overthewater
Established Member
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- 16 Apr 2012
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That was an awful realistic joke.
CINCINNATI — First Student, North America's leader in student transportation, today announced the acquisition of CG Pearson Bus Lines, an Ontario-based provider of school and charter transportation services.
“We’re experiencing tremendous growth in Ontario, where we’ll add more than 400 buses to our fleet for the 2018-2019 school year. This is a logical step for us because it builds on our positive growth trajectory,” said First Student President Dennis R. Maple. “We’ll continue to search for opportunities to leverage our resources, insight and expertise to benefit school districts, students and families across North America."
The deal extends First Student’s operations in Ontario, where it currently has almost 40 locations. It’s anticipated that more than 200,000 Ontario students will receive safe and reliable transportation from First Student each day in the 2018-2019 school year.
CG Pearson was founded in 1947 and grew to almost 60 routes and 70 buses. Its primary customers were Windsor-Essex School Transportation Services (WESTS) and Chatham-Kent and Lambton Administrative School Services (CLASS), both current customers of First Student.
In aggregate, these consortiums provide transportation for six school boards. Each board starts school the first week in September.
“Our family has had the privilege to work in the local Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex regions for three generations. We would like to personally thank the wonderful customers and staff who have become like our family,” said CG Pearson Vice President Ryan Pearson. “We are excited to know that First Student will help our extended family into the next chapter and wish the best to everyone.”
First Student’s commitment to invest heavily in driver training, safety and technology allows it to deliver a ride that’s twice as safe as the industry average.
The acquisition is the second in as many years for First Student. Last year, First Student acquired Falcon Transportation, a 94-bus operation in Chicago.
“First Student and CG Pearson have a shared belief that great transportation partnerships are built on the foundation of understanding, commitment, service performance and trust,” said Maple. “We welcome CG Pearson employees to the First Student team.”
Councillors claim the proposals will turn Worcester into a 'bus-free city' if they are allowed to go ahead.
First Bus intends to make changes to 24 bus services in Worcestershire, with at least 10 evening and late night services in Worcester being scrapped under the plans.
County councillor Paul Denham, who represents Worcester's Rainbow Hill ward, said: "If this goes ahead bus transport will become a daytime offer, there will be nothing in the evenings.
"They [First Bus] are saying they can't make enough money out of them [evening services] as usage in the evening is not as much as in the day.
"We need to restore some of the subsidies that were making to the bus service.
"Millions have been cut from the bus budget since 2010."
Cllr Denham, also the Labour Party's local spokesman for highways and transport, said the cuts would particularly affect elderly and vulnerable people, who could be left housebound by the changes.
He added that they would also impact patients and NHS workers who rely on buses to get to Worcestershire Royal Hospital at night.
City councillor Richard Udall added: "Worcester is going to become a bus-free city at night.
"I say the county council needs to plug the gap. The service has been decimated."
Cllr Udall said some of his constituents in Dines Green are employed in the night-time economy and use buses to get to and from work in the city centre.
Sarah East, head of operations at First Worcester, said the company is making minor adjustments to most of its services in the city.
She added that the firm told the county council about the proposed changes on July 6 and is still awaiting a decision as to whether the council will provide support.
County councillor Alan Amos, cabinet member for Worcestershire's roads, said: "We'll work with First Bus to ensure they are fully aware of residents' needs in the urban and rural areas of the county."
The following Worcester services will be affected by the cuts: 30, 31, 31A, 31U, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, X38, 43, X43, 44, X44, 51, 52, 53, 54, 332, 333, 363, 373 and X50.
The 365 Malvern to Upton service will also be hit.
The cuts are due to be introduced from September 17.
Worcester in trouble again, but its is just spin by the council and the paper?
Changes to services from 17 September
17 Sep 2018 All Areas
There are changes planned to First Worcester services from 17 September.
Sarah East, Head of operations at First Worcester said;” We are making some minor adjustments to most of our services within our city network and have undertaken an in-depth review of our services running to county locations.
