INSIDE TRACK
As Buses reported last month, Centrebus, a company of which I am a director, closed its Corby depot at the end of October. I thought it might be useful to explain some of the pressures that affect rural operators and are leading to cutbacks all over the country.
Centrebus was set up in Leicester in 2001 and throughout its life the strategy has been to look for gaps in the commercial market in areas where there are a range of local authority bus tenders.
This resulted in expansion in Grantham, Stevenage, Luton, West Yorkshire and latterly Corby. In 2010 Centrebus purchased Judges Coaches, which had a mix of tendered and school services, plus the mainly commercial service 16 between Kettering, Thrapston and Raunds, which had been enhanced to an hourly frequency with Rural Bus Grant funding. It was the only regular bus to the expanding town of Thrapston (population 8,000). One of our other targets was the contracted service to the University of Northampton.
When I ran MK Metro, that company opened a depot in Northampton and won the university contract. It was also obvious then that First was cutting back in Northampton and there would be opportunities, and indeed First eventually closed its business there.
