The Managing Director of Connexions Buses has aired concern over the effect that franchising of bus services in West Yorkshire will have on smaller operators.
Craig Temple, who runs an operation which has 28 of its 34 PVR fully or partially in West Yorkshire, was speaking after confirmation on 14 March that Mayor Tracy Brabin would deliver on her promise to reform buses via reregulation.
Mr Temple fears the tendering process will be too complicated and costly for smaller operators like his to complete. The awarding of services in the recent franchising process in Greater Manchester bears this out, he says.
“Having spoken to one of the larger groups, they explained to me how much they had paid consultants in order to fill in the paperwork so that it was in a format that the franchising panel wanted to see,” he says, adding to previously reported comments of his. “Obviously, this is totally beyond our reach.”
He says an “Enhanced Partnership Plus” model which had been recommended by the Association of Bus Operators in West Yorkshire (ABOWY) would have given the same results as franchising.
Mr Temple adds: “The most upsetting part of franchising for me is that our commercial service in Leeds, the 64, which we took on from First, will be confiscated from us with no compensation. I can’t for the life of me understand how this is legal.
“Why is it that the bus industry can be constantly played about with by successive governments like moving chess pieces on a board?… I told the West Yorkshire Combined Authority people that they might as well cut my right arm off if they take the 64 from us.”
He adds: “I now feel that we will have to, as a group of SMEs through the Confederation of Passenger Transport and ABOWY, try to ensure that our needs are catered for, and that they understand that we don’t have an army of people sitting in offices waiting to fill mountains of pointless paperwork in!”
