Transport for London is to sell the capital’s only publicly owned bus operate East Thames Buses to the Go Ahead Group, it was announced this afternoon.
The company, which was formed following the demise of the Harris Bus Company Ltd in 1999, operates routes , 42, 108, 132, 180, 185, 201, 661, 669 and N1.
TfL says it will now be transferred to London General will all routes having been granted new five year contracts, with optional two year extensions based on performance.
Although the sale’s value has not been released by TfL, the capital’s transport authority claims the transfer “will save TfL more than £30 million over the next nine years”.
David Brown, Managing Director for Surface Transport, said: “The operation of ETB is not a part of TfL’s core business and this deal represents much better value for money for fare and taxpayers. We are confident that London General will deliver improvements in service for passengers on the nine routes currently operated by ETB, at a reduced cost.”
TfL expects to complete the transfer of all operations by early September 2009. Projected savings are based on the elimination of vehicle maintenance and reduced costs for corporate support services.
A TfL spokesperson confirmed to this site that nine companies who met pre-qualification criteria expressed an interest in purchasing the company, with two compliant bids being submitted, from which London General’s was then successful.
Tom says
July 29, 2009 at 4:35 pmSorry, am I reading this right – they’ve granted new five year QI contracts to all routes operated by ETB without tendering? WTF? If true, that’s a bribe to the new operator to take it off the books, and needs investigating.
Also, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, asset prices are at the bottom of the market. Why does TfL suddenly need all this alleged money?
ETB Driver says
July 29, 2009 at 5:12 pmIt is outrageous but not unexpected. Boris is afterall a Conservative politician and let’s face it, everytime the Tories get their hands on public transport they sell it. Is it going to save money, of course not! That was proven with the collapse of Metronet because that is back in house without the need to pay shareholders. Go-Ahead is no different. It too will over inflate the tender prices, as will they all now that ETB has gone, and feed the pockets of its shareholders.
The deal might save Boris money, but rest assured the London Tax payer will pay dearly……
Our jobs at ETB? Boris doesn’t care about us and this is just another piece of his £2.4b cuts in London’s transport budget.
I challenge Boris to break from the Conservative norm and actually reverse the sale and instead invest in London’s transport system.
We haven’t all got bikes!!!!!!!!!!
Route 73 says
July 30, 2009 at 4:00 amI am really upset.
ETB is a fantastic company.
As what ETB Driver said above…. Boris is a conservative.
Londonders should had voted for Ken. Boris is just a one term mayor..with no plan or ideas. He is just cutting and cutting spending, plus projects in London, which would benefit Londoners
Ken 2012…… We cannot afford to lose anything else
JIMBO says
July 30, 2009 at 11:14 amI would question the ethics of the sale to the Go-Ahead group and the award of new 5 year contracts without the routes going to competative tender.
Why not let Go -Ahead have all of the routes in London to go with, London General, London Central,Metrobus,Docklands, Blue Triangle.
Upset ETB Driver says
July 30, 2009 at 1:46 pmIf something’s not broke why try fixing it??
East Thames Buses was setup from Harris Bus which went into receivership in 1999.
They were a company to step in if others folded.
Easylink went under and ETB took up the slack immediately with Routes 42 & 185 with much improved
results than its predecessor.
But all Boris Johnson wants to do is CUT, CUT CUT!!
Ken Livingstone had his faults but he lost the election, Boris or Doris didn’t win!!
I expect to see many more cuts in the future so brace yourselves and good luck!!
TawkinSenz says
July 30, 2009 at 2:14 pmAlthough the sale’s value has not been released by TfL, the capital’s transport authority claims the transfer “will save TfL more than £30 million over the next nine years”.
Classic lies.
As someone above pointed out – selling of public transport does save money in the short term – but ends up costing many times more in the long term.
I can’t think of a public service that has been sold which hasn’t either ended in a monopoly where the consumer pays through the nose – or being taken back into public hands at great expense to the tax payer.
I suspect the reason TFL have sold this off is because they have other ‘holes to fill’ – i.e. the cuts Boris is going to be forced to make as passenger revenues fall.
P.s. – it’s no good blaming Boris – he doesn’t actually make any decisions, it’s his possee of ‘advisors’ and ‘deputy dawgs’ who actually make decisions.
Dave says
July 30, 2009 at 2:49 pmI’ve heard the sale was structured around the London Buses tender model. Bidders tendered for the routes and then also submitted a bid for the East Thames business. So whoever bidded the lowest for the tender and the highest for the company would have won.
Duke Fame says
July 30, 2009 at 7:41 pmIt seems sensible, why have one small publically owned part of the bus network? To obtain the benefits of economies of scale, it has to be either all public or all private. All the public should care about is getting from a-b by the cheapest method with the least subsidy.
As a taxpayer, I don’t want to fund some egotists idiology as we had with the last mayor. It’s nice to see some sensible actions coming out of local politics.
