Re: Serco?

[Michael Walker <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

> I read recently they have taken over some privatised buses in Adelaide
> and were taking over the remnants of Metbus in Melbourne.
> 

I have heard this a few times but from my information it is patently
untrue. The remnants of Metbus according to a Media Release from the
transport minister for Victoria (easily looked up on www.dpc.vic.gov.au,
click on the left icon marked 'Victoria The State', Information
Resources, Media Releases, By Minister-Transport) has been sold to a
consortium called Melbourne Bus Link. MBL is a consortium of Dysons (who
operate services between Northland, Whittlesea, Lalor (whichever way you
pronounce it 8^) ) and Greensborough), East-West (who operate 3 routes
Greensborough-Broadmeadows, Macleod-Reservoir via Latrobe Uni,
Bundoora-Thomastown plus trialling South Morang-Campbellfield via
Epping) and Reservoir Bus Lines (many feeder routes up and down Epping
train line and to Northland plus Nightrider to Eltham and Epping). From
my limited knowledge, East-West was a joint venture of some kind between
Dysons and Reservoir Bus Co (although I am open to correction), best
evidence (apart from rumours at the time) is that the EW buses were
ex-Dysons and RBL and the 570 bus is stored at Dysons depot (right on
the route) despite the Reservoir one being only 5-10 minutes away from
the route.
	The press release says: The MBL bid includes a visionary approach to
public transport development in Melbourne and
     includes future service innovations, some of which are achievable
through joining or matching of
     Met Bus services with East West, Reservoir and Dyson franchises,"
Mr Cooper said.
	I cannot see how given the distance between the current operators area
and the Metbus operations area. The only link I can see is the Dysons
(ex-Reids) 546 to Vic Market joining in with 232 to North Altona and
given the frequencies and type of service both provide, I somehow doubt
it.
	I also doubt much innovation will occur as whilst Dysons are quite a
good operator with good customer service and useful routes and
frequencies throughout the entire time I have used their services, RBL 
seem to be one of the companies running buses by the km (eg 555/556 run
as a sort of bi-directional loop, 18 min freq one way, 23 the other) and
East-West services are even worse (RBL planning without the frequency -
I would have thought that a 45 minute service on Saturday between two
major district centres was not really adequate, not to mention a missed
opportunity being an arterial bus route terminating 20 mins short of the
major Melbourne airport, and not to mention running between Bundoora and
Greensborough within 5 minutes of the 566 during peak periods and
weekends, etc). Anyway, enough of my soapbox...

> Can anyone tell me who owns this company, where it is based, and any
> other pertinent information?  Many thanks
> 
There was a thread some time back discussing Serco and it's various
operations (Adelaide buses and Passenger Info, Perth Passenger Info and
some others). A search of Serco on DejaNews should find it. Briefly from
what my poor memory serves me up, they originate from Britain and Serco
is short for 'Ser vice Co mpany'