First take over American Greyhound!

[Coxster]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2009418,00.html

British transport company FirstGroup has swooped on Greyhound, the iconic US intercity bus operator, with an agreed $3.6bn (£1.85bn) takeover bid for its parent Laidlaw.
The deal will create North America's leading transport company, FirstGroup said today. Laidlaw is also the largest US operator of yellow school buses.

FirstGroup is paying $35.25 per share for Laidlaw in cash, representing a premium of 11% to yesterday's closing price of $31.72.

The $3.6bn figure includes the refinancing of Laidlaw's debt. The deal is to be funded from a mixture of debt and equity finance.

FirstGroup expanded into the US seven years ago with the $940m acquisition of the school bus operator Ryder, now known as First Student, the second biggest operator in the market and which transports more than 1 million students every day.

The Laidlaw acquisition, which would give FirstGroup about half the school bus market, could trigger competition issues.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union which represents many school bus drivers in the US, has already said it would oppose a deal.

Greyhound buses were once the cheapest and easiest way to travel across America before air travel took off, but now make up less than half of Laidlaw's profits.

They were so popular that legendary blues singer Robert Johnson asked to be buried "down by the highway side so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride".

Laidlaw, now based in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, started life in 1924 as a trucking company founded in Canada by Robert Laidlaw.

After years of steady growth it ran into trouble and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001, to emerge two years later after a major restructuring with Kevin Benson in charge as chief executive.

Martin Gilbert, chairman of FirstGroup, said: "This acquisition marks an important new phase in the development of the group's business."

Apart from boosting profits, the acquisition is expected to yield $70m of annual pre-tax cost savings in the first year following its completion.

Moir Lockhead, chief executive of FirstGroup, said: "FirstGroup's acquisition of Laidlaw will considerably enhance the group's existing activities in north America, which have grown strongly since we first invested in the US in 1999.

"The improved earnings and strong cashflows arising from the acquisition will strengthen the group's position."

 

[gordonthemoron]

I expect they'll replace the coaches with mini buses

 

[Dennis]

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union which represents many school bus drivers in the US, has already said it would oppose a deal.


Unusual name for a bus drivers union.

 

[Gareth Hale]

They're also taking over a school bus company... What's left in this world which isn't First:angryfir: :angryfir:

 

[Guinness]

They're also taking over a school bus company... What's left in this world which isn't First:angryfir: :angryfir:

First Gareth Hale limited, that's the only First Group company I want to see.

Simply because First put things into Store.

 

[Tom B]

Hmm, last time I looked our school bus wasn't a First one!

They'll no doubt put the price of everything up, employ morons, reduce services, cut back on maintenance and only bother providing a good service where people regulate it. Rather like they did in the UK.

 

[Peter]

I don't get first's buisiness methods, what is the point of selling rubbish services for high prices, seems as though they like custom like the plague.
so then the fatter marjins are pointless because they sell less and people don't like them

 

[Nick W]

I don't get first's buisiness methods, what is the point of selling rubbish services for high prices

They exploit those without a car or who cannot drive. This makes maximum profit but isn't ideal, but then in a democracy we have to accept painful comprimises.

Don't use them whenever you can.7

 

[Peter]

They exploit those without a car or who cannot drive. This makes maximum profit but isn't ideal, but then in a democracy we have to accept painful comprimises.

Don't use them whenever you can.7

don't they realise they could do it properly and make people realise they don't need a car so they get more customers which despite slimer marjins would make them more money, and let people like them

 

[Ascot]

They don't bother with Birmingham now do they? Apart from the fact it's a Network West Midlands set that it's 70p max fare and 50p short hop compared to the crazy £2 odd for something half the distance.

 

[Nick W]

don't they realise they could do it properly and make people realise they don't need a car so they get more customers which despite slimer marjins would make them more money, and let people like them

The superroute 66 bus route in Ipswich had huge amounts of money spent on it as an experiment. It included bus lanes, new shelters, satellite tracking and a silly short stretch of busway which might as well have been a road.

Despite the fact that the busses do not have signal priority now except at 2 junctions and you can no longer track them online or LCD screens at bus stops, the bus route is the most popular in ipswich, mainly by BT workers where the bus route terminates. It runs frequently in the day and has a night service of 2 busses per hour.

It just shows that by spending a lot of money, you really can take people onto busses, however one might ask why not just pay for bus passes for everyone.

Of course the bus route is nothing compared to trams which have really high usage, offer fast speeds and almost always get signal priority.

 

[Mojo]

We seem to have all these bright ideas to speed up buses, yet I'm aware of very few places that have implimented a scheme to really make them faster - moving cash transactions off buses.