Bus firm Premiere stops operating

“I am completely gutted about the Premiere buses had gone under, because I bought the Premiere Card for one year, the Expires date is 27/02/2013. I already paid my travel again since they disapeared . Does anyone know if I can get my money (at least for one month ) back? Many many thnaks
heather”

“My experience was that Premiere buses were frequently drafty, noisy, breaking down (and therefore being replaced by coaches- leading to elderly/ disabled/ parents with pushchairs being unable to get on). They took on way too many routes really quickly, an admission made by their MD. They squeezed out Kinch Buses on the Loughborough "Red 9" journey, only for Kinch to now return (with glee I'm sure!) back to the Red 9 route.

A few times I complained to the drivers about the lack of heating on the bus in the winter (yes it would have been warmer staying off the bus and walking), another time there was an ear splitting noise coming from the engine. Every time, without fail, the drivers said "please ring head office, they never ******* listen to us". They seemed fed up. Quite frequently also there would be a new driver who didn't know the route and the passengers would end up having to direct them.

So I had cause to contact their customer services dept. a few times and it was hard to get a cogent response from them. One particular occasion I wanted to raise my concern of a driver conducting a personal call on his mobile ALL the way to Loughborough from Nottingham. Albeit he had a hands free earpiece, even so he would not have been able to argue he was in full control of his vehicle should an incident have occurred. But a chap at Premiere told me "well, the MD's an ex-copper and he wouldn't think that was an issue. It is not illegal to do this", he then admitted they don't provide any other form of contact for the drivers and expect them to use their own mobiles to report any incidents/ road closures etc. He couldn't comment however on taking personal calls, and whether they either allowed or had a policy to ban this.
And no, they weren't that much cheaper.

Basically it appears that they tried hard in the early days, but then over-egged the pudding, didn't have the support for their staff nor the infrastructure to back themselves up if anything went wrong. I am therefore not surprised they have gone under, and also that no-one wanted to buy them; who would? They seemed a shoddy outfit.

Happy days though for NCT, TB, Kinch etc. I hope the ex-Premiere drivers (the ones that were any good) can find work with the other companies, and that rural communities get an alternative service.”

“Im afraid Premiere tried to take on Trent Barton on a lot of there routes TB responded by putting bargain buses on where ever Premiere tried to muscle in i cant recall TB serving the village of Newton till Premiere did we will have to see now if prices go up now the competition as gone Premiere prices were unrealistic the result is bankruptcy the fact is if you want nice buses and a reliable service it has to be paid for if not try getting a taxi back from town at 3 in the morning suddenly £3/4/5 seems quite reasonable”

“Skylink is fantastic”

“gives nothing to the general public? Living in a village you cannot expect a frequent or cheap bus service. These bus companies saving the Council from subsidies and many villages should be grateful for their frequent and quality bus services from the likes of Trent Barton.”

“its all in the game, we will stifle your service until it goes under, once its gone we will revert to a **** service that makes a lot of money for bus companies and gives nothing to the general public,”

“So this is the end of a bus service to Nottingham from Normanton on Soar, Ratcliffe on Soar, Barton in Fabis or Thrumpton. Very sad. For Normanton residents there is Skylink but it takes a forever on a tour of the East Midlands and doesn't run through the villages in the evening. Those who can't drive are absolutely stuck!!”

“"ridiculous route allocation and subsidy processes imposed by the respective councils."

No idea what you're on about here. Its the Traffic Commissioner who rubber stamps route applications, not the Council. None of those 3 routes are subsidised in any material way, as far as I know.”

“@asctty... I sympathise with the people who work for Premiere and for any of their passengers who have used them because they genuinely feel they need to travel as cheap as they can. Beyond that, I don't agree with you.

You get what you pay for... the Premiere buses simply don't compare with the Trent Barton vehicles, which are cleaner, more modern and much more reliable. Neither is it fair, I think, to accuse TB of "flooding routes". Their services have been running for many years and Premiere decided to compete with them, but didn't want to run many of their buses in the evenings or on Sundays.”

“This a shame for all at the company. It is hardly surprising though. I see so many buses following each others heels up and down the A6005 between Nottingham and Long Eaton that I would be surprised if Trent Barton are making any money. The Indigo, Skylink and Premier's 5 services just seem to chase each other around most of the day empty except at peak times due to ridiculous route allocation and subsidy processes imposed by the respective councils.
Trent Barton may seem kind to accept tickets, but their flooding of the routes may have been a contributing factor to Red's demise??”