Bus company struggles to break even (From The Argus)

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Bus company struggles to break even

6:06pm Wednesday 7th November 2007

comment Comments (20) Have your say »

By Ruth Lumley »

A bus company is struggling to break even because it does not have enough passengers.

Tom Druitt, the founder of the Big Lemon Company which started running buses from Falmer station to Brighton station and back on September 1, will review the service at the end of the month.

He says the company needs to increase passenger numbers by 20 per cent to make it financially viable. If this does not happen he will look at making changes to how the service is run.

The former care home manager said: "In September passenger numbers grew very rapidly and since then they have been steady.

"In three months we should know whether people find it useful enough for it to continue. I have some ideas in mind if it is not working, for example, we are quite busy in the evenings so it may be that we stop having so many services throughout the day."

The service starts at 7.15am and runs every half an hour up until 7.15pm, before it becomes hourly, running until 12.45am. Tickets cost £1, or £2 for the day.

Mr Druitt added: "Obviously we want to run good services and discourage people from getting into their cars. If people do not find a particular service useful there is no point in it running. We are just experimenting at the moment."

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Your Say YourArgus

TIm, Brighton says...
7:02pm Wed 7 Nov 07

Start a nightbus that runs a circular route around brighton

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Ken, Brighton says...
7:11pm Wed 7 Nov 07

I a couple of days my B&H Annual Season Ticket expires. I'll then start using the yellow bus. Will mean some extra walking but I need the exercise.

The B&H treat the service to Bevendean like a service they'd rather not run.

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Jiff, Hove says...
8:04pm Wed 7 Nov 07

Come on Brighton, not Hove as we dont have this wonderful new bus. Unless you get on the lemon it will fold and then so will the NEW B&H center fare. Agree BHB&CC dont give a squeeze (think about it - lemon!) about anything they own the road and thats it. if the service was in Hove then I would use it.
Great idea

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bob, bton says...
8:44pm Wed 7 Nov 07

Run a night bus from Shoreham to Saltdean along the seafront

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caeos, says...
9:46pm Wed 7 Nov 07

So Mr D, what is the route for this new service into Hove that you have planned?
and why are you "just experimenting at the moment"?

Ken - a lot of areas can say that, look at the 6,22,81 etc, all complain that they dont have enough buses. one driver said to a complainer who had to wait more than 10 mins for a bus, "move to an area with a more frequent service then!"

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lisa, Brighton says...
7:21am Thu 8 Nov 07

Brighton buses fare's are far too cheap. in Blackpool a day saver is £5.75 adult & £5.25 child or oap. Brighton is only £3.20 or £1.60 child. Lemon bus even cheaper

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Dave, Wivelsfield says...
8:32am Thu 8 Nov 07

Big Lemon - says it all really. How does actual performance stack up against the business and financial plans put together that must have shown the business would work or were they just imaginary to fool the banks into lending the start up funds?

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Paul, Brighton Seafront says...
9:11am Thu 8 Nov 07

lisa wrote:
Brighton buses fare's are far too cheap. in Blackpool a day saver is £5.75 adult & £5.25 child or oap. Brighton is only £3.20 or £1.60 child. Lemon bus even cheaper

I think you will find that Blackpool tickets are far too expensive and possibly a factor in the recent decline of Blackpool.

Brighton bus tickets can be reasonable if you are travelling from outside the city or the length and breadth of the city, but not for those that require a relatively short journey.

I would use the Big Lemon, but it does not cover the journey I need.

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bob, lewes says...
9:22am Thu 8 Nov 07

Nice comments Dave, at least someones had the balls to try and set this up and create some competition, its also early days...fool

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clare mahomey, brighton says...
9:24am Thu 8 Nov 07

More Timetables avaliable in Brighton Please, so we know when to look out for the Lemon Buses. xx

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Rose, Patcham, Brighton says...
9:54am Thu 8 Nov 07

I agree with Clare, it would be good to see the timetables as I didn't know about this bus service.

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Stroller, Hove says...
10:44am Thu 8 Nov 07

The Lemon needs to consider Hove - the Falmer route is of no interest to Hove.

The Lemon has to provide a good service to places even further out, and then see if the residents there really do want a good bus service in the evenings or whether they prefer to stay in.

Perhaps the Mile Oak crowd prefer telly?

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El Tel, Saltdean says...
11:34am Thu 8 Nov 07

Saltdean is changing. A night bus from the Steine to Saltdean would be a winner. Do it.

