Yellow Buses Bournemouth

[TitanMike]

Has been sold to the management team led by the MD, Commercial Director and Service Delivery Director.

 

[Robertj21a]

Has been sold to the management team led by the MD, Commercial Director and Service Delivery Director.

Yes, unusual for a big group (RATP) to agree to a management buy out.

 

[Anthony ross]

I definitely didn’t see that one happening I must admit

 

[Surreyman]

Management buyout at Bournemouth Transport Ltd 
(Yellow Buses)
Today Tue 2nd Jul 2019

RATP Dev has announced the sale of its subsidiary Bournemouth Transport Limited (trading as Yellow Buses and Yellow Coaches) to the management team led by David Squire (Managing Director) with Phil Pannell (Service Delivery Director) and Simon Newport (Commercial Director).The associated non-trading company of Vintage Yellow Buses Limited was also included in the sale.

“Our decision to step down from our commercial bus operations in the Bournemouth deregulated sector pertains to our strategic focus on our franchise operations in London, together with our sightseeing and coach businesses in Bath, London and the North West. Under the leadership of David Squire and his team, Bournemouth Transport has undergone a major transformation. The agreement completed today will ensure the company has local ownership and management. We are delighted that we can enable Bournemouth Transport Ltd and its employees to pursue a promising way forward and wish them every success”, said Laurence Batlle, Chief Executive Officer of RATP Dev.

David Squire, Managing Director, said “The company has been transformed and energised over the last 18 months, we are seeing growth and increased ridership across our bus network, having improved punctuality significantly in 2018, together with a revamped, colour coded and easy to understand network. Meanwhile, our coaching business continues to grow with National Express, private coach hire for groups and individuals and rail replacement activities all contributing to a much improved commercial performance. Under local ownership, the company will still be able to react quickly to opportunities as they arise and look forward to working with BCP Council and other stakeholders to deliver the vision of the transforming cities fund to ease congestion and promote model shift in the conurbation”.

 

[Stan Drews]

They’ve certainly taken on a challenge!
Major losses to Dec 2017 (£1.66m), largely before these gents were in town, so will be interesting to see how the transformation affected their 2018 figures.

 

[Robertj21a]

GoAhead might think it's a good time to shake things up a bit.

 

[Adsy125]

Could be interesting, hopefully they will undo the near complete abandonment of their services in Poole, or more do more in Christchurch, as it’s currently a bit disjointed, with more dominating the west, and yellow the east.

Edit: To make it clear, more is the other operator in the area (part of Go South Coast)

 

[carlberry]

GoAhead might think it's a good time to shake things up a bit.

Indeed, it's a very odd time to be going out on a limb as a separate company.

 

[busenthusiast]

Very unusual to see something like this. I wonder why the French Government decided to sell it. I didn't think that RATP had any plans to cut down their UK bus operations. I wonder if it was RATP that decided to sell it or if it was the managers who approached RATP and asked to buy it.

 

[rj246]

Very unusual to see something like this. I wonder why the French Government decided to sell it. I didn't think that RATP had any plans to cut down their UK bus operations. I wonder if it was RATP that decided to sell it or if it was the managers who approached RATP and asked to buy it.

Just a guess, maybe RATP wanted to dispose as it is not profitable. I think it is under fierce competition with More, More is having a wider network and a more updated fleet as well

 

[Anthony ross]

Yellow buses was a bit isolated from the rest of there operations in London and the northwest

 

[winston270twm]

Just a guess, maybe RATP wanted to dispose as it is not profitable. I think it is under fierce competition with More, More is having a wider network and a more updated fleet as well

Looking at their last accounts, Bournemouth Transport are losing quite a lot of money, it may have got worse since.... Quite surprising that an MBO is willing to take it on, unless they know something / are now free to implement change that RAPT wouldn't sanction.

 

[Lynford1976]

I'm assuming that BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) council, now a unitary authority, retain their 10% shareholding?

 

[Wirewiper]

Interesting press release, mentioning the franchising in London and also the North-West. It has got me wondering if RATP Dev will make a bid for First's Oldham operations, given the prospect of Transport for Greater Manchester introducing franchising.

