Acquisition
In 1994 Go-Ahead Group bought City of Oxford Motor Services, significantly strengthening its competitiveness. Following an effective rebranding and new vehicles to replace the older vehicles which were looking somewhat jaded against Thames Transit's improved services, City of Oxford launched 'New Fare Deals' in March 1995, symbolically referring to Thames Transit's entry into the city. New Fare Deals reduced fares on the routes where the two providers competed, while City of Oxford withdrew from less profitable routes to increase frequencies on the most lucrative and competitive corridors. Combined with new and spacious vehicles on some routes and staff poaching tactics, this significantly weakened Thames Transit's competitive strength.
At this time Thames Transit introduced two new branded routes, The Wood Farm Woodman and The Marston Pony, in direct competition with long-established City of Oxford routes. Both routes were unsuccessful – partly because they used tired vehicles but also because they failed to run frequently enough given the attenuation of staffing under the pressure of the 'bus war' with City of Oxford.
The 'bus war' was ended in autumn 1996 with both firms withdrawing from routes and increasing fares. Thames Transit withdrew its Park & Ride service and the Wood Farm Woodman and Marston Pony routes. It switched coaches scheduled between Oxford and Heathrow under a short-lived express 'Heathrow Tube' service, back to a longer cross country Heathrow route numbered the 390, which failed to compete with City of Oxford's long-established express Citylink X70 service to Heathrow (later rebranded 'The Airline').
In July 1997 Harry Blundred announced the sale of Thames Transit to Stagecoach Holdings PLC for just over £8million. The company since then has traded under the Stagecoach name, using 'Stagecoach Oxford' and then 'Stagecoach in Oxfordshire' on local routes but retaining the hugely popular Oxford Tube brand name on the London express service.
Read more about this topic: Thames Transit
Famous quotes containing the word acquisition:
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—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
“Always and everywhere children take an active role in the construction and acquisition of learning and understanding. To learn is a satisfying experience, but also, as the psychologist Nelson Goodman tells us, to understand is to experience desire, drama, and conquest.”
—Carolyn Edwards (20th century)
“Whatever may be our just grievances in the southern states, it is fitting that we acknowledge that, considering their poverty and past relationship to the Negro race, they have done remarkably well for the cause of education among us. That the whole South should commit itself to the principle that the colored people have a right to be educated is an immense acquisition to the cause of popular education.”
—Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944)