ETB Driver says
July 30, 2009 at 10:04 pmI heard today that the sale price was a nominal £1. Tenders??? The company hasn’t even been sold and already tenders were invited for our routes. The notice we have states that it is London General that has made the purchase and this seems strange because Belvedere is a bit out of their operating area. I know it’s all GoAhead, but it does seem odd. Other latest news, which will get right up current GoAhead employees noses – London General are setting up a final salary pension specifically for us.
On the subject of ETB being a great company. Yes it is. Boris is missing the big picture in so far as TfL ownership of ETB. The new Routemaster is coming and remember the good old days of Chiswick Research & Development have gone, ETB would have been the perfect platform for research and development. Why? It’s in house, we don’t have to be contracted in to do anything, all testing can be instant without the need to tender for it and we run a variation of route with differing vehicle requirements. Instead, Boris is bringing a totally new type of bus into London, without being tested, vecause it is not a Routemaster and he will have to pay the bus operating companies to test it. And when he’s finished wasting tax payers money on that he will bring them into service with over inflated tender prices ie 2 salaries on the bus (i’m not against condutors – just Boris wasting money) where’s the savings now.
I think it’s time that the self proclaimed Chair of TFL Boris (and his Tory mate Steven Norris) started justifying this horrendous waste of money and come onto this forum and answer some questions.
Joel Kos' says
July 31, 2009 at 8:18 amMoney from giving away ETB (now boosted by guaranteed income for five years) pays £3m+ pa excess to unjustifiably replace each route’s articulated buses with a larger number of conventional vehicles. As for ‘beached whales’, have a look at Brussels route 65 – artics on narrow winding streets with no problems. Boris only ‘destroys’, ‘cuts’ or ‘strangles before birth’ – what has he done FOR London? ETB is a useful costs comparator (except for economies of scale such as hedging fuel) against risk of cartels over-pricing tenders; given it’s all ‘commercially sensitve’, how can taxpayers find out if we’re being rooked?
Martin Hoscik says
July 31, 2009 at 1:08 pmGo-Ahead were invited to respond to the various questions and points raised here with the offer to pen a contribution to our Open Platform. Sadly they tell me “At present, it is too early to comment beyond the statement issued by the Go-Ahead Group” – that statement is already reflected in our related article: http://mayorwatch.co.uk/east-thames-buses-sold-for-5m/20098497
ETB Driver says
July 31, 2009 at 6:58 pmI should think that it will be the same when they come to see us at ETB. Lot’s of answers that wont be relevant to the questions we are asking.
Why all the cloak and dagger?
Come on Boris & Go-Ahead PLC answer your public:
Why the urgency to sell (give away) ETB when it has been in TfL ownership for 9 years and has done fantastically well with it’s QSI results etc?
Can we the public have the results of all the bids for the routes and ETB that were submitted by the 9 companies interested?
Pensions: LUL Staff got rid of by TfL through PPI contracts and they retained there pensions. ETB being got rid of by TfL and we’ve not even been told what pension future we have. London General don’t have a final salary pension…………
Jobs: Go-Ahead have a massive surplus of staff from route losses so what’s really going to happen to us? Let’s see….. ship out all of our routes to other garages so that their staff have work. ETB staff will probably be then given 90 days notice of change of contracts with impossible conditions imposed on us thus leaving us jobless. Go-Ahead win either way….
Two concilations with this… one being Boris and his untruths won’t pass the finishing post at another mayoral election and the other being that with the olympics coming up, plus the fact that he is upsetting every London driver, there will be guaranteed untiy for our 2011/12 pay claim and if I was him I would start saving up for that one now. Payback time for the conservative misery he is inflicting on us and every other Londoner he is supposed to represent…
another one! says
August 3, 2009 at 7:33 pmWhat is happening to the london buses? Seems like Go-Ahead group is getting most of the London routes that come up for tender. They have a lot of the routes in se london winning 2 major routes from East London Bus Group earlier this year. They dont care about relocating drivers miles from their homes all they care about is money. They dont go on a companies performance they just base it on the lowest bidder.
This in turn means that the drivers get paid low wages so they can make the tenders viable.
Go Ahead group cant pay out overtime to transfered drivers that are on more pay than their current drivers but they can buy another company! Where is the justice?
Is it a case of all buses in se london will be operated by the go ahead group? How is that a case of fair tendering.
Or do they want it that way so they can put all se london drivers on 1 wage by letting 1 operating company win all the tenders. i suppose thats 1 way of doing it.
For all the ETB drivers… you should all be protected under TUPE rules and regulations.
Look after yourselfs and fight for what you are entitled to. No other person will do it for you.
TawkinSenz says
August 4, 2009 at 1:03 pmDuke Fame
“As a taxpayer, I don’t want to fund some egotists idiology as we had with the last mayor. It’s nice to see some sensible actions coming out of local politics.”
…then as a taxpayer you are probably happy that the collapse of Metronet cost you (the taxpayer) a small fortune.