“We are also now almost 11 months into the trials we implemented on some of our routes, such as the 44 Malvern and Pershore corridors and have been evaluating the uptake and performance of these services to determine long term sustainability of our network”
“We provided Worcestershire County Council with details of our proposed changes that could affect some of our county services on July 6th and are awaiting a decision as to whether they will be providing support to retain some of the proposals.
Route 30: City Centre – Dines Green
The Friday & Saturday departures from Crowngate Bus Station at 2115, 2215 & 2315 (with return trips from Dines Green at 2125, 2225 & 2325) are withdrawn.
The 0745 departure from Crowngate Bus Station on Saturdays (with return from Dines Green at 0756) is withdrawn.
Routes 31/31A/31U: City Centre – University/Henwick Park
All buses on these routes will now operate as route 31A. Buses will operate up to every 20 minutes, Monday-Saturday daytime and up to every 30 minutes Sunday daytime. The same timetable will operate ‘year round’ so there will be no need to check for different university term/university holiday timetables.
Early morning and evening journeys are withdrawn.
On Monday-Fridays, the first departure from Crowngate Bus Station is 0710 (returning to Worcester at 0721 from Henwick Park and 0726 from the University. The last departure from Crowngate Bus Station is 1835 (returning to Worcester at 1847 from Henwick Park and 1852 from the University)
On Saturdays, the first departure from Crowngate Bus Station is 0800 (returning to Worcester at 0811 from Henwick Park and 0816 from the University. The last departure from Crowngate Bus Station is 1735 (returning to Worcester at 1749 from Henwick Park and 1755 from the University)
Route 32: City Centre – St. Peter’s – Baynhall
There are some minor timetable changes but buses will continue to operate to St Peter’s up to every 15 minutes, Monday-Saturday daytime and to Baynhall up to every 30 minutes.
Most journeys that previously showed route numbers 52, 53, 54, 332 & 333 will now operate as route 32.
Route 33: City Centre – Blackpole – Warndon
The following Monday-Saturday departures are withdrawn:
0602 & 0637 from Warndon to City Centre
1840 & 1925 from City Centre (& return trips at 1856 & 1941 from Blackpole)
Route 35: City Centre – Blackpole – Warndon
The 2140, 2240 & 2340 Friday and Saturday only departures from Crowngate Bus Station (& return trips from Blackpole at 2154, 2254 & 2354
Route 37: City Centre – Bevere
On Monday-Fridays, the 0635 trip from Northwick (0640 from Bevere), the 1750 from Crowngate Bus Station (1815 from Bevere) and the 1820 from Crowngate Bus Station to Bevere are withdrawn.
Routes 38/X38: City Centre – Ronkswood – Hospital
On Monday-Saturdays, the departures at 1920 & 1955 Crowngate Bus Station and 1938 & 2013 from the hospital are merged into a single departure at 1945 from Crowngate Bus Station and 2003 from the hospital;. The Friday & Saturday only departures at 2245 from Crowngate Bus Station & 2303 from the hospital are withdrawn
Full details of all changes will be published as soon as possible.
Worcester in trouble again, but its is just spin by the council and the paper?
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news...ning-bus-services-in-city-revealed/?ref=fbshr
Worcester in trouble again, but its is just spin by the council and the paper?
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news...ning-bus-services-in-city-revealed/?ref=fbshr
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...cle-firstgroups-assets-amid-break-up-rumours/Rivals of transport giant FirstGroup are circling the struggling bus and rail operator amid hopes that a break-up is on the cards.
Senior insiders have told The Sunday Telegraph that FirstGroup has held talks with state-backed Italian train titan Trenitalia over a sale of its UK rail arm.
It comes just days after Dean Finch, the National Express boss, admitted to an interest in some of FirstGroup’s UK bus operations.
Meanwhile, the company has appointed a crack squad of consultants to assess options for US bus subsidiary Greyhound.
Wolfhart Hauser took over as executive chairman in May after under-fire chief executive Tim O’Toole quit amid full-year losses of £327m.
