please empty your brain below
Admittedly I don't know much about this topic, but could Sullivan not wait longer until the contracts expired? Maybe they were going to run for several more years, I'm not sure.

dg writes: see ‘somewhat combative statement’

TfL could certainly improve on their communication, when it comes to buses they're on the worse side of a mixed bag (as your many blogposts have proven).

All Over 2a | Homepage | 04.08.24 - 8:19 a.m. | #

Minor typo on W9 which is single deck.

dg writes: error, not typo. Fixed thanks.

Lee | 04.08.24 - 8:48 a.m. | #

In my view Sullivans exited in the most destructive way possible, I think the announcement was Friday evening, but with all this technology information distribution was poor and why is it so inflexible.

According to The Bus Forum, Sullivans were also supposed to do rail replacements yesterday (Bakerloo/Overground), these weren't covered either.

Finally, Sullivans wasn't in with the electric bus thing and didn't own hybrids, so would have struggled to gain new work.

Still Anon | 04.08.24 - 8:52 a.m. | #

The Uno bus is a mere 9 years old, having been reregistered from YY15 NKD.

Man of Kent | 04.08.24 - 9:03 a.m. | #

This abrupt withdrawal of Sullivan Buses also resulted in the suspension of replacement bus 720 between Watford Junction and Harrow on the Hill until about noon when a partial service was possible thanks to RATP

Dave B | 04.08.24 - 9:09 a.m. | #

I had wondered which routes would be running. A pretty unique situation, an operator, out of the blue suddenly stopping operating all their routes, so a tough job to find replacements at such short notice.

Mikey C | 04.08.24 - 9:38 a.m. | #

Similar happened in around 2000, a lot of the services around Becontree Heath. I think it was Kentish bus, but prepared to stand corrected. Amazing how fast Bus Operations supervised the service, and buses and drivers were spirited from all over in super fast time.

scrumpy | 04.08.24 - 9:57 a.m. | #

slightly unexpected discovery of the day: the 298's new operator is owned by the University of Hertfordshire.

martin | 04.08.24 - 10:34 a.m. | #

The withdrawal of a bus operator is big news but it wasn’t mentioned on last night’s main BBC London TV bulletin nor on the Standard website.

TfL’s aversion to dot matrix/digital displays ended a few years ago with a small but increasing number of buses having ditched the roller blinds. Where they work (reference to your 276 post) they might easily be reprogrammed in these circumstances to adjust to a new route.

I don’t know why the Oyster readers don’t work. I doubt they’re only set up for specific routes a bus would usually operate all routes operated by a company from their garage.

Auntie Susan | 04.08.24 - 10:37 a.m. | #

Apart from the specific contractual dispute, this seems to highlight the folly of outsourcing something as vital as public transport to private companies. Of course London is still far better served than most of the rest of the UK because operators have service contracts and fares/routes are set by TfL, but an entirely publicly-run bus network wouldn’t have had to scrabble round at no notice to compensate for somebody else’s abrupt commercial decision.

Labourer | 04.08.24 - 11:14 a.m. | #

Labourer. It could be argued tha the fault lies with the contracting authority, which saw all the signs and didn't do much about it, other than make financial deductions. (And if its own operations weren't up to scratch what sanctions would it have?).

On the plus side, the disruption has been far less than the strikes that periodically afflict the publicly-run underground.

Islander | 04.08.24 - 11:42 a.m. | #

Sullivan Buses' woeful performance is clearly visible in reports published on TfL's website.

Bus operator league tables for the most recent quarter (to April 2024) are here.

Looking at the table for lost mileage, before traffic-related losses are deducted:
• Network average 98.76%
• 2nd worst operator 96.43%
• Sullivan Buses 88.12%

The report also gives the figures for the same quarter last year.
• Network average 97.74%
• 2nd worst operator 90.18% (*)
• Sullivan Buses 84.87%
(*) - 2nd worst operator mileage affected by strikes during the quarter

This suggests Sullivan Buses had been the worst-performing operator for some time, and by a wide margin.