RATP Dev already has a toehold in the North-West through their ownership of Selwyn's of Runcorn, which has a TfGM contract for Middleton local route 129 and a number of TfGM school contract services.

 

[158756]

Just a guess, maybe RATP wanted to dispose as it is not profitable. I think it is under fierce competition with More, More is having a wider network and a more updated fleet as well

I haven't been to Bournemouth for years, but it looks like Yellow Buses' most frequent routes have strong competition from More, whilst More have Poole practically to themselves and have most of the market on the busy route between the two town centres. Not a situation I'd have thought you'd want to take on without the backing of a major group, unless of course RATP were no longer willing to provide that backing.

 

[miklcct]

Yellow Buses has announced its April 2022 network changes:, with the following main changes compared to November 2021 timetable (note that Saturday timetable is now in effect for all Monday - Saturday, and night services aren't running at all due to pandemic-related excuses):

Route 1:
The terminus for most departures terminating at Poole Railway Station is moved to Poole Quay (Thistle Hotel), with only two afternoon peak departures remaining at Poole Railway Station. Departures from Bournemouth to Poole Quay will serve Poole Railway Station but not from Poole Quay to Bournemouth. (For comparison, the current arrangement is to terminate at Poole Railway Station, with only Bournemouth-bound departures (except one afternoon peak departure) running a loop through Poole Quay).

In addition, one late evening journey Monday - Friday in each direction will be extended to Poole Quay, leaving a gap from the usual 30-minute pattern from Westbourne which will start short from Bournemouth Triangle.

Route 1a:
The first departure to New Milton will be extended to start from Bournemouth, and a massive service reduction in evening peak from at most 10-minute headway until 19:15 from Bournemouth, to changing to 15 / 20-minute headway from 18:00 Monday - Friday and 17:20 Saturday.

On Saturday, typical daytime pattern will change from 8 buses per hour (6 buses to Somerford running every 10 minutes + 2 buses to New Milton in between) to 6 buses per hour (running every 10 minutes, 4 to Somerford only and 2 all the way to New Milton). One evening departure each way on Monday - Saturday is extended to New Milton (for comparison, the previous timetable had a late night 1an departure from Bournemouth - New Milton which has no longer been running since January this year).

Route 1b:
Sunday service will be withdrawn, with departures running as route 1 instead. This result in a COMPLETE LOSS of Sunday bus service through Cranleigh Road.

Route 2:
No major change. One morning journey on Monday - Saturday will no longer go to Bearwood, and the 23:55 Friday - Saturday night journey from Bournemouth to Castlepoint is withdrawn. The early Sunday Bournemouth - Hospital journey is retimed to run earlier.

Route 3:
No major change. The last bus from Westbourne to Castlepoint is withdrawn, and the previous trip to Westbourne terminating short at Bournemouth Square. Presumably Yellow Buses thinks it's no longer worthwhile to operate this journey and decides to send its passenger to its rival morebus m1 (which overlaps this 100%) instead.

Route 3 operated with 15 minutes headway Monday - Saturday in 2021, now with 20 minutes headway.

Route 3x:
Service will be castrated to run express only between Springbourne Roundabout and Bournemouth Hospital (instead of current Bournemouth Station - Hospital express), with routing modified to run circuitous through Charminster and no longer serves Castlepoint at all. Western terminus is extended from Bournemouth Square to Bournemouth Triangle with exception of departures serving Branksome.

Massive service reduction for Monday - Friday evening peak, with only 1 bus running the service instead of 2 in the old timetable.

First bus (and second bus on Monday - Friday) from Bournemouth Hospital to Bournemouth is gone, with first bus postponed to 07:01 in the new timetable from 06:07 in the old timetable.

Sunday service is GONE completely.

Here is the extent the route 3x will be castrated by comparing it to the old route, to the slow circuitous routes 2 and 3, and to its rival morebus routes X1, X2, X3 and X6:
Bournemouth Hospital - Bournemouth Station:
Current old express route 3x: 11 minutes daytime, 11 minutes evening (in practice this can be done in 8 minutes)
Castrated new route 3x: 16 minutes daytime, 16 minutes evening
Route 2: 24 minutes daytime, 19 minutes evening
Route 3: 24 minutes daytime, 22 minutes evening
However, although morebus X1/X2/X6 doesn't serve the station directly, the Cotlands Road stop just off the A338 is a short walk to the station which is scheduled 9 minutes from the hospital on the direct route.