Unless there's more in the rest of the article, this doesn't amount to much. Finch's vague remark about maybe being interested in bits of UK Bus has turned into an 'admission' - a great journalistic word, like he's been forced to confess something he would prefer to have kept secret. Good to know it's a 'crack squad' of consultants looking into Greyhound, I was afraid they'd go to Poundland.
A top-10 investor said: “I am pleased that Wolfhart has a twinkle in his eye and is getting stuck in to an executive-type role.
He wants all the businesses to be run separately and nothing is ruled out … This isn’t empire building, this is how you extract value for shareholders.”
FirstStudent and FirstTransit are widely considered the company’s most valuable divisions. The former is the largest school bus operator in the US.
FirstGroup’s stock market valuation is just over £1bn. Another large investor said other recent deals in the sector suggested the two divisions were worth more than that, “even if you assume UK rail and bus are worthless”.
FirstGroup and Trenitalia declined to comment.
Except as he knows full well even the new Bus services Act specifically outlaws local authorities eg TFGM owning and running buses. Also, the CMA would never allow Stagecoach buying FSY.Intelligent and insightful article by Julian Peddle.
Interesting comments about UK Bus.
J.P talks about UK Bus as having "Good & Bad parts" - In slightly tongue in cheek mode, I have often wondered if UK bus (Like some Banks) could be divided into 'Good Bus Plc' & 'Bad Bus Plc'?
I will let others speculate on where the various Bus subsidiaries should be allocated!!
Except as he knows full well even the new Bus services Act specifically outlaws local authorities eg TFGM owning and running buses. Also, the CMA would never allow Stagecoach buying FSY.
Because they're already in existence. It's new companies that can't be started.How does all those council owned company stay in business?
If First can shift some of the bad parts to other companies ie just paying cost price for the assest, I would take the money and run. Since it get bad areas off its books and it wouldn't have deal with pay off etc.
Except as he knows full well even the new Bus services Act specifically outlaws local authorities eg TFGM owning and running buses. Also, the CMA would never allow Stagecoach buying FSY.
There is still £98 million of goodwill on UK Bus. We have no way of knowing where this will be from.
How can we know it's 98million but not know where it came from?
They would have needed profits from elsewhere to cover the losses, or they would have been in the situation they are today a lot earlier.
Yes - except goodwill is not a cash item. So although their profits would take a one-off hit, they would have a more profitable, leaner core going forward (with less capex required), and cash position would be neutral or better (since even if they only got asset value,subject to any finance, it would bring in cash). And importantly management would be more focussed.
True and they have had some one off hits in areas such as Northampton and Plymouth (and possibly some other sales or exits).
Guess the argument is whether they should have sold off more in 2013 but the prevailing view would be that most were good businesses but stifled by underinvestment and that they would trade better. That they didn’t foresee how things would go is one of the key criticisms.
I don't think FGP should have sold off London or Wigan in 2013, both were profitable ops with London being a good source of midlife buses for the poorer performing ops in the provinces. The problem for First is investors patience has run out, they want value extracting from the group assets, even under a revised turnaround plan it could still take years.....
The big mistake First Group made under both Lockhead & Tim O'toole was retaining Greyhound (which always was non-core), and not selling it at a time whilst it still had good value/made decent profit margins and use the funds to pay down debt & re-invest in to the ailing UK Bus Division. Had they done this, they may have been able to avoid the rights issue which has also damaged the groups value. They are not looking to sell Greyhound when it's struggle against competition, profits are failing and we've yet to see any impact of competition from the latest new entrant Flixbus, if anyone is prepared to take Greyhound in full or part off their hands, valuations / offers will reflect this. Whilst Julian Peddle is a long standing industry professional and raises some good points, you need to remember that he's never been involved with any of the big bus groups, all his assets are small / low margin bus operations i.e. Select Bus Services, D&G, Midland Classic, Centrebus etc and has links with Arriva and has often purchased operations they are disposing.
I don't think FGP should have sold off London or Wigan in 2013, both were profitable ops with London being a good source of midlife buses for the poorer performing ops in the provinces. The problem for First is investors patience has run out, they want value extracting from the group assets, even under a revised turnaround plan it could still take years.....