Bus operator RH "ceases to operate"

1:19pm Thursday 4th October 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Andrew Smith, Business Editor. Call me on 01865 425460

BUS operator RH Transport Services has announced that its services will “cease to operate” by the end of the day.

The Witney company, which operates the No 700 hospital park-and-ride service in Oxford, routes linking towns in West Oxfordshire including the X8 between Witney and Chipping Norton, and school bus services across the county, is set to go into administration tomorrow.

RH is also the operator of the X9 and C1 and T1 Cotswold Line Railbus routes, which connect with trains at Kingham and Charlbury stations, and the X15 Witney-Abingdon service.

Since August it had been running a number of special football services to take Oxford United fans to matches at the club's Kassam Stadium.

The schools served by the firm's buses have been informed of the situation.

Rodney Rose, Oxfordshire County Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for transport, said: “We’re very keen to find replacement operators and have them up and running as soon as we possibly can.”

RH Transport currently provides 30 education transport services in Oxfordshire. These services will not run on Friday.

Chipping Norton, Henry Box and Wood Green secondary schools have inset days tomorrow so services were not scheduled to run anyway.

School services operated by RH Transport are:

Burford School - Leafield-Shipton-Fulbrook
Burford School - Leafield-Fordwells
Burford School - Minster Lovell-Worsham
Burford School - Brize-Carterton-Langford
Burford School – Black Bourton-Alvescot-Filkins
Chipping Norton School - Charlbury Spelsbry
Chipping Norton School - Charlbury
Chipping Norton School - Enstone
Chipping Norton School - Dean Chadlington
Chipping Norton School - Middle Barton
Kingham CP School - Salford Churchill
Holy Trinity RC School - Charlbury/Enstone
Charlbury CP School - Finstock/Cornbury Park
Charlbury CP School - Ditchley Park
Matthew Arnold School - Kennington
Matthew Arnold School - Kennington
Matthew Arnold School - Kennington
King Alfreds - Rowstock-East and West Hendred
Wheatley Park School - Risinghurst
Wheatley Park School - Risinghurst Sandhills
Henry Box School - Aston-Bampton
Henry Box School - Aston-Cote-Standlake
Wood Green School - Stonesfield-Finstock-Ramsden
Wood Green School - Finstock
Burford School -Kelmscott-Clanfield
Burford School -Bampton-Brize Norton
Burford School -Bampton-Brize Norton
Chipping Norton School - Charlbury
Bartholomew School -Standlake-Brighthampton
Wood Green School -East End-North Leigh

The regular passenger routes operated by RH are:

18: Clanfield – Bampton – Oxford
19: Carterton – Bampton – Witney
63: Longworth – Eaton – Oxford
64: Carterton- Lechlade – Swindon
67/A: Wantage - Stanford – Faringdon
98: Great Western Park – Didcot
243: Combe – Leafield – Witney
700: Water Eaton – Oxford hospitals park-and-ride
C1: Charlbury Rail Bus
X8: Wychwoods – Kingham – Chipping Norton
X9: Witney – Charlbury - Chipping Norton
X15: Witney – Southmoor- Abingdon
X47: Wantage – Swindon.
These services will not run tomorrow or until replacement operators have been found by the council.

Comments(29)

CHINNOR YELLOWS says...
1:30pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Not good news for employees. Does this mean no service for the Oxford United home games, or will they find an alternative ?

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WitneyGreen says...
1:36pm Thu 4 Oct 12

RH also runs non-school services across West Oxfordshire (including the 18 and 19, the X9 and the X15 college service between Witney and Abingdon). Are these also affected? Some rural communities will be without buses if they are.

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goridebus says...
1:46pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Yes WitneyGreen, it is everything.
It would appear at this moment in time that no RH buses will run tomorrow or Saturday. OCC have put out an emergency call to operators willing to restart their bus services from Monday.

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AG1759 says...
1:47pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Their website message states all county council bus services and school services so presumably that's everything.

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Andrew:Oxford says...
2:16pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Don't they also provide the No 700 P&R services between the Headington Hospitals and Water Eaton.

Thornhill be be rammed and Headington will be grid-locked tomorrow morning.

