New Frontiers Bus Wars

City tours, folks. Hop on, hop off.

Please stop harassing these women.

Well, it's like a dog eat dog show out there, you know?

People want people on their buses

and they would do anything sometimes to, you know, provoke you.

I'm trying... I do... I do...

I do apologise.

I am trying to speak to you, but this guy keeps interrupting.

There's a gold rush on the streets of Belfast.

That's our eighth bus that went out now full top and bottom.

Bring it on.

I could sell snow to an Eskimo,

sand to the Arabs,

and fries to us boys, no problem.

THEY LAUGH

Last year, well over two million people visited Northern Ireland.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing something about the Titanic.

Some wanted to see the sights.

It's a fairly impressive city, isn't it?

It's very impressive. Beautiful.

Some came to soak up the TV stardust.

That's the father's names.

And some were returning to a place they haven't seen in a lifetime.

Oh, my goodness. I am home, aren't I?

This is the inside story of Northern Ireland's Bus Wars.

From the tourists who come here...

I've been to some of the other wonders of the world,

it definitely ranks right up there.

It was fantastic.

-The clutch is out of it.

-BLEEP

-me.

..to the parts of the business that nobody else gets to see.

The way the tours are run in Belfast at the moment, it's really a war.

Welcome to Bus Wars.

When we're walking down here, hold your belly in.

-We're the kings of this town, aren't we?

-Yeah.

Don't talk, just hold it in.

In the city centre, Alfie and Owen are hard at work.

Don't push me or my belly will pop out.

-Just do the swagger.

-Oh, God, there it goes.

Today it's quiet...

Hop-on-hop-off today, folks.

City tours.

Here he is, not working yet again.

..which means Alfie and Owen have to amuse themselves.

OWEN LAUGHS

What was that?

Tourist numbers in Belfast are on the rise,

but Alfie and Owen say more and more visitors

are doing private coach tours,

so their job is getting harder.

Hello!

They come in, they have their own guide on the buses

-and they go round so they don't have the time any more.

-No.

It is definitely dwindling from the last four or five years.

There's one of them private tours I was talking about.

Even now, the peak season,

isn't great compared to what way it used to be.

No bicycles on the footpath, please.

Not on the footpath or I will have to put your name in the book.

-£50 fine.

-Yes.

Can I have your name, please?

No. My name?

Yeah, no bicycles on the footpath.

No bicycles on the footpath.

£50 and £50 is £100.

I know you're not from this country but the rule is no warnings.

We saw nothing...

Cos we hide the signs,

we hide them and we don't let you see them so we can book you

-and get cash.

-So we can fine you then.

No, you are joking.

THEY LAUGH

-We sell bus tours!

-Yeah, bus tours.

Benn Allen has been running bus tours in Northern Ireland for a decade.

Until four years ago he owned an open-top sightseeing company

giving tours of Belfast city,

but after getting into trouble with the authorities

he had to sell up and now does private coach tours

of the Causeway Coast.

Tonight he has come to meet his business adviser Kelly,

who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend.

Kelly is very good because she advises a lot of people on business

and start-up businesses and that sort of thing.

So if you're coming up with a new idea,

that's generally the best person to speak to

because that's the sort of people she deals with.

Where's chips? I'll have a portion of chips.

-Thanking you.

-That's lovely, thank you.

-Cheers.

-Great.

There's a couple of things that I'm thinking of here business-wise here,

some for the near future and some slightly longer.

One of them is I'm going to start getting into doing trips

over to England and weeks away on holidays and that sort of thing.

But I'm also thinking -

you're probably going to talk me out of this one -

of going back into the town centre to do the open-top buses again.

-Are you mad?

-Well, yes.

Were you not over the moon when somebody wanted to buy you out?

No, I wasn't that happy at the time.

Do you not want to do something different

-that other people aren't doing?

-Well, that's always a good thing.

Because you're just getting into the city again.

Do you really want to go through all that hassle?

Yeah, because it's great fun.

-More people to fight with.

-Yeah.

Oh, look at that!

Great stuff. Thanking you.

Oh, lovely.

And yours.

-Great stuff.

-Thank you very much.

-You might as well think outside the box and do something different.

-Mm.

Where do you want to go? Ask them.

-Ask who?

-The tourists.

Where would you like to go, what would you like to see?

Something different that people aren't doing here.

Yeah, definitely needed.

'Speaking to Kelly,

'I'm tending to agree with her on that situation.

'You know, to think of something new or a variation

'on what we're already doing that nobody else is doing.

'I think that's definitely advisable.'