Such is the short term idiocy of privatisation.
Maybe you look to the National Express routes as a model for privatisation.
….or maybe the Network south Central – there’s another good piece of privatisation that cost the tax payer dearly in the end.
Duke – you’re obviously a man who is easily fooled by short term fanfares but fails to see the long term costs.
BTW – ken did not pursue some egotistical goal – his years of experience has taught him that the short term gains of privatisation lead to long term costs for the public purse.
Unfortunately there are very few politicians who have this experience and therefore they continually make the same mistakes, over and over again – at great cost to the public.
another ETB driver says
August 5, 2009 at 1:02 pmTypical conservative…sell off the trains, now they are struggling, national express runs away from one line, now in public ownership again.
Sell off BA, now struggling, and is the most likely to “fold” in the near future.
Sell off East Thames Buses, in a time when everybody is struggling, and it has improved the performance of it’s routes that nobody else wanted when they were bad.
A management buyout was mooted, an offer from a leading profitable company with trains was “too late”.
Go Ahead losses 2 routes from camberwell garage, perfect for the 42’s and the 185’s to move into, good timing.
TFL, run ETB as a company that can tender, carry on making a profit to ease cuts in TFL, safeguard the future for the people you shout you care about…Londoners.
ETB DRIVER says
August 6, 2009 at 11:14 ami still wotk for ETB and from what ive heard there were several bidders no less an offer of managment buy out for £11m which was rejected as being to low also the bid from virgin was also rejected and being submitted to late, therefore most drivers think not only have we being stiched up being told it was market research but that ETB was promised up to 8 months ago to go-ahead thinking no one would want to buy it in this climate
ETB Driver says
August 7, 2009 at 1:55 amThe one big point we have all missed about the sale of ETB!!!
It had to be sold under Conservative leadership as it could not be seen as a success and make a mockery of the very system the Conservatives brought in 25 years ago – TENDERING!!!!!!!!!!
You know TENDERING. The system the Tories brought in to break up LT and the GLC. TENDERING that has increased the cost of running bus services in London 100 fold plus. TENDERING that has fragmented the industry, driven down wages in favour of shareholder profits and has also made a lot of Conservatives very very rich, isn’t that right Mr Steven Norris.
ETB is a success story, there is no doubting that. We have turned around the rubbish routes and the garages are riddled with posters from our illustious leaders praising us. These would be the same leaders who are shafting us??
Roll on the next Mayoral election so we can get this comedian out of power before he commits us to even more debt, deprevation, pay cuts, loss of dignity, the list goes on………….
I’m signing off now because this the first time ever that I am totally disgusted as to how we at ETB have been treated by the Mayor of London. I feel like a third rate citizen, no worse than that, I feel like something on the bottom of Boris’ shoes, because that is how he is treating each and everyone of us at ETB………….
ETB Employee says
August 8, 2009 at 2:55 amI will start by saying I have loved working for etb as I have been here for a quite a while now and would like to say it was nice working with you all….
Now as for the many managers that we have that we don’t need!!! you know who u you are !!!! know what they say about too many cooks!!!
I have had enough and will not keep quiet no more there are way too many drains on etb cash if you look at any other bus garages in London they have a few controllers and a couple of managers.
We have so many “managers” that they are doing silly jobs like uniform control and car park attendant’s !!!!!
What a joke… TFL say we are costing a too much to run well get rid of the high end “high cost” employee’s (managers) some of which can even drive buses now you can see why we are so annoyed.
I am just your everyday etb employee with just a few gcse’s to my name and I can see where we could save money! So why is there no one trying to save money…
Let me tell you we spend money on stuff we don’t need like the wrong people doing bus times and then having to be redone at the cost of £2000 a go!!! Engineer that is employed to fix buses but like fixing people’s car’s instead when a call comes it he tells the controller that he’s too busy mmmm….. a garage manager that seems to spend less and less time at work.. when I was working at another garage the OM was always on site I did not have to go looking for him to tell him any concerns that I have about safety i.e. upstairs camera’s not working I mean how are we meant to know when we have people standing upstairs?? We have people on AVL (IBUS) that really should not be there and also people that are worth their weight in gold (P)&(N)
All this can be fixed with one swift reshuffle
But knowing our management they would get this wrong too
well I think I properly have said too much but never mind I feel allot better now
ETB Driver says
September 8, 2009 at 2:43 pmWhy couldnt go-ahead just leave the buses at their perspective garages for the first 18 months and see just how well us drivers work together and help each other. We run a good service of the routes that we have, that nobody else wanted. But to be pushed out to 3 other garages, against our will is unfair and unjust. To go so far away from home just to work for a company like go-ahead. Keep us all at Belverdere and see how well we work together. No-one can work like us when the chips are down.
One for Boris…………………..Hope you sleep well at night knowing you have put 465 jobs at risk as go-ahead dont really want us anyway.
Good night Boris Sweet dreams