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WitneyGreen says...
2:48pm Thu 4 Oct 12

That's appalling. Many people in those villages have no other way of getting to work, school or college. Perhaps Stagecoach (who ran several of the routes until the council pennypinched the tenders away from them) will step up to the plate - sharpish, I hope.

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Mark L says...
2:48pm Thu 4 Oct 12

So that's it, basically tough luck....

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King Joke says...
2:51pm Thu 4 Oct 12

True WG. Let's hope the County can organise something pronto, assuming other operators can rustle up the vehicles and drivers required.

One thing Stagecoach could do is to jiggle the diagrams around a little to put double decks on the 14, and maybe run some reliefs. THe 14 duplicates part of the 700 route.

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WitneyGreen says...
3:25pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Apparently OCC has arranged a skeleton service for tomorrow for Water Eaton and the JR, and Stagecoach are running some additonal S5 services to replace the 700. So that's a start at least.

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EricTheRed says...
4:37pm Thu 4 Oct 12

opportunity for the small operators to get in before Oxford Bus Company ,Stagecoach and Thames Travel.. Come on Whites Coaches!

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EricTheRed says...
4:37pm Thu 4 Oct 12

opportunity for the small operators to get in before Oxford Bus Company ,Stagecoach and Thames Travel.. Come on Whites Coaches and Heyfordian lets get some competition!

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WitneyGreen says...
4:53pm Thu 4 Oct 12

A huge WELL DONE and THANK YOU to Stagecoach - they've just confirmed on Twitter they'll be covering some services which is really great news. And I agree with Eric the Red that other operators have a real chance to shine here.

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H.J.Harris says...
4:57pm Thu 4 Oct 12

When I saw how fast RH was growing it occurred to me that perhaps they were being rather ambitious. The buses did not give the impression of being as well maintained as Oxford Bus or Stagecoach but it is natural to root for the small guy and overlook the occasional problem.
Costs can only be cut so far and one of their drivers once complained to me about pay and conditions being so much worse than their competitors.
My sympathy goes out to the staff and to the management who appear to have made a valiant effort to compete with the "big boys".

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Myron Blatz says...
6:01pm Thu 4 Oct 12

The harsh reality of bus and coach operation is no different to any other commercually run business from hotdog vans to multi-£million conglomerates - it can always go belly-up, and not always because people didn't work hard enough. RH fiund itself rrying to compete ewith larger operators who could shoulder costs, take the knocks and stay up to date with operating requirements, emission controls and buses which were fit for purpose, in what can be a cut-throat business, as.some might remember from the 'mini bus wars' afer de-regulation, and when thw likes of Stagecoach were fighting to build-up business against Oxford Bus and others. RH is to be commended for having at least tried, but may have been the casualty of its own ambition - something which has been levelled for example against Stagecoach on many occassions over the years, but has always somehow managed to beat the odds and succeed. May the idea RH had for 'football specials' remain and the ball of opportunity be picked up by another company. RIP.

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Bob jobs says...
6:27pm Thu 4 Oct 12

There were many good company's that provided transport on these routes ie worths of enstone for 20 years. Good clean buses. RH went in very cheap and the council took on cheapness in stead of reliable trusted services they had had for years.

The cheapest is never the best way as the government found out this week about the trains . Now I guess they all want to go back to those company's and say please help us out. Although this effects my children with school if I were those past transport providers I would tell the OCC to get stuffed !

But im sure they won't

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paul from Kennington says...
6:32pm Thu 4 Oct 12

WitneyGreen wrote:
A huge WELL DONE and THANK YOU to Stagecoach - they've just confirmed on Twitter they'll be covering some services which is really great news. And I agree with Eric the Red that other operators have a real chance to shine here.
Well done and thank you to Stage coach, for what? Do you think they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart?. No they have been negotiating their bigger subsidy for these services with the council all day, using buses that are spare after bigger subsidies cut the number of buses they had to run to compete with Go Ahead in Oxford. Let us see if they run the football specials, then you get your answer.

