What has gone wrong at Derbyshire Community Transport?

[TheManOnThe172]

Derbyshire Community Transport (formerly Community Transport for Town And County and before that Amber Valley Community Transport) is reported by BBC Derby as "'likely' to fold by end of month". They are mentioned as currently running services 147 in Belper and 148 in Alfreton.

Any ideas on what has gone wrong?

 

[Hyebone]

My Grandmother works for them, she's been given a month notice to find a new job due to the company having "too much debt".

Apparently Stagecoach Yorkshire have been asked to bid for the tender of the 147 and 148. Let's see how this folds out.

 

[Simon75]

My Grandmother works for them, she's been given a month notice to find a new job due to the company having "too much debt".

Apparently Stagecoach Yorkshire have been asked to bid for the tender of the 147 and 148. Let's see how this folds out.

Couldn't Trent Barton bid, as they have a garage in Belper?

 

[m79900]

My Grandmother works for them, she's been given a month notice to find a new job due to the company having "too much debt".

Apparently Stagecoach Yorkshire have been asked to bid for the tender of the 147 and 148. Let's see how this folds out.

It's pretty much Stagecoach Derbyshire at this point.

 

[Trainman40083]

Couldn't Trent Barton bid, as they have a garage in Belper?

Trent Barton don't really bid for tendered work. Notts and Derby might.

 

[ChrisC]

Apparently Stagecoach Yorkshire have been asked to bid for the tender of the 147 and 148. Let's see how this folds out.

As I mentioned in another thread, some of these Derbyshire routes are so far from Stagecoach Yorkshire operating areas even from Chesterfield. Wouldn’t they be better being run by Statgecoach East Midlands from Mansfield. They already operate a number of routes in the Alfreton and Ripley area.

 

[Teapot42]

It's interesting that in their recent piece on the anniversary of Stonegravels depot there was mention of them running services as far as Belper. I couldn't think of anything at the time that went that far, maybe the contract has either been awarded or they've been told they've as good as got it?

 

[m79900]

The 142 runs to Belper

 

[Robertj21a]

Couldn't Trent Barton bid, as they have a garage in Belper?

Trentbarton seem to have enough problems of their own nowadays without needing more on their plate.

 

[Teapot42]

The 142 runs to Belper

Mea Cupla. I'd seen the start and finish points and not expected it to head off in the opposite direction.

Two thoughts, firstly, what is going to happen with Derbyshire Connect (the DRT)? I can't see it being cost effective to give the contract to Stagecoach (nor is the depot that central to the operating area), but I also can't see anyone else who could take it on.

Which links to my second thought - we really need a not for profit operator similar to South Pennine to not only run the DRT, but also the more marginal services like the 14x range and possibly even ones like the 63, 172, 110/1. The South Pennine model might also allow areas to be served that currently aren't, even if it's only one day a week.

As an aside on that, is it permitted to have a Section 22 operator as a sister company to an established operator? I'd imagine the accounting could be tricky (to show you weren't subsidising the primary operator), but you would then have access to a depot, maintenance facilities, office staff and so on without having to take on the full cost of such.

 

[Trainman40083]

Trentbarton seem to have enough problems of their own nowadays without needing more on their plate.

Maybe Notts and Derby will go for the stage services.

 

[Teapot42]

Maybe Notts and Derby will go for the stage services.

Well predicted - the Upcoming changes page for Derbyshire shows the 147 and 148 as being operated by Notts and Derbys from 1st November.

 

[Teapot42]

The latest Derbyshire upcoming changes shows that CT4N will be running the On Demand and Derbyshire Connect journeys, so it seems that Derbyshire Community Transport are no more.

 

[ChrisC]

The latest Derbyshire upcoming changes shows that CT4N will be running the On Demand and Derbyshire Connect journeys, so it seems that Derbyshire Community Transport are no more.

Could this in any way be connected with new East Midlands Combined County Authority? Although called East Midlands it is only Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire including the cities of Nottingham and Derby. Leicestershire decided not to be part of this.

One of the priorities of this is ‘Working closely with the local authorities in the region to merge transport plans and create a single transport policy for the whole region, making it easier to travel by bus, rail and road’. If they really wanted to help bus passengers a reasonably priced multi operator ticket valid across both counties would be the way forward. Derbyshire Wayfarer becoming an East Midlands Wayfarer would be an idea but I doubt it would happen. There’s so much cross border travel along the whole length of the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border and not having a multi operator cross border ticket doesn’t help.

 

[Teapot42]

Could this in any way be connected with new East Midlands Combined County Authority? Although called East Midlands it is only Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire including the cities of Nottingham and Derby. Leicestershire decided not to be part of this.

One of the priorities of this is ‘Working closely with the local authorities in the region to merge transport plans and create a single transport policy for the whole region, making it easier to travel by bus, rail and road’. If they really wanted to help bus passengers a reasonably priced multi operator ticket valid across both counties would be the way forward. Derbyshire Wayfarer becoming an East Midlands Wayfarer would be an idea but I doubt it would happen. There’s so much cross border travel along the whole length of the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border and not having a multi operator cross border ticket doesn’t help.

While that would be nice, I suspect it's wishful thinking at this stage. DCT gave a few weeks notice they were going bust and Derbyshire Council did their best to find short-notice alternatives.

Maybe longer-term something more cohesive will develop, although I have a nasty feeling Chesterfield is going to lose out, caught between two authorities as it is. South Yorkshire are looking to franchise their buses and have included the cross-border services in the list of ones to be franchised. That makes sense as Chesterfield has stronger links with Sheffield than with Derby or Nottingham (thus why they wanted to join SYMCA, a bid which was blocked by DCC).

We are likely to end up with poor links to the main centre of employment and leisure simply because we are in different authorities.