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Becks, Saltdean says...
2:29pm Thu 8 Nov 07

A service between Saltdean and Brighton would be great. Evenings and weekends are difficult as the 27 isn't very frequent.

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Lewis Gill, Brighton says...
3:35pm Thu 8 Nov 07

Having looked at the Big Lemon website, full marks to Tom for the idea of an environmentally friendly service using used cooking oil as fuel, but I agree with Dave - it would be interesting to know what thought, budget and business plan was put together when launching this service and what experience passengers have had of using it. I say this as I was stuck behind one (perhaps the only one!) of their buses along the A259 early the other morning between Southwick and Hove. What a heap of junk, it appeared to be!. Old, tatty, dirty (oily handprints all over the rear engine cover) and smelly. It crept along at well below the legal speed limit holding up the traffic on a fairly empty road and emitting a smell and fumes like a rancid chip shop.

As I said, full marks for the idea, and I hope this vehicle wasn't representative, but if expansion of the services does mean more of this standard of vehicle on the road then God help us!

I've nothing against buses - I use my car, buses and trains, but this whole scenario does not seem well thought out.

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John, Oxford, UK says...
5:13pm Thu 8 Nov 07

Sadly we have another genius here who thinks Brighton & Hove buses are a licence to print money and that it could all be done so much better, now three months in Mr Genius is finding out that the reality of self financing bus operation in the UK. B&H buses do make a lot of money, but to run a lengthy network of frequent services they need to make this money, and they need good cash cow routes to help the weaker routes. They also invest in new modern vehicles which are smartly presented and which live in a garage with full maintenance facilities. They have a large admin and driving staff and provide decent pensions to drivers, all of which costs them a great deal of money. Mr Druitt runs some old second hand vehicles (dates from 1974, 1983 and 1994) with vehicles kept in a lorry park, much less admin and fixed costs and he still cant make money which shows the reality that no matter how many buses you run, some areas just suffer from low public transport usage. Maybe now he can see that networks of rural services will be nothing other than a dead financial loss.

A European style public transport system of frequent fixed routes would be lovely, but it requires a lot of public subsidy to operate which is why the UK has gone down the road of letting private enterprise run. Before people slag off B&H buses, just take five minutes to think about how much providing a frequent bus service to every destination would cost, and how much extra we would pay to have it provided.

Sorry but the Big Lemon is just that!

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Joe Hodgkinson, Manchester says...
5:16pm Thu 8 Nov 07

Paul wrote:

lisa wrote:
Brighton buses fare's are far too cheap. in Blackpool a day saver is £5.75 adult & £5.25 child or oap. Brighton is only £3.20 or £1.60 child. Lemon bus even cheaper
I think you will find that Blackpool tickets are far too expensive and possibly a factor in the recent decline of Blackpool.

Brighton bus tickets can be reasonable if you are travelling from outside the city or the length and breadth of the city, but not for those that require a relatively short journey.

I would use the Big Lemon, but it does not cover the journey I need.

Minor correction, Blackpool's "Metrosaver" day bus ticket is £4 for adults, and £2 for kids/OAP's.

I'm pretty sure that bus prices are a fair way down the list of reasons for the town's decline!

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Ian Roberts, Salford, Greater Manchester says...
7:27pm Thu 8 Nov 07

For Rose, Clare and anyone else interest, The Big Lemon have a timetable downloadable from their website at:

http://www.thebiglem
on.com

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Al, Brighton says...
6:15am Fri 9 Nov 07

Really if the BL are going to need to get another 20% of passengers to make it viable they need to get the route changed so it goes into Churchill Square on the way into the station, doing a loop via Imperial Arcade and Regent Hill on the way in and out. They run a route not done by B&H because it doesn`t make money, as students needing Brighton station can already get the train in 10 minutesflat, instead of the half hour it took on the bus, they don`t run route 42X any more so all the buses are slower. Basically there will always be people in Churchill Square needing the station so perhaps that`s the answer. Another thing would be to fit GPS boxes under the buses so they show up on the electronic displays at stops. Basically he needs to get the 42 making a profit before starting another route which if it didn`t carry many people would just strain BL`s finances even more, and then invest in the new buses he was on about. Can`t wait for the first BL Scania...

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marc pikey, north street brighton says...
10:39am Thu 15 Nov 07

the question should be, did this upstart ask crazy jacks permission to run this service. we all know that he runs the buses in brighton and if he aint happy then he will shut this two bit operation down. also, at timpsons we shine more than shoes, just ask for our executive service(if you know what i mean). 49 rules!

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