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exrhdriver2 says...
6:59pm Thu 4 Oct 12

well what can i say, ok the children may not get to school tomorrow, appointments may not be able to be kept but these can be re-arranged, the fans will get to the football in some way or another, but what nobody has said yet - what about the poor drivers that have lost their jobs today only told by a telephone call while out working being told no wages, so that's 2 weeks work without wages and what did RH do yesterday asked every driver to pay all their monies in to today, and what we're management and fitters start doing last night and this morning, i'll tell you started stripping assets from the buses, why don't some of you ask Mr Roberts about his monthly bonuses and his great big 1 million pound paid for house in Wales, Yes the only people that have suffered today are the DRIVERS

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nfjuk@yahoo.com says...
8:33pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Thank you to the drivers especially the Charlbury route, CI to the station was a great service especially Neil the driver. Charlbury depends on this service so hopefully a new operator will be found for the X9 and C1. Thanks Nick

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ExRHBusesDriver says...
9:00pm Thu 4 Oct 12

exrhdriver2 wrote:
well what can i say, ok the children may not get to school tomorrow, appointments may not be able to be kept but these can be re-arranged, the fans will get to the football in some way or another, but what nobody has said yet - what about the poor drivers that have lost their jobs today only told by a telephone call while out working being told no wages, so that's 2 weeks work without wages and what did RH do yesterday asked every driver to pay all their monies in to today, and what we're management and fitters start doing last night and this morning, i'll tell you started stripping assets from the buses, why don't some of you ask Mr Roberts about his monthly bonuses and his great big 1 million pound paid for house in Wales, Yes the only people that have suffered today are the DRIVERS
well said mate, may our paths cross again one day............

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Kevin west says...
11:47pm Thu 4 Oct 12

I feel for the drivers during this time, and hope that the do get some form of payout.
RH had one big problem they tendered too low for the routes, which left them no room to menover with the rising costs.
Granted the bigger companies seem to put the pressure on smaller companies, but these companies have the resources to do so.
What RH didn't do is get routes that were commercially viable, to offset the not so commercially viable.

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lewins89 says...
1:05am Fri 5 Oct 12

This is bloody stupid i use the 64 bus carterton to swindon, then a train to chippenham every weekend to get to work as i cant find a job in carterton,oxford or surrounding area.
so know i can not get to work unless i travel an hour and half in the wrong direction to get the train to bath such a bloody **** take of our system now a days p.s my heart goes out to my older gentleman who drove the bus as i new he was in the process of redoing his family home.

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WitneyGreen says...
8:44am Fri 5 Oct 12

paul from Kennington wrote:
WitneyGreen wrote:
A huge WELL DONE and THANK YOU to Stagecoach - they've just confirmed on Twitter they'll be covering some services which is really great news. And I agree with Eric the Red that other operators have a real chance to shine here.
Well done and thank you to Stage coach, for what? Do you think they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart?. No they have been negotiating their bigger subsidy for these services with the council all day, using buses that are spare after bigger subsidies cut the number of buses they had to run to compete with Go Ahead in Oxford. Let us see if they run the football specials, then you get your answer.
No, Paul, I think they are doing it to prove that they should never have lost the tenders on those routes in the first place, and are now hoping for commercial success on them once more. I don't give two hoots about the football specials, but I do care about vast areas of rural West Oxfordshire being left without buses. Thanks to Stagecoach reacting quickly yesterday, and making buses and drivers available, they won't be.

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King Joke says...
9:50am Fri 5 Oct 12

paul from Kennington wrote:
WitneyGreen wrote: A huge WELL DONE and THANK YOU to Stagecoach - they've just confirmed on Twitter they'll be covering some services which is really great news. And I agree with Eric the Red that other operators have a real chance to shine here.
Well done and thank you to Stage coach, for what? Do you think they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart?. No they have been negotiating their bigger subsidy for these services with the council all day, using buses that are spare after bigger subsidies cut the number of buses they had to run to compete with Go Ahead in Oxford. Let us see if they run the football specials, then you get your answer.
Paul, is this the same Stagecoach who took the 16 commercial, thereby turning down subsidy on offer? They're not always after more subsidy. Then there's the 'spare' buses you mention as not needed since joint operation with Go Ahead started. Joint operation started in Jul 2011, and the 'spare' buses have all long since gone. Most were life-expired anyway, on S-plates, and have gone to less intensive services in other parts of the country.

