Sullivan Buses, which operates a number of Transport for London routes, terminated all of its London services at short notice on Friday 2 August
Hertfordshire operator Sullivan Buses announced at short notice on Friday 2 August that as of the end of service that day, it would cease operating its Transport for London (TfL) services, citing a breakdown in communications with TfL. Other operators were able to mobilise fleets to cover some journeys on the withdrawn routes at short notice, with some semblance of a normal service operating on most of them by Monday 5 August, albeit at reduced frequencies, without proper destination screens and without operational ticketing or TfL iBus systems.
Routes affected were TfL’s W9, 217, 298, 299, 327, 389, 399, 549, 605, 617 and 629, some of which are school services. The routes were operated from the company’s base at South Mimms, and employed around 230 staff.
Managing Director Deal Sullivan said in a statement that he estimated the company’s losses on TfL work to be around £200,000 per month, adding that ‘the remuneration for providing TfL’s services has not kept pace with the increasing cost of service delivery.’ He said that financial penalities resulting from post-Covid traffic congestion had further hampered the situation.
Dean went on to note that the company had not been successful in retendering for services whose contracts were due to terminate later this year, and had not received ‘meaningful feedback’ from TfL. He said that in June, the business had been owed around £130,000, and although that had been resolved shortly after a meeting between the parties involved he said the missing funds had had an impact on the company’s ability to provide the services.
“Coupled with delays in payments by TfL, we have decided that we can no longer sustain the cuts necessary to meet the decreasing income from TfL,” the statement said. “Any inevitable reduction in funding will lead to a further decline in performance and this is not something we are willing to support.
“During our discussion today we have offered a solution that would alleviate travel disruption for many thousands of bus users,” he added in ths statement, though did not elaborate on what the solution was.
Discussion on a number of online forums has suggested that drivers had been informed via text message of the cessation of services. The company says its commercial services in Hertfordshire remain unaffected, the company says.
It has since been confirmed that, at the time of writing, route 217 is being operated by Arriva, route 298 by Uno, the 299 by Go-Ahead, and routes W9 and 549 by Stagecoach, all on an interim emergency basis and using existing and spare vehicles.
