Three of the Routemasters in use with this new venture are sourced from Blackpool and presumably are at the expense of hire work they'd otherwise be undertaking. It's not the first time Philip Higgs has launched a new venture without the proper financial back up in place. I had some involvement with one, as an employee. I wasn't someone owed money but others were at the end. He has history with the traffic commissioner. One hopes he's learned from those experiences - most people do!
There is evident cashflow management taking place
- buses being refuelled at a petrol station will be costing the operation more than they'd be paying if they had onsite fuel storage. Hopefully they're doing it through fuel cards as that is a little cheaper than paying at pump price. If the former, then the on bus takings are critical but you effectively burn the money you need to survive before you bank it.
This new operation does have some experienced people behind it - but it's going to be hard work to survive. It's not something I'd want to be doing in this current climate, especially when guaranteed revenue can be found by operating hires with the same vehicles with all costs met from the hire income. I'm not familiar with the provisions of a London Local service permit, but they might allow more flexibility than a conventionally registered local bus service - so there might be options open to scale back if demand was lower than anticipated. RedRoutemaster did get a permit to run a replacement for the heritage 15 but they never started operating it.
The 'initial excitement' phase might well be where this venture stops. Enthusiasts aren't known for putting money into services, but they do take lovely photos! I look forward, as an eternal pessimist, to being proven wrong.
Roger French has taken a trip on this new service - and the +'ve review can be found
here.
