First South West op profits: 2016 (£4.0m), 2017 (£1.7m), 2018 £0.5m, 2019 £2m
Be interesting to see how South Yorkshire fare but overall, most of the results are ok. Essex could certainly do with an Alex Carter or James Freeman type character to really grab that business and realise its potential
Dunno. I think Superman (or Superwoman for that matter, Michelle Hargreaves @ Stagecoach East perhaps) is one for the comic books. They can certainly achieve when other things are right, activist Councils (or more probably Mayors) and investment, but without that support ...
Certainly Essex seems to be going nowhere, just chucking every bit of old fleet they can lay their hands on randomly into the exploding congestion in the shrinking operating area. Neighbours Stagecoach and Arriva (and minnows Stephensons and the somewhat (unfairly) maligned local Go-Ahead op) are expanding, meanwhile. What should they be doing in the face of the exploding housing growth? First's MD bewails the congestion, and it's about the only thing we've heard from our catwalk model. Sorry again, but in simple terms I think congestion is an excuse (albeit a good one) not a justification. We can't just throw our hands up (or wipe our hands of it, for that matter). As much as Essex' cabinet member for transport (as he styles himself) used to talk about getting 50% of commuting drivers out of their cars and on to the buses (dream on) it ain't gonna happen, and nothing Essex County does is going to help. It all gets mired in the bureaucracy. Nothing new there. (When working I used to know their Chief Executive who boasted he brought in "the best brains" but wherever the ideas are they seem to stay inside their heads). Even Alex Carter or James Freeman would give up, and given that Essex has had temporary MDs like confetti, probably already have! The passengers meanwhile bewail buses that never seem to turn up, at least where the passengers want them. And the muddle goes on, even the newish attempts to keep passengers informed are often that "everything is delayed" by 30 minutes, an hour or longer. Make of that what we will.
Arriva and Stagecoach suffer in the same way, but for all their faults make a better fist of it, even before we get to the local competition, such as it is. The only thing we can say is that First chucking fleet about has kept that at bay. Not a blessing, in the eyes of the passengers at least. May be Essex have it "too easy" having kept the competition at bay: no competition = no need or incentive to improve. Just shrink, slowly but surely. It's a long wait for the rest of us, though. First Essex just have to coast. I suppose it could have come as a relief to First Group, perhaps? One OpCo they don't have to bother much about?
I'd readily agree that some clear vision is necessary to sort it out, though whether it would or could is the moot point. I've often said that locally it's "not so much what you do as what you don't" that is important. I know we disagree on Arriva Shires and Essex, but in my local experience they have a clear sense of priorities, and it works. Of course they upset people, both sometimes passengers and their own staff, but as the old saying goes "no omelete without breaking eggs". Sometimes we have to. First are the prime example of trying to please everyone and pleasing no-one, perhaps? It does look awfully like Essex "just do as they're told to", result: "all or nothing". As long as the books balance what else matters? Well, to an accountant. The world changes though . . . as a few businesses have found.
With all that, sorry; but it explains why I think there is just no future for First in Essex. Bit like the dinosaurs they'll lumber about and do a lot of damage in the meantime, but the future is with the nimble invertebrates. I just don't think reinvention is a realistic prospect. Anyway Happy New Year; other more important things to do, thankfully.