Bournemouth Hospital - Bournemouth town centre:
morebus X1/X2/X6: 14 minutes daytime (no evening service)
morebus X3: 18 minutes daytime, 17 minutes evening
Current old express route 3x: 19 minutes daytime, 19 minutes evening
Castrated new route 3x: 24 minutes daytime, 24 minutes evening
Route 2: 32 minutes daytime, 25 minutes evening
Route 3: 32 minutes daytime, 28 minutes evening

It seems Yellow Buses has failed commercially competing against morebus X1/X2/X3/X6 with this route even by running the 3x at similar times to the X1/X2. It will mean a loss of early morning / evening express services between town centre and the hospital, with the new circuitous routing nearly as slow as the route 2.

Route 4:
Monday - Saturday services will be extended from Christchurch Bargates to Somerford, however, one bus in two every hour on Saturday is cut back to the hospital instead with only the other extended, and Sunday service will be reduced from every 30 minutes to every hour.

Route 4a:
Service withdrawn. This will mean a COMPLETE LOSS of direct service from Winton to the Town Centre without going through the rail station and Lansdowne.

Note that, in 2021, Routes 4 and 4a ran on a combined headway of 15 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime, while on Sunday only route 4 operated with 30 minutes headway. Now the frequency is halved, possibly with the intention of sending passengers to the rival route morebus 13 instead.

Route 5/5a:
Monday - Friday service will be permanently cut to every 10 minutes in daytime as of Saturday, instead of every 7 / 8 minutes originally.

Route 6:
Monday - Saturday evening frequency will be reduced from having about 2 buses per hour to only 1 per hour.
Sunday service will be CUT BACK to Bearwood, leaving no direct buses from Bearwood to Merley on Sunday. (Current arrangement is one bus per hour every day of the week)

No changes to tendered routes 18, 33 and 36.

Route 21:
The only remaining school-day departure will be withdrawn from July, with previous daytime services already withdrawn last November and being replaced with a tendered route 23 run by morebus. Only route 125 is left serving Bransgore, with only 2 departures operating on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.

Route 31:
Service will be permanently withdrawn after an indefinite suspension of operation since this January, with service reduced from a daytime operation to peak-hour operation already last year. Yellow Buses claims it is replaced by the extended route 4 which now serves Christchurch extended from Castlepoint from May 2021, however, route 31 is the only service linking the northern part of St Catherine's Hill (closest to Blackwater Junction) and Royal Bournemouth Hospital which runs express between them, with the closest alternative morebus X1/X2 running slow via Jumpers Corner not serving area north of St Catherine's Hill.

Route 727 / 737:
Airport buses will only run in peak hours. It will no longer be possible to use buses to reach the airport except in peak hours. 727 will be a new route linking Boscombe and the Airport through Christchurch and Blackwater Junction.

New timetable from town:
05:50 from Bournemouth
06:30 from Boscombe
06:45 from Bournemouth (compared to 12:45 as the current last bus)

New timetable from airport:
13:35 to Bournemouth (compared to 10:05 as the current first bus)
16:20 to Bournemouth
16:48 to Boscombe
18:00 to Bournemouth

Note that Bournemouth Airport is known as a scamport because once a car enters the access road, there will be no way turning back but paying the ransom charge to drop off passengers. There is also no pavement on the access road as well forcing pedestrians, who don't want to pay that ransom to the airport by walking the last segment to the airport, to walk to the carriageway with the traffic causing danger.

Before 2016, there was an express route A1 linking Bournemouth town centre and the airport via A338 every hour operating every day of the week, which provided a useful airport connection to rail passengers (that bus ran non-stop between the train station and the airport, and PlusBus tickets were valid on the route). The lack of public transport at Bournemouth now means we're better off to go to Southampton Airport or Heathrow Airport (there is now a non-stop coach M3 running between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport) instead of flying from Bournemouth Airport if the appropriate airline is available in both airports. I sincerely wish Bournemouth Airport will go out of business due to lack of public transport making people not being able to access it with minimal cost.