# I'm going home. #

-It's all getting quite exciting now.

-Aye, that's it.

Benn isn't the only one hoping to try something new this summer.

City Sightseeing Belfast is expanding to Newcastle, County Down,

and it's all a bit of a gamble.

Obviously we're taking resources away from Belfast, you know,

which is a tried and tested business.

It is something new.

But if they're going to sell this tour to visitors,

first they need the approval of local business owners.

That's what today is all about.

There's a lot resting on the shoulders

of tour guide Brian English.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and what a good morning it is, too.

And welcome to City Sightseeing Down Explorer.

Well, I'll be trying to tell you

a bit about your own town and your own area.

'I haven't been to Newcastle.'

I've been once in probably eight years,

so it all came from Wikipedia.

We're moving off from the Newcastle promenade.

It's a promenade that has changed quite dramatically in recent years.

There are many new pieces of artwork which have been introduced

to enhance the visitor experience,

making the promenade a unique mix of the very new and the very old,

as a town inviting you to discover more of it.

If Brian can impress the locals today

despite his lack of first-hand knowledge,

City Sightseeing could have this town and its lucrative tourist trade

all to themselves.

Even the stone walls have a story to tell.

Welcome to sunny Belfast.

Back in Belfast it's a different story.

Come and we'll get you sorted for the next bus, then.

Here, City Sightseeing reps like Paul Baker have to slug it out

for every customer with their biggest rivals,

Titanic and City Tours.

My next bus is leaving at quarter to the hour.

And it also takes 90 minutes?

-It does.

-It also takes 90 minutes.

If you do hop-off our bus we are more frequent, too.

If you hop-off the bus you wouldn't have enough time.

Come on and we'll bring you down and get tickets cos the bus

-will be leaving in five.

-Yeah, no problem.

-Yous have a nice day. Enjoy your tour.

-Thank you.

That's the way it goes. It happens.

Both companies wear red jackets,

so it's difficult for tourists to even tell them apart.

-Are they different companies?

-Yes.

But to the staff who work for them, there's a world of difference.

Titanic and City Tours sell themselves as the local company.

-This is the local company, this is the global monster.

-OK.

City Sightseeing tours make the most of their internationally-recognised

brand that operates in 36 different cities.

The enemy with a face but no names.

-Why are we enemies?

-No face, no case.

Because you try and steal customers.

Alfie says he tries to do battle with his competitor

even when he's off the clock.

I'll tell you a story.

I went to Liverpool and I was getting on the City Explorer.

And this is true, isn't it? Because I phoned you.

I was in the queue to get the local City Tour Explorer in Liverpool

and there was two people from Londonderry in the other queue

for the City Sightseeing and I talked them into our queue.

You can rub out Belfast and write whatever city you like.

-That's him on holiday. That's Alfie on holiday.

-Yeah.

-Bus, bus, bus.

-Yeah. Definitely.

In the past the rivalry on the streets has spilled over

into something more serious.

Sean, how are you? Keeping well? All right, mate?

Sean Donnelly is the owner of Titanic and City Tours.

Two years ago he was convicted of common assault

after getting into a row on the street with a worker

from City Sightseeing.

I think it was a wee bit stupid.

Being one of the owners of the company

I should have walked away out of the road, you know?

But unfortunately...

Lord rest my mother, she always says to me,

"Sean, you need to count to ten."

But unfortunately I counted to ten.

One, two... But anyway.

Relations between the two companies are better now than they used to be.

Most of us in the town have done it on and off

for the last lot of years so we know how to deal with stuff.

And we know from the bad times and all the arguing,

-we don't want to go back to that.

-No.

So it's better now the way it is, and if we run it ourselves

the way we do, everybody gets on.

It's a forgery.

Get on the bus. Hurry up.

I'm not even a tourist. You're bad. That is bad!

It had you going, didn't it?

HE LAUGHS

Bus porn.

After his meeting with Kelly,

Benn is having second thoughts about starting a new open-top bus company.

Straight to the back here, get the classifieds open.

Instead, he's decided to expand his private coach business by adding

another vehicle to the fleet.

Being involved in buses, it's almost addictive.

It's like a disease.

I want more seats, more comfortable seats,

more modern-looking vehicles.

Oh, here, there's a cracker.

-So it's a Van Hool?

-Yeah, it's the newer-shaped Van Hools

from the ones we've previously had.

-I like the front shape. It's nice.

-Yeah.

-What year is it?

-Oh, that's a secret.

-Oh, is it?

-We're not mentioning that.

