Bus war over as Rotala settles legal action against National Express

BIRMINGHAM-based bus and coach group Rotala has announced it has settled a legal dispute with the city’s rival bus operator National Express.

In its annual results in April, Rotala said it intended taking legal action against National Express in a dispute over a major revenue loss.

In its results statement, Rotala said group revenues overall had declined 3% to £53.3m (2012: £54.8m).

It said revenues in its contracted services operation declined by 8.5% to £20.6m (2012: £22.5m).

“The cause of almost all of this reduction in revenue was the loss in April 2013 of the two route diagrams we operated up to that time for National Express Ltd,” said Rotala chairman John Gunn in his report.

“In our view NEL breached their contract with us by their actions. Therefore we have commenced legal proceedings against NEL to recover our losses. This case is expected to come to trial in the last quarter of 2014.

“In these accounts we have written off as an exceptional item £364,000 of our losses, which form part of our claim against NEL.”

Rotala therefore implemented legal proceedings against NEL for breach of contract and wrote off an exceptional item of £364,000 in respect of the action.

In a statement today, Rotala said it was “pleased to announce that it has reached a full and final settlement with NEL of its claim against NEL in terms satisfactory to the company”.