Last week was a bad week for announcements of coach and bus company closures. One of those was witnessed first hand by CBW: Richard Sharman reports from Bournemouth on the final day of operations, and investigates what replacement bus services have been put in place
On the afternoon of Friday 29 July it was announced, to the shock of the industry and the company’s employees, that Yellow Buses had gone into administration.
This is never a good sign, but the initial statement from the administrator suggested a potential buyer was in the frame and that a deal would be done within days. Unfortunately, this would not materialise.
The beginning of the end
The official news that all was not well at the Yeomans Way depot was made public in a statement from Simon Rowe and Rachel Hotham of Milsted Langdon LLP, who had been appointed as Administrators of Bournemouth Transport Limited, which traded as Yellow Buses.
The statement started off by saying: “We recognise that many people rely on the Yellow Bus [sic] network for all sorts of aspects of their daily lives and that for them and the 300 staff employed by the business this is an unsettling time. We can recognise this and want to reassure everyone that we and our team are doing all we can to ensure that the business continues to operate as normal as possible under the circumstances and continues to do so into the future.
“All staff have been paid today (Friday 29 July) and we have secured sufficient funding to ensure we can make the salary and other essential ongoing supply payments. We have also had very productive engagement with Unite, which represent many of the staff, and which are keen to help us and work with us to bring about a positive outcome.
“With its long history in the local area and its integral role within the community we appreciate that there will be a great number of people concerned about this news, what we would ask is that the community shows its support by using the services. Support Yellow Buses and crucially its staff by using the bus. Take a trip on one of the buses and let the drivers know they have your support. Show them just how important this service is to everyone. We will of course keep the staff and customers updated over the coming days.”
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