This is a complete disgrace to Yellow Buses, with service reduction everywhere across its whole network.

 

[route101]

I used that 737 service from Bournemouth to the airport last year. I was the only person to to alight at the airport. The national express 104 runs more frequently to Heathrow airport, M3 is only a few times daily. Bournemouth has more european services than Southampton where you pay a premium for.

 

[Robertj21a]

Yellow Buses has announced its April 2022 network changes:, with the following main changes compared to November 2021 timetable (note that Saturday timetable is now in effect for all Monday - Saturday, and night services aren't running at all due to pandemic-related excuses):

Route 1:
The terminus for most departures terminating at Poole Railway Station is moved to Poole Quay (Thistle Hotel), with only two afternoon peak departures remaining at Poole Railway Station. Departures from Bournemouth to Poole Quay will serve Poole Railway Station but not from Poole Quay to Bournemouth. (For comparison, the current arrangement is to terminate at Poole Railway Station, with only Bournemouth-bound departures (except one afternoon peak departure) running a loop through Poole Quay).

In addition, one late evening journey Monday - Friday in each direction will be extended to Poole Quay, leaving a gap from the usual 30-minute pattern from Westbourne which will start short from Bournemouth Triangle.

Route 1a:
The first departure to New Milton will be extended to start from Bournemouth, and a massive service reduction in evening peak from at most 10-minute headway until 19:15 from Bournemouth, to changing to 15 / 20-minute headway from 18:00 Monday - Friday and 17:20 Saturday.

On Saturday, typical daytime pattern will change from 8 buses per hour (6 buses to Somerford running every 10 minutes + 2 buses to New Milton in between) to 6 buses per hour (running every 10 minutes, 4 to Somerford only and 2 all the way to New Milton). One evening departure each way on Monday - Saturday is extended to New Milton (for comparison, the previous timetable had a late night 1an departure from Bournemouth - New Milton which has no longer been running since January this year).

Route 1b:
Sunday service will be withdrawn, with departures running as route 1 instead. This result in a COMPLETE LOSS of Sunday bus service through Cranleigh Road.

Route 2:
No major change. One morning journey on Monday - Saturday will no longer go to Bearwood, and the 23:55 Friday - Saturday night journey from Bournemouth to Castlepoint is withdrawn. The early Sunday Bournemouth - Hospital journey is retimed to run earlier.

Route 3:
No major change. The last bus from Westbourne to Castlepoint is withdrawn, and the previous trip to Westbourne terminating short at Bournemouth Square. Presumably Yellow Buses thinks it's no longer worthwhile to operate this journey and decides to send its passenger to its rival morebus m1 (which overlaps this 100%) instead.

Route 3 operated with 15 minutes headway Monday - Saturday in 2021, now with 20 minutes headway.

Route 3x:
Service will be castrated to run express only between Springbourne Roundabout and Bournemouth Hospital (instead of current Bournemouth Station - Hospital express), with routing modified to run circuitous through Charminster and no longer serves Castlepoint at all. Western terminus is extended from Bournemouth Square to Bournemouth Triangle with exception of departures serving Branksome.

Massive service reduction for Monday - Friday evening peak, with only 1 bus running the service instead of 2 in the old timetable.

First bus (and second bus on Monday - Friday) from Bournemouth Hospital to Bournemouth is gone, with first bus postponed to 07:01 in the new timetable from 06:07 in the old timetable.

Sunday service is GONE completely.

Here is the extent the route 3x will be castrated by comparing it to the old route, to the slow circuitous routes 2 and 3, and to its rival morebus routes X1, X2, X3 and X6:
Bournemouth Hospital - Bournemouth Station:
Current old express route 3x: 11 minutes daytime, 11 minutes evening (in practice this can be done in 8 minutes)
Castrated new route 3x: 16 minutes daytime, 16 minutes evening
Route 2: 24 minutes daytime, 19 minutes evening
Route 3: 24 minutes daytime, 22 minutes evening
However, although morebus X1/X2/X6 doesn't serve the station directly, the Cotlands Road stop just off the A338 is a short walk to the station which is scheduled 9 minutes from the hospital on the direct route.