We really need to be looking as if we're updating our fleet.

Some of our buses are 20 years old, that sort of thing.

Nobody has a new one of these particular vehicles

because they're like 380,000 plus VAT, so...

-INTERVIEWER:

-How much are you getting this one for second-hand?

Probably better I don't mention that.

Spoil the whole thing. Spoil the whole point.

Is there any chance you could lend me three grand until next week?

Three grand. I'll try my hardest. I should be able to.

We were having a wee bit of a panic there cos some of the money

that was supposed to come in hadn't came in cos a couple of people

haven't paid us there, so we're a few thousand pounds short.

OK. Bye. Bye.

Right, we've got it sorted.

One's mother is going to lend us £3,000 on a short-term loan.

My credit rating must be good!

Morning. Welcome. Welcome to Belfast.

-Sorry.

-Get your hair done? Lovely.

Out on the street Benn's star salesman, Chi Wah,

is hard at work.

-You guys need any help there?

-We're good.

I was 16 when I first met Benn.

And now I'm 39, OK, coming 40,

which seems like a whole lifetime.

Have you girls are seen this?

'I think he sees me as an asset,

'yeah, but he doesn't show it.

'Yeah, doesn't show it whatsoever.'

He's been there a good wee while now and he's done very well.

This is my big break.

He's almost become a tourist attraction in himself.

How are you doing, sir?

At the end of the day it's a young man's game,

what I'm doing now, you know?

But somebody has to do it.

After nine years of selling tickets on the street,

Chi Wah wants a promotion.

I really have to get my act together, a few more months,

to sort a few options out for myself, you know,

and hopefully get further up the ladder in the company.

Welcome to Belfast.

But for now, Chi Wah's boss sees his job as filling buses.

Obviously, when times are just serious pressure

everybody just has to knuckle down, but when those periods over,

if they need something or whatever,

yes, they can be rewarded at that point.

You guys need any help there? Anywhere you're looking for?

No, we're all right, thanks.

Anybody here tomorrow?

Any fares tomorrow?

Manana, manana.

The thought-provoking walks and climbs

around the Mourne Mountains can be...

In Newcastle, County Down, Brian is guiding a group of

local VIPs on a new tour.

There's so many different walks...

But he doesn't know the area, and it isn't going well.

My locals know more about the area than I do.

I know, he must be really nervous doing this

-because we all know so much.

-We'd catch him out.

-Yeah.

'Never read a script in my life and that was the one time I had to

'and I just felt I let the company down.'

The National Trust land around the forests can be freely explored, too.

Newcastle is a town inviting you to discover more of it.

The old houses, many of them left abandoned,

as the aristocracy came upon hard times.

There was a few branches through the road

that nearly cleaved a few people's heads off

and I think they were more concerned about losing their head

than what I was saying.

-We can't hear upstairs.

-Nothing at all?

Well, I've come down to tell you that we can't hear you.

Especially if you're sitting on the outside.

'That was, I think, quite a relief.

'And I thought, "Oh, well, I'm getting away with this." '

And that's what had prompted me just to throw the script away

and do what I thought I was best at doing, which is,

er, ad-libbing.

There's activities that they would never think of doing unless

someone told them it was available, whether it's trekking,

whether it's kayaking.

It was better than it had been before.

I mean, it couldn't have got any worse.

Thank you for bearing with me.

I'll say it's not easy whenever you're not local,

but thank you very much.

At the end of the day, I think I got away with it.

APPLAUSE

You didn't get me at a good angle.

Benn and his uncle Richard have come to England to buy the new bus.

-Gauges?

-All coming up.

-BEEPING

Doing exactly what they're supposed to.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

That seat's going up and down as well.

-Aye, good.

-Right.

-All right, it ticks all the boxes.

But he doesn't own it yet.

And there's a problem.

Madness.

Hello there. I'm trying to make a bank transfer here

to make a purchase of a vehicle.

It says there's a delay on the payment, you see,

but we have to have this in their account right now.

OK.

Well, I suppose, right enough, it's £18,000,

they don't want you just coming in, maybe you're drunk

and you press the number wrong or something.

BUS BEEPS

Back home, it's a big day for Caroline and Rodney McComb.

They're taking on the two big open-top bus companies

with their own tour of Belfast city centre.

Probably they'll not be happy

about another tour of the city on offer.

We're doing this from the point of view of developing our business

and introducing a brand-new product into Belfast.

We're not hop-on-hop-off, and it's a much smaller tour.

We've had to make an investment of over £100,000

to get this vehicle here.

So, guys, we're just making our way down into Great Victoria Street.

