappointing there will be more Euro 3 vehicles right in the centre of the city. The LEZ really can't come soon enough.
 

overthewater

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16 Apr 2012
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8,153
From Andrew Jarvis:
“They’ve nearly all been retro-fitted with updated Euro 4 engines to keep emissions as low as we can for a start-up business. but the vast majority can be upgraded to full Euro 6 compliance for the Low Emission Zone.”

Disappointing there will be more Euro 3 vehicles right in the centre of the city. The LEZ really can't come soon enough.

Yes because its the buses that causing all the trouble..
 

F Great Eastern

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East Anglia
Yes because its the buses that causing all the trouble..

Unfortunately we've seen this in lots of places, where people are moaning about too many buses going down their road and any idea of putting any more down their road will turn their road into a highway.

Funny thing is that the same people see no problem with hundreds of cars but put a single bus down their road and they'll cry blue murder.
 

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