Bournemouth Hospital - Bournemouth town centre:
morebus X1/X2/X6: 14 minutes daytime (no evening service)
morebus X3: 18 minutes daytime, 17 minutes evening
Current old express route 3x: 19 minutes daytime, 19 minutes evening
Castrated new route 3x: 24 minutes daytime, 24 minutes evening
Route 2: 32 minutes daytime, 25 minutes evening
Route 3: 32 minutes daytime, 28 minutes evening

It seems Yellow Buses has failed commercially competing against morebus X1/X2/X3/X6 with this route even by running the 3x at similar times to the X1/X2. It will mean a loss of early morning / evening express services between town centre and the hospital, with the new circuitous routing nearly as slow as the route 2.

Route 4:
Monday - Saturday services will be extended from Christchurch Bargates to Somerford, however, one bus in two every hour on Saturday is cut back to the hospital instead with only the other extended, and Sunday service will be reduced from every 30 minutes to every hour.

Route 4a:
Service withdrawn. This will mean a COMPLETE LOSS of direct service from Winton to the Town Centre without going through the rail station and Lansdowne.

Note that, in 2021, Routes 4 and 4a ran on a combined headway of 15 minutes Monday - Saturday daytime, while on Sunday only route 4 operated with 30 minutes headway. Now the frequency is halved, possibly with the intention of sending passengers to the rival route morebus 13 instead.

Route 5/5a:
Monday - Friday service will be permanently cut to every 10 minutes in daytime as of Saturday, instead of every 7 / 8 minutes originally.

Route 6:
Monday - Saturday evening frequency will be reduced from having about 2 buses per hour to only 1 per hour.
Sunday service will be CUT BACK to Bearwood, leaving no direct buses from Bearwood to Merley on Sunday. (Current arrangement is one bus per hour every day of the week)

No changes to tendered routes 18, 33 and 36.

Route 21:
The only remaining school-day departure will be withdrawn from July, with previous daytime services already withdrawn last November and being replaced with a tendered route 23 run by morebus. Only route 125 is left serving Bransgore, with only 2 departures operating on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.

Route 31:
Service will be permanently withdrawn after an indefinite suspension of operation since this January, with service reduced from a daytime operation to peak-hour operation already last year. Yellow Buses claims it is replaced by the extended route 4 which now serves Christchurch extended from Castlepoint from May 2021, however, route 31 is the only service linking the northern part of St Catherine's Hill (closest to Blackwater Junction) and Royal Bournemouth Hospital which runs express between them, with the closest alternative morebus X1/X2 running slow via Jumpers Corner not serving area north of St Catherine's Hill.

Route 727 / 737:
Airport buses will only run in peak hours. It will no longer be possible to use buses to reach the airport except in peak hours. 727 will be a new route linking Boscombe and the Airport through Christchurch and Blackwater Junction.

New timetable from town:
05:50 from Bournemouth
06:30 from Boscombe
06:45 from Bournemouth (compared to 12:45 as the current last bus)

New timetable from airport:
13:35 to Bournemouth (compared to 10:05 as the current first bus)
16:20 to Bournemouth
16:48 to Boscombe
18:00 to Bournemouth

Note that Bournemouth Airport is known as a scamport because once a car enters the access road, there will be no way turning back but paying the ransom charge to drop off passengers. There is also no pavement on the access road as well forcing pedestrians, who don't want to pay that ransom to the airport by walking the last segment to the airport, to walk to the carriageway with the traffic causing danger.

Before 2016, there was an express route A1 linking Bournemouth town centre and the airport via A338 every hour operating every day of the week, which provided a useful airport connection to rail passengers (that bus ran non-stop between the train station and the airport, and PlusBus tickets were valid on the route). The lack of public transport at Bournemouth now means we're better off to go to Southampton Airport or Heathrow Airport (there is now a non-stop coach M3 running between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport) instead of flying from Bournemouth Airport if the appropriate airline is available in both airports. I sincerely wish Bournemouth Airport will go out of business due to lack of public transport making people not being able to access it with minimal cost.

