Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[Owl]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(22/08/2014 07:09)Mayneway Wrote:  I've never been JPTs biggest fan but at one point a few years ago they seemed to have it all and were doing rather well. Maintiance wise they always seemed to turn out a decent bus, but they became fixated on trying to compete hard with other companies and virtually over night standards very quickly started to drop, and when the pots running dry where better to save some money than to start skimping on maintenance and buy a job lot of extra strong gaffa tape

My personal belief is that if JPT hadn't tried competing the way they did, Bluebird would still be around today, but I think the nails were driven firmly into JPTs coffin the day the day Bluebirds owner sold out to Stagecoach.

The final few weeks summed it up for me perfectly. They had gone from operating brand new Enviro's and Primo's to old tired 24 year old Olympians.

Absolutely, totally agree with you. As someone who lives close to the depot, and has seen a lot of their buses, it was incredible how quickly they went from being a tidy operation, with a modern, well turned out fleet, to running some absolute wrecks. They also became PR obsessed, and seemed to concentrate on that at the expense of day to day operations. Who can forget the debacle of the facebook page, quickly taken down when people started to use it to complain about late running and missed services, or all the PR about the new depot in Middleton.

I also agree that it seemed to occur when they became obsessed with trying to drive competitors off routes. It is ironic that it was their success in putting Bluebird out of business that led to their own downfall, as Stagecoach were never going to give in to those tactics.