'I used to drive a private taxi in Belfast and worked for a company

'for about ten years.

'But during that period a couple of very unsavoury incidents occurred.'

When an explosion goes off right beside you, it is terrifying,

and that did knock me for six and it took me a while get over that.

So that was the end of the taxiing days for me.

Just take a look down to your right,

you'll get your first glimpse of the wall.

I started doing work out of a hotel in Belfast which wasn't long opened

in the early '90s and then one day a professor

out of Queen's University, he got in touch with the hotel

and asked if I would take a group up into West Belfast

and North Belfast to let them see the wall murals

and how things were,

and just built it up and built it up over the years.

So from having a run of bad luck and things happening,

we've ended up getting a fairly good business on the back of it.

A lovely change for us to go from Causeway tours

and Game Of Thrones tours to be back in Belfast

where it all started with Rodney first doing the tours.

So it's a very special day to be back doing the first tour now

going out with us.

His financial hiccup cleared up, Benn is on his way home from England.

# Is it my imagination

# Or have I finally found something worth living for? #

That was close!

And with his old rivals now starting another city centre tour,

Benn is changing his plans.

Belfast is only large enough to have one open-top tour company in it.

That's... I've known that right from the start.

I think, really, the direction I'm going to head in

over certainly the next six to eight months is to start looking

to doing things outside of Northern Ireland.

It's all about getting over into the European trips,

and that's going to involve having better buses

and more expensive buses and things like that, more reliable buses.

But first Benn has a big hurdle to overcome.

I need more drivers. The big problem at the moment is drivers.

And it's not just me,

every single bus company in the whole country

is having the same problem at the moment.

That's about half a mile out to sea there, look.

It's away.

But don't worry about it, we'll get the next boat.

Fortunately, Benn has a new driver in mind.

All he has to do is learn how to drive a bus.

Hello, welcome to Belfast.

Excuse me. Are you guys OK there? Do you need any help?

Chi Wah has been looking for a promotion

in Benn's company for years.

This could be his big chance.

I think if Chi Wah really is determined and wants to do this

I think it's a brilliant idea. He would never be out of work.

He wouldn't necessarily always have to work for me,

but no matter where he went he would always be able to get a job.

It'd certainly broaden his horizons, there's no doubt about that.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Do you think they need to be broadened a bit?

Yeah, it will do him the world of good.

Category D, any bus with more than eight passenger seats

and trailer that does not exceed 750kg.

And hopefully they're not looking too much experience.

I've got a car licence coming ten years

and I drove my father's car for about...

15 minutes,

and that almost put me off driving.

-How are you?

-Not bad. Just up here for me.

Up here, yeah. If I take the...

So that was the last time I drove.

More or less, I've used my driving licence for ID instead.

So all motorists beware, you know?

Because Chi is on the road here.

Chi Wah is about to find out if he has what it takes

to be a bus driver.

Benn has booked some time at a track.

I'll be able to tell just by looking at his face

whether it's for him or not.

If he's a nervous wreck, forget about it.

But if... Well, he can be a nervous wreck AND enjoying it,

there's some chance. But if he's a nervous wreck and he's crying,

or anything like that, it's obvious it's no good for him.

But I'll be able to tell within a very short space of time

whether this is any good for him or not.

-Are you ready for this?

-Yes, I'm going to have to be, yeah.

I'm been waiting long enough.

-Get this on you.

-Oh, my goodness.

-That on there.

-Oh!

Oh, watch my ears!

Benn has come prepared.

-That goes on there.

-Hope I don't have to wear this

full-time when I'm working for you, Benn.

No, no, that's all right. That can go in there.

I'm not taking any chances here either, Chi.

-CHI LAUGHS

-Just my body armour on here.

You have no faith in me at all, boss, have you?

Just better safe than sorry.

This is where I learned to drive buses up in this corner myself,

so this is my present to you, so you can learn the same place,

-because this is a good place to learn how to do it.

-Yes.

All right, so, start your engine there.

Great, there we go.

ENGINE TURNS

-All right!

-All right, here we go. We're off.

-Into first, handbrake off.

-Handbrake off.

Nice and easy, nice and easy.

Go for it. Yo!

-City Tour, guys?

-No, we've been on it, thanks.

Thank you.

On the streets of Belfast, the season is drawing to a close.

-Would you like to see Titanic?

-No.

THEY LAUGH

No?!

You don't like to see the Titanic?!

Give me that there back.

You don't like to see the Titanic?!

Look, the ghost bus. Never nobody on that bus.

