It could have happened under the Thatcher government. Lothian Regional Council lobbied to maintain it as a publicly owned company despite government wishes to sell it off. Had a privatisation gone ahead it would likely now be part of what is First Group.
I think that they recently got rid of the plc and it’s now just Ltd
It changed at the end of 2013.
Time flies
If it didn’t through, I could see service quality drop. It is publicly owned but run privately. Probably the best of both worlds right now.
I've often thought it's the spectre of private ownership that keeps the quality high.Time flies
If it didn’t through, I could see service quality drop. It is publicly owned but run privately. Probably the best of both worlds right now.
As I recall, when Lothian, or LRT as it was back then, was set up as an operating company back in 1986 it was as a plc rather than a Ltd to safeguard against any possible sell-off. Its then MD, (the now late) Charles Evans was fiercely against any form of private sector involvement and believed that LRT should remain locally-owned, with decisions made by those who knew the company best.
A major factor in Lothian staying independent was political. Labour was stronger in mainly industrial Lothian than in Tayside or Grampian with their large rural areas, then often Tory.
Yup, that was the main factor. The Tories on Lothian Regional Council wanted to see LRT privatised but Labour would have none of it.
Thank goodness for that.
On balance yes, it seems to have worked out mostly to the advantage of the travelling public, although there was a compelling political incentive to succeed.
Most people do.
I don't have much experience traveling with Firstbus but from looking at their Glasgow map they seem to very much cherry pick only the most profitable routes, and leave certain times of day and days for the council/SPT to run a subsidised network with completely different routes; this is obviously not very passenger friendly. They also seem to have a lot of routes splitting at one end or buses not running the full route. Maybe this works if most people are journey planning on an app, but on paper it seems to make the network much more complicated than Lothian Buses' which for the most part run simple routes, every day of the week, with all buses running the full route.
I think it would be available for a single purchaser if it is an operator not currently in the area - such as Go-Ahead or Transdev.
Let’s pray it never happens.
Lothian has over a century of history and a large reputation, however similar could have been said for Leasks of Lerwick, or EYMS in England some years back. It's unlikely to become an actual threat, but it's not like it could never happen. Am hopeful that if there's ever a genuine risk of it happening then there will be enough public protest to stop it.
It could also have happened under the subsequent Major government; Grampian was privatised under Thatcher, but Strathclyde and Tayside were sold off under Major's tenure. Eastern Scottish was sold in 1990 and had a much bigger presence in Edinburgh than it does now, so I'm not convinced that it would have been part of First; it would largely have depended on which entity was sold first. Bear in mind that the then Monopolies and Mergers Commission would have been keeping a close eye on the situation.
Maybe not now, but when the sell-offs were taking place, Lothian had healthy competition from Eastern/SMT and, to a lesser extent, Edinburgh Transport.
Think I found some correspondence dating from the Lothian Region days (possibly mid-1990s) stating that Arriva submitted bids to operate Christmas & New Year services. Then suddenly LRT offered to run them for nothing. Since that time the festive season routes in Edinburgh have operated commercially.
You are correct, but they won the evening services as well, many from Eastern Scottish. Arriva withdrew before they were started. but by coincidence, Lothian had alresdy changed their bid to run them free. A bit back handing going on in the council.
Memory recalls that this brought about the end of Charles Evans' tenure as MD, though he was coming up for retirement age anyway. When Neil Renilson took over as MD, he brought in his own team - mostly ex-Stagecoach - which saw the departure of the rest of the Lothian "old guard".
I think you're referring to my post and yes, even Lothian will cherry pick, but I imagine to a much smaller extent. I'm thinking about routes like the 12, 36, 38, 45, and daytime 15 - would these have been provided voluntarily by a commercial operator? I'm not sure. Monday to Friday daytime and peak, maybe. Evenings and Sundays? I'd think probably not.
Isn't that exactly what the bigger operators do though? From what other people have said, that is what McGill's did in the West to get rid of the smaller operators.
LRT was able to survive because it never ran at a loss. The Edinburgh Corporation and it's successor; Lothian region never put money into keeping it running. Lots of councils paid for rural and school services out of profitable routes' surpluses.
Another thing which can get added is that LRT changed its Ridacard from zonal to network-wide shortly after deregulation and set up a number of sales agents both within the city and in areas which it now served, thus saving a trip to either 14 Queen Street or Waverley Bridge to have the card renewed on expiry.