Malc M | 04.08.24 - 11:53 a.m. | #

Couple of years ago one of Greater Manchester's independent operators abruptly threw in the towel of their mostly subsided bus routes (with a hissy fit statement that makes Sullivan's look rather calm and rational.)

With hours Transport for Greater Manchester scrambled to find as many new operators as they could (although it took weeks for some services to restart) and had published a dedicated web page about the impact that was linked to from their homepage, and which was updated several times a day as new information came in. Timetables, operators, apologies for services not yet running...

It's not hard to do. That TfL haven't done something similar is baffling. The Comms side of things like this is so important.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 04.08.24 - 12:01 p.m. | #

Auntie Susan, the oyster/card readers need to be programmed with driver and duty details to work, and in this case duty cards won’t yet have been written by the new operator as there’s no time. It’s basically a case of throwing a spare driver at a spare bus. A smart decision for passengers’ benefit anyway.

Nick | 04.08.24 - 12:47 p.m. | #

YY15NKD is 603

605 was SK07HLM, it started life with Challenger in 2007 for the E11 as ADS 01, then SDE 11 and finally SDE 20211, according to LOTS it was sold by RATP direct to UNO in 2019 and was reregistered in 2020.

C17UNO was previously carried by another UNO Dart no. 117 - SN51TCO (according to 'the internet').

Still Anon | 04.08.24 - 12:54 p.m. | #

If Sullivan was TfL's last independent contractor, what are Uno?

timbo | 04.08.24 - 1:22 p.m. | #

BBC London’s online service finally reported the news at 11:57 on Sunday. They’ve obviously got a DG fan rostered today.

monkeylettuce | 04.08.24 - 1:38 p.m. | #

Thank you. I guess it’s also to do with the age of the technology. If starting from scratch today with live tracking, apps and all sorts of new tech, these machines could be far more versatile, although whether that would be cost productive would be another thing as thankfully these types of occurrences are rare.

Auntie Susan | 04.08.24 - 2:00 p.m. | #

FYI - no status alert for the 298 (or any other ex-Sullivan route) today on the TfL site, so everything is fine then.

Luckily UNO have made the effort to post a timetable for today on their site - something beyond the ability of TfL with all their resources.

Still Anon | 04.08.24 - 2:37 p.m. | #

TfL don't really do bus information. Services changes are rarely notified, nor are stop closures, curtailements, diversions, cancellations etc.

TfL was ahead of the game 15-20 years ago, but has pretty much stood still since then. Meanwhile the provinces have overtaken and shot off into the distance. It's unacceptable, but there's no-one in the buses organisation with that eye for detail and the power to make changes.

Not Diamond Geezer | 04.08.24 - 2:51 p.m. | #

I really hope the 549 is back next week - it is the only Sullivan route I haven't done this year in my attempt to do all the bus routes, but with it's impending demise I wouldn't be surprised if TfL just kill it off early.

Joel Colyer | 04.08.24 - 3:01 p.m. | #

I've checked my Oyster history from yesterday, and my trip on emergency route 299 is recorded as

Bus journey, route EMER

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.08.24 - 6:25 p.m. | #

The odd thing is that regular passengers of the routes got an email on Friday night detailing what routes would run and which ones would have to wait for Monday -- yet the same information was hit or miss on the bus status page... no idea why it couldn't have also been copy pasted over.

Kudos to UNO for having posted a timetable on their website/social media. Though naturally, TfL can't/won't link to it.

matthieu1221 | 04.08.24 - 11:16 p.m. | #

The headline on BBC London News online today suggests that an operator (singular) has been found to take over the roots but the report makes it clear it’s an assortment of operators who’ve come to the rescue.

Auntie Susan | 05.08.24 - 5:49 p.m. | #











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