The season hasn't been as busy as it has in previous years,

but because there's only two companies instead of four

as there was about four years ago,

I'd say overall they'd be happy enough.

Long winter coming.

Batten down the hatches, keep the purse strings tight.

You need to keep a couple of buses still running from the city centre

to keep guides happy, keep drivers happy.

But you're running at a loss. See when you...

See when you run in December, January, February,

you're running at a loss of about £500 to £1,000 a week,

but you have to keep the slots, because if you don't keep the slots

there could be another company come on board if you weren't there,

and then they would try and take the slots.

Obviously you have to maintain a presence throughout the whole year.

Free ice cream with every bus tour!

-INTERVIEWER:

-Will you be still doing this when you're 60, 65?

Certainly. I mean...

Not with your feet, you'll not.

Listen to me, listen to me...

You can't keep a good man down.

If I can walk I will do it.

If not, I'll get a wee spot somewhere and sell the tickets.

He'll sort me out with a wee spot.

I don't know. I don't know if I'll be here in another five, ten years.

It's in... Alfie, it's in your blood, isn't it, to do this?

-I don't know.

-It's in your blood.

What is it, a mongrel? Mutt?

He's a breed!

He's the mongrel.

THEY LAUGH

Ah, it's a lovely wee dog, isn't it?

That's you, go ahead.

More acceleration, more acceleration.

-Going round to the right here.

-Yeah, round to the right.

-Up into third.

-Yeah.

Second gear, second gear.

Not fourth. Second.

Go ahead, go ahead - accelerate.

-Yo!

-There we go!

-There we go, yeah.

Sweating like a madman here. Thinks he's blown the engine.

HORN HONKS

Give me a new gearbox!

Now you're going too slow.

The customers want to get there.

They don't want to hang onto their seats, like.

And they've all probably been sick in the back there, like.

CHI LAUGHS

That's it. Accelerate.

Go ahead, accelerate. That's it, keep it straight.

Keep your eyes on the road!

End of the road.

-Just here?

-Just brake. Brake, brake, brake, brake.

Yo!

Oh, it was unbelievable.

Great experience, and I can't wait to do it again.

Oh, the first slot was intense.

Oh, I was absolutely soaking wet.

Drowned with sweat, and so nervous.

And I couldn't get it into the right gear.

He did actually rather well there.

It was better than I was expecting him to,

because it has been quite some time since he drove.

He had the confidence, which is the big thing.

You know, to drive a larger vehicle it really is about confidence,

and he had that, no problem.

Just needed a bit of fine-tuning, bit more practice

and he should be grand. I'm actually really happy with it.

It was great, and the sooner we can get him on the road, the better.

-I found a glove.

-Oh, happy days.

-We'll get it welded back on.

-Oh, my goodness!

-That's good, that's good.

-Get it welded back on.

You walk like John Wayne, doesn't he?

I always like to have a bit of character.

Just needs his underpants changed, that's all.

Last year, nearly 2.5 million people visited Northern Ireland.

Many of them took a bus tour.

You went to see the Blarney Stone and you got stuck to it.

LAUGHTER

-It was lovely to have you on board.

-That was terrific.

-You really spoke really well. It was very entertaining.

-My pleasure.

-I want to tell you just how fantastic this was.

-Oh, good.

See you! Had a great time.

Interesting insight into Belfast.

Come again.

Guys, city tours! City tours today!

On the streets there were highs, lows and bitter rivalries.

-Uh-oh, that's your competition?

-No competition.

Locally owned. Locally owned.

-Oh, OK.

-You need to support the locals.

Locally owned, globally connected, you know what I mean?

But from the top of a tour bus, it all looked peaceful.

See, I like Belfast because it's...

It's nice and relaxed.

It's a cracking view from the right of the bus.

-Oh, cracking view.

-You're not taking any pictures?

No, my hands are frozen.

Oh, so cute!

Belfast people are so nice.

-Working hard?

-Aye, working hard.

Some of the companies have been fighting it out

for about the last ten years.

We've actually ended up doing something good by putting so much

effort individually in to looking after the tours,

and it has actually transpired into what we can see today.

We've definitely done something good.

You have a guide who's on board with you...

And now that summer's over,

there's time for a little celebration...

..for a job well done.

Och, lads, come on - hurry up!

-Oh, fantastic.

-Oh, thanks. Yes.

Oh!

Great end to a great day.

Right, that it?

Let's rock and roll.

-People will be thinking I'm away to the bar.

-I know.

# Live, baby, live

# Now that the day is over

# I got a new sensation... #