Van Hool TX16 Astron MAN – A quality all-rounder
Some months ago we had plans to evaluate a stock Van Hool TX16 Astron with Moseley (PCV) Ltd, having previously sampled the lower height TX16 Alicron (B&CB issue 1190, 7 September 2012). Finding a mutually suitable date proved difficult and before we were able to conduct the test the coach was bought by Go Goodwins of Manchester. Hearing of the situation, Wes Goodwin offered to make the Astron available once it had been painted and prepared for his family’s Eccles based company and at the end of last month Andrew Fowler and I went to Manchester to try it out.
GoGoodwins to continue the Regency Road tradition
Eccles, Manchester based GoGoodwins Coaches is to start a new heritage coaching arm that will carry on the tradition of the
Regency Road Pullman Touring Company, which marketed itself using the slogan, ‘Possibly the only Tour Company of its kind in the World.’ The new operation will trade as Goodwins Classic Coach Tours (incorporating Regency Road Pullman).
Northwich, Cheshire, based Regency closed earlier this year having provided it own brand of specialist touring using ageing Plaxton bodied AEC and Volvo coaches for the previous 14 or so years. Before that, Clive Screaton and his daughter, Sarah, had been involved in the Grand Edwardian Touring Company, using even older AEC stock. It was Sarah’s decision to finish. The operator’s licence was up for renewal and having married Robert Phillips in December, she wanted a more ‘normal’ life.
There was also a recognition that the coach industry is changing and they were finding it difficult to keep up with all of the new requirements.
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Consistently on target delivery
Go Goodwins Coaches, an independent operator until recently better known for its coaching activities than for bus operation, topped the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) supplier ratings throughout the year running from April 2011 to the end of March 2012. Calculated on the basis of an operator’s performance against 15 key indicators, supplier rating scores (Go Goodwins’ is currently 95.93%) are more than just an ego boost for the operator concerned. They are important because in order to be invited to tender for TfGM minimum subsidy tenders, the organisation requires that in addition to qualifying for its preferred suppliers list (PSL) the supplier rating should be 72.5% rising to 75% from October this year.
Coaching roots
Go Goodwins is a family business with three generations involved, all of them mechanically minded. A couple more generations worked in coaching before them, albeit in a very different business environment to that of today. Now in his seventies, Alan Goodwin is the eldest of the trio. He still provides advice (and interference) for his son Geoff, Geoff’s wife Suzanne, grandson Wesley and Wesley’s wife Sally, who manage the business today.
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