Yes Stagecoach are a huge multinational who are in the business to make money, but they don't generally these days act big and evil.

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My Kingdom for an 'Orse says...
10:08am Fri 5 Oct 12

It's no good opting for the cheapest operator if they only have three wheels on their wagon. They just won't ever be able to deliver the service.

Of course we could all see that this would happen sooner or later. We wondered if other operators (Worth's came into mind) would be able to resume the school contract services they once ran if they got rid of some vehicles. All I can say is, I'm available to drive.

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Wifeofexrhdriver says...
1:43pm Fri 5 Oct 12

well what can i say, ok the children may not get to school tomorrow, appointments may not be able to be kept but these can be re-arranged, the fans will get to the football in some way or another, but what nobody has said yet - what about the poor drivers that have lost their jobs today only told by a telephone call while out working being told no wages, so that's 2 weeks work without wages and what did RH do yesterday asked every driver to pay all their monies in to today, and what we're management and fitters start doing last night and this morning, i'll tell you started stripping assets from the buses, why don't some of you ask Mr Roberts about his monthly bonuses and his great big 1 million pound paid for house in Wales, Yes the only people that have suffered today are the DRIVERS”

I totally agree with this comment and would like to thank this person for the comment. This is the only comment that i have seen for the poor drivers!!
My husband was a driver for r h transport and is now out of a job and we have a family to think of!! And as to the other driver's that have been made unemployed!! We feel very annoyed that the staff was not kept informed of what was happening and not given the chance to look for other work before the company went bust!! We are also very annoyed with how we found out that my husband had lost his job and that was through FACEBOOK!! I really do feel for those that have lost transport but this is being sorted.. Where as there is nothing be sorted for the drivers!!

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the wizard says...
2:43pm Fri 5 Oct 12

A great many comments here, and many complaining about "the cheapest operator" etc, but life tells me these are probably the self same people who are also in many cases first to complain about transport and commuting costs/fares.
Nobody it seems has a good word to say about a local operator which has tried hard to satisfy local demand under some very telling market conditions and yet was taken for granted by many, a cheap alternative, during a period where the government nor OCC has done nothing or very little to ease the burden of prohibitive fuel costs.

For what it is worth , my thanks to RH for what they tried to do, and despite all their failings in the eyes of some, they never ripped us off. Who ever comes in now will cost more, and the time tables will probably be less frequent. We the travelling public have lost more than will ever gain from who ever comes in next, who will run a balance sheet and not such a publicly minded service. RH, you will be missed, my thanks for what you tried to do.

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My Kingdom for an 'Orse says...
4:34pm Fri 5 Oct 12

Wizzard’s view is as valid as any, although a short sighted one. If a company is unable to deliver what it has undertaken by either bleeding itself white by putting in an unrealistic bid, or by failing to factor in increasing costs over the period of the tenure, or just not being able to organise the proverbial function in a brewery, then in the long term they do no one any good service at all, on the contrary, they have let you down. Where is your bus service now?

It seems that when considering who to award school contracts to, price is the only consideration. Long established reliable operators in the area have lost contracts to cheaper bidders who proved unable to fulfil their undertakings and have now gone out of business. Those long established operators had to make drivers redundant too, so no one is a winner.

As for complaining about transport costs, me thinks you assume too much. I ride a bike, but because I enjoy the way I travel, I don’t mind paying for quality replacement components.

All this of course is only my perspective on things, and I could be wrong, I sometimes am. However, I’m more inclined to listen to the former drivers. They at least had an insight into the company’s operations.

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regularbuspassenger says...
8:56pm Fri 5 Oct 12

To all the drivers of route 18. You will be sadly missed. I always enjoyed the friendly banter. Hope you all get what's due to you and you're behind the wheel again soon.

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My Kingdom for an 'Orse says...
9:24am Sun 7 Oct 12

Did the company ever intend to be around too long? Or were they there for the short term to make quick fast money before folding up and moving on? I'm sure someone must have done alright out of it.

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