Arriva Replacement Registrations

Following the news earlier this month that Arriva planned to close their Guildford depot, Falcon Coaches announced they were in talks to take the operation over. Two days ago it was revealed that these talks had been unsuccessful.

With just seven weeks to go until the depot is due to close, some replacement route registrations have begun filtering through the system. The first came from Diamond South East back on 5th October for commercial routes 91 (Woking to Knaphill via Goldsworth Park) and 436 (Woking to Weybridge via Byfleet), with an effective date of 4th January 2022. The date these were received was the same day that Arriva made their first public statement regarding the closure.

Today though, and following news of the Falcon talks starting and now ceasing, some more registrations have been submitted, this time by Stagecoach. These are as follows, all effective from Saturday 18th December 2021.

• PK0002571/94 covers a new route number 6 between Guildford and Merrow Park, which one presumes covers current town circulars 36/37.
• PK0002571/95 covers routes 53, 63 and 63X (Guildford to Ewhurst/Horsham via Cranleigh)
• PK0002571/96 covers route 91 (Woking to Knaphill via Goldsworth Park)
• PK0002571/97 covers route 47 (Brookwood to West End weekday commuter service)
• PK0002571/98 covers routes 34 and 35 (Guildford to Camberley via Woking)

The 34, 35, 36, 37, 53, 63 and 91 are primarily commercial routes, but with Surrey County Council subsidising evening journeys and the Sunday services. The three Stagecoach registrations covering these five routes all say they receive subsidy “In Part”, so this may indicate they would be operating all journeys on these routes, rather than the evening/Sunday elements being tendered separately to any commercial daytime service. This seems to be confirmed by the 91’s registration at least, which makes mention of Guildford which is only served by the 91 on Sundays. Timetables are not yet available at this early stage, so it’s currently unclear if current frequencies are to be retained.

So to keep track, we so far have replacements for routes 34, 35, 36, 37, 47, 53, 63/63X and 91 registered by Stagecoach, and routes 91 and 436 by Diamond South East (albeit these two registered very early on and with a January start date).

So what hasn’t been registered yet?

This leaves the following routes so far unaccounted for: A (Guildford to RSC Hospital), C (Guildford to Stoughton), 3 (Guildford to Bellfields, Sunday tendered service), 18 (Guildford to Onslow Village), 28 (one morning short journey), and 479 (Guildford to Epsom). Looking at these in more detail though…

• A was a competitive venture against Safeguard’s established routes 4/5 which continue to frequently link the town and hospital over the same routing, with Stagecoach also linking the two via the University and Surrey Sports Park.
• C hasn’t run since the pandemic began to my knowledge, although still registered, and is mirrored by Stagecoach route 2.
• 28 is just one morning journey on the otherwise Falcon Coaches operated route, as a de minimis utilising a vehicle that was otherwise running ‘dead’ between Guildford and Knaphill anyway en route to start work on the 91. It began when Buses Excetera reduced the timetable during their reign on the 28, so could potentially fit in with Stagecoach’s 91 if running ‘dead’ from Peasmarsh.
• 134/135 are numbers used by Arriva for certain school variations on routes 34/35. While these aren’t mentioned on Stagecoach’s registration like they are on Arriva’s, these journey variations may well still run as part of their 34/35 offering.

Therefore the Surrey County Council-contracted 18 to Onslow Village and 479 to Epsom via Leatherhead are the only two main Monday to Saturday routes that are yet to see any vital replacement registered. Safeguard operate the 3 commercially Mon-Sat, and Stagecoach operate the 479’s subsidised Sunday service, so while it would be ‘tidy’ to see Safeguard and Stagecoach take on the Sunday 3 and Mon-Sat 479 respectively, I guess it will come down to tender results as to who takes what on. I would expect we would just see a variation to their current registrations for these routes being submitted, if they were to take those elements on alongside their current contributions to each route.

Finally, regarding the 436 (Woking to Weybridge) mentioned above, which Diamond registered very early on but with a January start date. I wonder if this was done to get in early to perhaps discourage others, before the exact details of Arriva’s timescale became apparent and we may therefore see Diamond’s registrations of that and the 91 amended? Particularly now Stagecoach have registered a 91 themselves with some level of subsidy and ‘Guildford’ shown, implying they have also got the tendered evening service to Pirbright and Sunday service to Guildford. While it would be perfectly acceptable for Diamond to compete on the 91 alongside Stagecoach, and indeed any operator could still yet register their own commercial service over any of the routes if they so desire, I’d perhaps be a bit surprised if we saw any “bus wars” break out given the current climate of the pandemic and driver shortages across the industry. In the past Hallmark, as Diamond was known at the time, did start competing with Abellio Surrey over the 461 after winning the evening/Sunday tender, but this only lasted a number of months before they gave up on their competitive commercial element. So while they have in the past been prepared to compete, time will tell if the Goldsworth Park estate does become a battleground or not…

.