Matthew Ingram and Tyrone Courtman, both of Duff & Phelps Ltd, have secured the future of the provision of accessible transport services for the West Midlands with the sale of Accessible Transport Group Limited, Ring and Ride West Midlands Limited and Accessible Transport Group Contract Services Limited, to West Midlands Accessible Transport Ltd, a subsidiary of National Express.
First established in 1983 the group, which went into administration earlier this year, provides essential public transport services across Birmingham and the Black Country. Operating over 600 vehicles the group provided door to door transport to 11,000 registered members of the public with disability or mobility restrictions, daily home to school transport to over 2,500 children and young adults with special educational needs and operated several subsidised bus routes to rural and underserved communities.
The insolvency of the group had immediate and real consequences for many of the most vulnerable in society. To add to the complexities, as a charity, the group took advantage of special permits meaning that the vehicles and drivers were not subject to the operating licence restrictions that commercial transport companies must obtain. There was, therefore, no immediate option for a commercial operator to undertake the activities of the group in its entirety.
The joint administrators, advised by Russ Hill of Squire Patton Boggs, immediately entered into discussions with Transport for West Midlands and Birmingham City Council and were able to secure a comprehensive service agreement enabling the group to continue trading under the administrators control whilst all long-term options were considered.
During the period that the administrators controlled operations, service level improvements were such that Birmingham City Council took the unusual step of awarding several additional routes to the group in respect of the home to school service. Having held detailed conversations with a number of prospective service providers, the joint administrators concluded that the National Express subsidiary West Midlands Accessible Transport Ltd would provide a high level of stewardship for the services.
Matthew Ingram, Joint Administrator, says: “I am delighted that we can finally assure all users of these fantastic services, of certainty for the future. Since the group entered Administration earlier this year many people have come together and worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome, including my own team and our advisors, the group’s employees, representatives of the local authorities and the purchasers and their advisors.We are very grateful to them for that support and wish National Express and all those involved with this great organisation every success for the future.”
