New bus service gets a thumbs-up (From Witney Gazette)
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New bus service gets a thumbs-up
10:30am Saturday 13th October 2012 in News
By Tom Jennings, covering Witney and West Oxfordshire. Call me on 01865 425403
Rodney Rose, cabinet member for transport
WEST Oxfordshire schools and residents have praised bus operators that stepped into the breach after a local transport firm closed down. Witney-based RH Transport announced it was going into administration due to financial problems last week.
The firm operated services between Witney and other West Oxfordshire towns, scores of school buses and the Cotswold Line Railbus routes.
But Oxfordshire County Council’s public transport department agreed new operators on affected routes by the following afternoon.
And residents in Charlbury, where RH Transport ran the X9 buses between Chipping Norton and Witney, were full of praise.
Edward Fenton said: “I was impressed by how quickly they stepped in.
“It would have trapped a good number of people, particularly young families and the elderly, if they hadn’t done anything. It would have had serious implications.”
Denise Summers, 69, said: “It would have been awful if Charlbury didn’t have a bus service.”
Richard Fairhurst, Charlbury Town Council transport representative, said: “Everyone has been incredibly impressed with how Oxfordshire County Council stepped into the breach and sorted out replacements pretty much within 24 hours.”
RH also ran bus school bus services across Oxfordshire, including in Eynsham, Burford, Witney and Chipping Norton.
Andrew Hamilton, headteacher of Bartholomew School in Eynsham, said: “The local authority has been very efficient in replacing the bus service that was affected. Everything is going smoothly.”
Jim Meridew, business manager at Burford School, said: “The buses turned up on Monday as they said they would. Nothing changed for students.”
County Hall said replacement bus services that began on Monday will run through until next July, when a tendering process for the routes will begin.
The council says it has not yet calculated the cost of bringing in new firms to take over the RH Transport contracts.
Rodney Rose, cabinet member for transport, said: “It was an awful lot of work for our public transport team, who I think really deserve medals for the fantastic work they have done.
“Nobody has really noticed a difference. I have had no emails complaining, and believe me I usually get them.”
He said RH Transport, which the council had been using since 2003, was on an approved list of firms and the council had gone through due process in awarding contracts.
Up to 70 former RH Transport staff lost their jobs when the company, which administrators said will not be sold as a going concern, went into administration.
- For more information about replacement services, see http://oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/news/2012/ oct/rh-transport-affected-school-buses
Comments(8)
West Oxon Webwatcher
says...
3:36pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Andrew:Oxford
says...
7:32pm Sat 13 Oct 12
West Oxon Webwatcher wrote:Oh I do. And some of the contracts were without subsidy
Andrew:Oxford obviously does not understand the laws that Oxon C.C has to comply with when letting contracts. The primary consideration is the price the bus company offers to provide the service for as it is almost impossible to make cash calculations on the quality of buses used with any value being a judgement that would leave to much disagreement amongst critics. We who have used RH services know its fleet mostly came from the big company's throwouts with low standards of interior cleanliness. That is how it could win its contracts and prices that were almost certainly too low or the company would not have gone bust.
What I find fascinating is how some services came to be provided by a different ltd company from the one detailed in the tender...
Is it normal for a local authority to roll a contract over in a phoenix?
daretocare
says...
9:36am Sun 14 Oct 12
Man on the Green
says...
11:06pm Sun 14 Oct 12
King Joke
says...
4:50pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Man on the Green
says...
11:25pm Mon 15 Oct 12
King Joke
says...
9:25am Tue 16 Oct 12
You're right about the PT Team. Disruption lasted 1.5 days at most and normality was largely restored the following Mon. I'm sure a lot of hard work and late nights went into ensuring the lights stayed on, with may a bit of flickering (!), so well done all involved.
Andrew:Oxford says...
11:02am Sat 13 Oct 12
*If* RH Transport was ever engaged in the first place...
Back in 2011, RH Transport Services became RH Coaches. A new company was created called RH Buses around the same time, in August this year RH Buses became RH Transport Services.