A few years ago, Stagecoach's 'out of town' services from Scunthorpe were limited to the Interconnect 100 (& 101) to Gainsborough and Lincoln, 103 Cliffsider to Lincoln, 350 Humber Fastcat to Hull and the evening peak 399 to Westwoodside. However through tender wins from Hornsby it has added the 4's Sunday service to Brigg, the 60 to Whitton and now the 35 and 90. Whilst Hornsby, East Yorkshire and Isle Coaches still have a presence, Stagecoach have clearly become the main 'out of town' operator in Scunthorpe again.
Hornsby on the other hand have contracted their 'out of town' and non-Scunthorpe services. In addition to the tender losses to Stagecoach, they have also lost the North Lincolnshire demand responsive service to East Yorkshire and have a reduced network in the Brigg area due to council cutbacks. What is left is now limited to the 4 and X4 to Brigg (and Barnetby on the X4) plus the Barton and Brigg Town Services (and some school and college routes).
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Stagecoach went in low for the bid and they won it. Not really a surprise that NLC would go for no frills again.
Difficult times perhaps for Hornsbys with another revenue stream being cut. The problem is that there's just not the money in it.
The free parking in town does little to support bus service use as well, but that's to be expected as anyone who gets the government involved in running something, it's not long before it turns to rat detritus.
NLC will always go for the lowest bid, I understand they are required always get the best price, to get the best value for the tax payer - I think its a legal obligation. I doubt there is much consideration in terms of "no frills" mentioned above, as presumably the contract will stipulate minimum vehicle standards required - and they certainly don't care about the colour of the bus.
I hope Im wrong, but Hornsby have given up/lost so much of their stage carrige work over the last few years, I do wonder if eventually move to just the tours/holiday side of their business, as so so many other independants have done over the years - suspect there is much more money to be made there, especially in the post-covid "new normal", whatever that looks like. The Brigg routes always seemed to do well pre-covid, I imagine most their other commercial routes are marginal, depsite being cut back over the last few years.
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