Richard Walter catches up with Roddy Macdonald, Director of Lochs Motor Transport on the Isle of Lewis, to find out what has changed in the four years since his last visit
Set in the beautiful Outer Hebrides, the islands of Lewis and Harris have challenges faced by few other areas in the UK. Weather can change rapidly from sunny to stormy. Buses often have to cope with the worst of conditions and there are a number of single track roads where great care has to be taken to prevent falling into ditches. I chose to visit the islands at the end of June when the weather was very typical and changeable. Had I waited until early July, I would have experienced much sunnier and warmer conditions during the unforgettable UK heatwave. However it was still a good opportunity to catch up with public transport developments.
Adjusting to the aftermath
Four years might not normally be a particularly long time, but a lot has happened since Lochs Motor Transport was last featured in CBW back in 2018. As with other operators across the globe, the effects of Covid-19 were a major blow with the company seeing its tour and private hire work cease for most of 2020. Thankfully the situation had improved by the summer of 2021. Firstly, cruise ships started returning to the Western Isles. These massive vessels berth off Stornoway with passengers being brought into harbour by small boats to be picked up by coaches from the local operators for short tours of local attractions. It’s a very profitable business to all forms of community hospitality, including coach operators, and the return of the big ships was welcomed.
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The Western Isles are also a popular destination on coach tours of the Highlands, with vehicles arriving almost daily on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Ullapool. By the summer of 2022, demand for tours and private hire had returned to almost the same level as before Covid-19. On my trip at the end of June, a variety of visiting tour and private hire operators were spotted including full-size coaches of Parks of Hamilton, Shiel Buses, Glenton Holidays, Doig’s of Glasgow, Titterington Holidays of Penrith and midi coaches of Ratho Coaches and Docherty’s Midland Coaches. In days gone by it was mainly Shearings and Wallace Arnold that dominated the holiday market to the Isles.
New opportunities
The local Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, requires companies to tender for services on a regular basis for the various bus services on the islands and those who tender have to be aware of the requirements for low floor vehicles despite the unpredictable terrain. When my previous article was written, the Council was about to tender for bus services on Lewis and Harris. During 2019, the Council suggested a number of options to save £1.67 million out of its overall £6.6 million transport services budget, of which school and public bus services made up the vast bulk of its running costs. With the prospect of reduced services to rural villages there was understandably considerable concern raised by locals. Not only were there quite significant changes to timetables proposed, but some services moved to other operators. One of the biggest changes was the tender for the Stornoway to Ness service being awarded to Lochs Motor Transport, moving from Galson Motors which had provided that route for over 40 years.
Fleet expansion
I spoke with Roddy Macdonald, Director of Lochs Motor Transport about how the company coped with the additional services and the recent difficult and unpredictable times. Back in 2018 the company were operating seven full size vehicles. There are now 24 buses, coaches, minibuses and midicoaches in the fleet. To meet the requirements of the successful new tenders for 2019, Roddy obtained a number of second hand vehicles including Caetano Levante Volvo B9R FJ13 EBZ (new to Kings Ferry), Uvi Mercedes I524 PO14 ATF (new to Coastal Services Warton), Plaxton Elite Volvo B9R SN15 KMM (new to Glenton Tours/Parks of Hamilton), similar SC15 ZNK (new to Parks of Hamilton), Irizar i6 Scania K360IB4s YP12 NUW and YP12 NUX (new to Redwing Reliance, London), Plaxton Leopard Volvo B9R YX15 OVD (new to Horseman, Reading) along with two Ford Transit mini coaches YJ69 VLP and YJ69 VLR plus similar second hand YO16 JHJ and HN16 CMO. Some of these have now been sold on following the arrival of new stock.
The recent new acquisitions include Ferqui Soroco S4 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 516CDis YE21 TVX and YJ21 PTE; DAF LF Turas 900s SP71 BWM and SY71 AWP and MCV Evotor Volvo B11Rs SJ22 HBX and SJ22 HBY. MCV Evora Volvo B8RLE SJ20 KNL was bought in 2020 for service W8 between Stornoway and Ranish to replace a 17 plate ADL Enviro200.
