tbtc
Veteran Member
In the thread about bad purchases (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/worst-purchase-takeover-acquisition.222409/), there's been mention of operators that were taken over and effectively closed with no trace "shortly after" - e.g. Stagecoach in Somerset or this...
Definitions are a little vague (I've only just thought of the concept), but let's say that the criteria are:
1. Operations were purchased (rather than, say, First setting up from scratch in Ayrshire to compete against Stagecoach)
2. Operations weren't sold on to another operator
3. But I'm fine with operations that were closed as a "quid pro quo" (i.e. Tyneside Buses buy an independent operator in Sunderland as a bargaining chip to encourage Wearside Buses to stop a long running bus war - the independent operator in Sunderland is coincidently closed down the moment that the competition in Tyneside finishes << a completely made up example, but you know what I mean)
4. I'm also fine with operators buying a company down to close it down and remove direct competition (e.g. Tyneside Buses buying a local operator just to shut it down, no routes/depots retained)
5. "no trace" might be a bit subjective but hopefully there are a few examples of an operation being taken over without anything to show for it (e.g. a year or two later there were no inherited routes remaining) - some staff being retained is fine - why not keep good drivers you inherit - but no routes or depots being kept
It made me realise that Yorkshire Traction's purchase of four independent Sheffield operators in the mid '90s was a bit of a waste as two of them (South Riding and Andrews) were essentially closed down with no routes kept - Tracky retained a number of Sheffield Omnibus routes (mainly the north-south 72/76 corridor) and a number of Yorkshire Terrier routes (mainly the east-west 52 and 120), but the Andrews services seemed to be all scrapped pretty shortly afterwards (although they did operate on a number of corridors) and only one South Riding service lasted much longer (the 49, which was "merged" into an existing Yorkshire Terrier route), so I don't know why Yorkshire Traction bothered buying Andrews
Abellio’s purchase of Travel Surrey has to be considered poor as it has all closed down
Definitions are a little vague (I've only just thought of the concept), but let's say that the criteria are:
1. Operations were purchased (rather than, say, First setting up from scratch in Ayrshire to compete against Stagecoach)
2. Operations weren't sold on to another operator
3. But I'm fine with operations that were closed as a "quid pro quo" (i.e. Tyneside Buses buy an independent operator in Sunderland as a bargaining chip to encourage Wearside Buses to stop a long running bus war - the independent operator in Sunderland is coincidently closed down the moment that the competition in Tyneside finishes << a completely made up example, but you know what I mean)
4. I'm also fine with operators buying a company down to close it down and remove direct competition (e.g. Tyneside Buses buying a local operator just to shut it down, no routes/depots retained)
5. "no trace" might be a bit subjective but hopefully there are a few examples of an operation being taken over without anything to show for it (e.g. a year or two later there were no inherited routes remaining) - some staff being retained is fine - why not keep good drivers you inherit - but no routes or depots being kept
It made me realise that Yorkshire Traction's purchase of four independent Sheffield operators in the mid '90s was a bit of a waste as two of them (South Riding and Andrews) were essentially closed down with no routes kept - Tracky retained a number of Sheffield Omnibus routes (mainly the north-south 72/76 corridor) and a number of Yorkshire Terrier routes (mainly the east-west 52 and 120), but the Andrews services seemed to be all scrapped pretty shortly afterwards (although they did operate on a number of corridors) and only one South Riding service lasted much longer (the 49, which was "merged" into an existing Yorkshire Terrier route), so I don't know why Yorkshire Traction bothered buying Andrews