This is a complete disgrace to Yellow Buses, with service reduction everywhere across its whole network.

To be honest, I think those sort of reductions will soon be common over much of the UK.

 

[miklcct]

I used that 737 service from Bournemouth to the airport last year. I was the only person to to alight at the airport. The national express 104 runs more frequently to Heathrow airport, M3 is only a few times daily. Bournemouth has more european services than Southampton where you pay a premium for.

Bournemouth Airport has less domestic flights than Southampton Airport (I think none from Bournemouth at the moment), and now if I really take price as my first priority the choice will be Gatwick (using south coast trains to get to the airport). Until all COVID-related border restrictions are gone, I still don't have any confidence in any cross-border leisure travel so domestic travel will still be my priority.

To be honest, I think those sort of reductions will soon be common over much of the UK.

I have already lost confidence in public buses outside London as bus companies can remove services at will disregarding if there are any possible alternatives. For example, the only link between Bearwood and Merley is gone on Sunday, and there are no alternatives without going all the way to Poole then back up to Merley.

Under a regulated environment, the government always makes sure that there is a reasonable alternative for every affected passenger for any route changes.

 

[AB93]

To be honest, I think those sort of reductions will soon be common over much of the UK.

Indeed - as drastic as these Yellow Buses changes may be perceived, operators know everything now must stand on its own two feet come the autumn and I would be very surprised if Yellow Buses weren't currently suffering driver shortages impacting what they're currently trying to run anyway.

I have already lost confidence in public buses outside London as bus companies can remove services at will disregarding if there are any possible alternatives. For example, the only link between Bearwood and Merley is gone on Sunday, and there are no alternatives without going all the way to Poole then back up to Merley.
Under a regulated environment, the government always makes sure that there is a reasonable alternative for every affected passenger for any route changes.

Don't try and use the Sunday service on the 497 in London then as TfL are going to withdraw it... nowhere is immune from the harsh realities of post-Covid public transport demand.

 

[carlberry]

Under a regulated environment, the government always makes sure that there is a reasonable alternative for every affected passenger for any route changes.

You do understand what the government has been doing to TfL recently, and how little it actually cares about any passengers effected by it!

 

[baza585]

To be honest, I think those sort of reductions will soon be common over much of the UK.

The changes are really not that major, and are in some cases improvements (3x and 4 particularly so).

I used to live in Bournemouth and know the area well.

The PVR is virtually unchanged by my reckoning.

Compared to cuts elsewhere, these are relatively minor, I would suggest. That said the loss of the daytime link to the airport is a pain but the route was only ever busy in the morning and evening peaks.

 

[Stan Drews]

Under a regulated environment, the government always makes sure that there is a reasonable alternative for every affected passenger for any route changes.

Those governments also make sure that plenty of funding is thrown at it. That doesn’t exist in the UK.

 

[miklcct]

The changes are really not that major, and are in some cases improvements (3x and 4 particularly so).

I used to live in Bournemouth and know the area well.

The PVR is virtually unchanged by my reckoning.

Compared to cuts elsewhere, these are relatively minor, I would suggest. That said the loss of the daytime link to the airport is a pain but the route was only ever busy in the morning and evening peaks.

I wonder why Yellow Buses has failed in every attempt running express routes, from routes 24, A1 in the past, then 31 and 3x now, while morebus still runs them empty for years.

 

[CBlue]

I wonder why Yellow Buses has failed in every attempt running express routes, from routes 24, A1 in the past, then 31 and 3x now, while morebus still runs them empty for years.

Is that from just your observation? If so, perhaps you're simply not seeing said services on occasions when they do carry passengers....

 

[miklcct]

Is that from just your observation? If so, perhaps you're simply not seeing said services on occasions when they do carry passengers....

I have never seen any morebus X1/X2/X6 carrying more than 10 passengers on the A338 between the town centre and the hospital - most commonly under 5 people - on a variety of times.

 

[LordCreed]

I have never seen any morebus X1/X2/X6 carrying more than 10 passengers on the A338 between the town centre and the hospital - most commonly under 5 people - on a variety of times.

That's completely different to my experience of the routes, especially the X6 in summer.