“The MCV Evora is an excellent service bus,” said Roddy, “so much so that on the strength of that we have recently bought two new MCV Evotor coaches. The Evora has just reached two years old so we normally look at replacing the service bus at three or four years. The replacement will more than likely be another Evora.”
Roddy is also very pleased with the performance of the new Evotor coaches. “We operate SJ22 HBY on the W1 service between Stornoway and Ness, a community of around 16 villages in the northernmost part of the Western Isles, whilst SJ22 HBX is used for island and longer distance tours. We bought the DAF Turas in 2021. SY71 AWP came with the standard interior for private hire duties whilst SP71 BWM features our own interior specification and runs on busy service W10 between Stornoway and Tarbert, which is the ferry port for the Isle of Harris. I’m happy that I chose the Turas. After purchase we carried out an upgrade on the front shock absorbers which has totally transformed them.”
During 2022, SP71 AWP was sold to D A Travel on South Uist but another similar PSVAR-compliant Turas is on order for 2023. Lochs Motor Transport has continued to invest in new and nearly new mini, midi and full-size coaches. I asked Roddy what were the factors involved for the recent purchases. “Our new vehicle purchases are all about improving the services we offer and making public and tourist travel more comfortable, as this increases the amount of people using them,” he said. “We are constantly looking at the latest developments and improvements to vehicles on the market as we look to keep our fleet as new and up to date as possible.”
One bus might have come to the end of its usefulness though. A favourite of Roddy’s as it was his first vehicle bought new is Plaxton Panther Volvo B9R SY61 AUL, which is PSVAR compliant with a wheelchair lift added. “It’s been a great bus and extremely reliable,” said Roddy. “I’m going to see if anybody might want to buy it this year though – the possible end of an era.”
Contactless travel
I wondered if recent fuel increases were having a detrimental effect and as a result, if fares and booking costs for hires might have to increase to meet any shortfalls. Roddy explained: “We cover a vast array of tour as well as service work and business has thankfully returned to normal levels. Although other operators have increased fares, we have kept our fares as they were as we believe this is the wrong time to increase them with so many other cost rises taking place and we strongly believe that we need to encourage the use of the bus. We introduced contactless payments on our services in February 2020 as we look to make travelling by bus as easy as possible and hopefully encourage people to leave the car at home.”
Changed days indeed since my earliest recollections of travel in Lewis and Harris when drivers had Tupperware ‘honesty boxes’ by their cabs and folk threw in the necessary coins on entering or leaving the bus with no actual tickets issued. In terms of the next round of changes Roddy explained: “Our current contracts don’t expire until 2026 but I’m sure the council will do a review before then, which is just good practice.”
Another development since my last article has been the construction of brand new workshop areas on site at the company’s garage facilities at Cameron Terrace in Leurbost. I asked Roddy if he had any other plans for expansion of or changes to the premises. “Our workshop is now complete and we opened our ATF (DVSA Authorised Testing Facility) lane as well on 30 November 2021 and run tests each month,” he said. “Our only planned construction is to finish tarmac surfacing the yard which we are doing in stages and which should be complete in the very near future.”
Future challenges
I suggested to Roddy that maybe the biggest challenge to Lochs Motor Transport and all operators on the islands was the move to net zero and the increasing popularity of electric and hydrogen-powered buses. Could he see a time when he might consider investing in them? Roddy accepted that there will be obligations to meet. “We are nearly compliant with a complete fleet of Euro VI standards – we still have five that are Euro V – but for the moment Euro VI is probably as good as we will be able to achieve as the necessary infrastructure requirements and location pose obstacles for investment. However we have enquired about an electric or hybrid service bus option and will keep that under active consideration.”
Despite the difficult and changing times, I asked Roddy if he enjoyed his varied work, which includes undertaking driving duties sometimes. “I have been driving for 25 years now and still very much enjoy the job and the driving. Each day is different and I get to meet new people, so it’s just about adapting to the changes.” Roddy appreciates that there are a few local bus enthusiasts driving buses on the islands. “It’s great to have them on board. We are extremely lucky and privileged to have a great team of drivers and fitters,” he concluded. //
Richard last visited Lochs in 2018; his article can be found in CBW issue 1356, dated 21 August 2018.
