Public Transport.. Buses

[Celtic Traveller]

Hello,

Fresh to the community.

Wondering if anyone can help?

My experience is in PR, Marketing, Advertising - knowledge of Film & Television. That sort of line. Family members have worked in Public Transport before, some in high area's.

I'm quite interested in launching a bus company, to take on a tender from the City & Council of Swansea in the coming 2 months. I have no knowledge of what to do. But the figures, proposals, potential investors etc are all lined up & roughly there.

What i'd like to do, is find a Manager - or someone with experience to come in, and make this happen. Take a step back, and assist them with everything they need. Then take on PR & Marketing for the company.

There's a very rare opportunity approaching, and it's great for tourism. The cheapest offer to the Swansea Council will basically get granted the contracts. It used to be £200,000. By re-booting, and improving the services & routes. I've managed to get that significantly lower than the current provider (which is temp' in place, for the two months)

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm aware i'm going out on straws & limbs here!

Kind Regards,

Kieran

[Esk247]

with limited experience you may struggle.

a better option would be to approach a coach/bus company that already has everything in place and is looking for investment??

either way, it's a tall order because most companies are not interested in operating bus services on local routes..they have to be operating dozens of routes to make any money at all, even then they're usually subsidised.

add to all of this the insurance, repairs, maintenance, servicing, safety, employee pay etc etc you're looking at a fair whack of cash to get started..in the millions of turnover every year to be able to compete for a route.

[Celtic Traveller]

Hello Esk,

Thank's for joining in.

That's what happened recently, bus companys were approached - and only the 'bully provider' of FIRST Cymru took over. Thus after raising more prices, and using more unsuitable buses on the route - making it further unviable.

The proposed routes run between two cities, and a mega tourism attraction / communities potentially without a bus service.

To be specific, we're talking about the Gower to Swansea services. Previously the subsidy was £200,000 for Veolia. It got stopped, Veolia had to pull out due to Swansea holding the contract for it's marketing - which was a major factor as a fair portion of people did not know about the services. There were obviously other vital reasons to.

This proposal, would half the subsidy between Swansea & Carmarthenshire Councils. Seeking about £50,000 - £75,000 from each. Factoring in the costs for buses, basic fuel, drivers & storage - if the buses were on rental for 3 years. It'd break about 3.9m.

If the buses can be bought for less than £24,000 outright. Then the subsidy each year would be Significantly lower.. which they can.

We're not just talking about re-subsidising another provider.
We're talking about regenerating the entire routes & factoring in primary area's. Shopping centre's, new communities, a new city. Listening to the public, late services - and hooking up with National Rail & Arriva Trains Wales services.

Something that i feel these days in Transport people fail to attempt. People see each other as competition, instead of working together to expand there business - and please customers.