Bus Vannin in Crisis

[0bserver]

3 minutes ago, Max Power said:

I can't see what else he can do other than recognise and try to explain the reasons behind the issues. That's the first step to putting things right surely?

Public Transport have never been given a steer by Tynwald to go out and poach work from private companies. They need to tear up the cruise contracts and concentrate on core services. 

[Non-Believer]

5 minutes ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

 

Reading into that suggests further that Departmental CS can't be trusted or relied upon, as per his DOI statement of last October.

[Ghost Ship]

43 minutes ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

 

How does he think introducing another level of non-elected "advisors" - presumably paid for by the tax payer - will solve any problems?

They'll just end up looking out for themselves.

Isn't that already the issue?

[Max Power]

49 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

Public Transport have never been given a steer by Tynwald to go out and poach work from private companies. They need to tear up the cruise contracts and concentrate on core services. 

I agree to an extent, I'm just not sure that there are sufficient private operators to handle the cruise contracts and their own work in addition? The way successive governments have presided over the demise of our tourism infrastructure is bordering on criminal neglect!

[0bserver]

11 minutes ago, Max Power said:

I agree to an extent, I'm just not sure that there are sufficient private operators to handle the cruise contracts and their own work in addition? The way successive governments have presided over the demise of our tourism infrastructure is bordering on criminal neglect!

Government would need to take a hit and encourage a new operator to take on tourist and schools work. 

Cull the Bus Vannin fleet to the essentials (sell all those minibuses) and just operate the public services. 

You are right, recent actions by Government have decimated the market.

 

[Bandits]

1 hour ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

 

Can I put myself down for the DOI? I’d have the place shut down in a week. 

[Dave Hedgehog]

1 hour ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

 

Short of these advisers being somebody like Jack Bauer how does he think they will be told the truth any more than MHKs are? 

[doc.fixit]

1 hour ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

 

More for the band wagon, more wages, more pensions. Just cull the numbers at the top and if real independent advisors are being employed they should replace existing, excessive staff numbers. The  entire government edifice is way too large. 

Many of us have said similar many times before so I don't hold out much hope.

[Declan]

2 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

Since when did they ever even try to break even? The buses lose £7M a year on the last release (I think). There's a long way to go before they break even, let alone turn a profit.

It's not really a loss when you are expected to provide cut-price travel to school kids and free travel to the elderly and cover unpopular routes and times. It's a public service that comes at a cost. It's like complaining the NHS makes a loss when BUPA makes a profit.

If you want it to be profitable or even break even politicians will need to decide it's not a service they want to fund and let them charge what they want and run only the profitable routes.

[Non-Believer]

2 minutes ago, Declan said:

It's not really a loss when you are expected to provide cut-price travel to school kids and free travel to the elderly and cover unpopular routes and times. It's a public service that comes at a cost. It's like complaining the NHS makes a loss when BUPA makes a profit.

If you want it to be profitable or even break even politicians will need to decide it's not a service they want to fund and let them charge what they want and run only the profitable routes.

But that's not to say that it couldn't be looked at in an attempt to reduce the losses? It may well be a public service but is there any requirement for it to come with its present price tag?

[Two-lane]

2 hours ago, Boris Johnson said:

Alf is introducing independent non political advisors for all the departments, to tell the MHKs the truth, ex private sector I am sure he said, should stop a lot of the lies.

So a department gets a technical advisor of the quality of, for instance Dr Ranson, and a CEO of the quality of, for instance Ms Magson, and a minister of the quality of, for instance D Ashford.

Who is he going to believe?

[Declan]

Just now, Non-Believer said:

But that's not to say that it couldn't be looked at in an attempt to reduce the losses? It may well be a public service but is there any requirement for it to come with its present price tag?

Oh definitely costs should be reigned in and revenue increased where possible.

I think the plan to increase revenue by maximising the amount of time buses are on the road on the popular routes rather than parked up in the depot is a good one. Frequent buses means commuters are more likely to chose a bus over a car, because they know that if they're running late at work they don't have to wait an hour for the next bus. That then increases the number of paying passengers. I wonder whether the increased WFH levels has undermined this strategy. Certainly a reputation for cancelling services at random will be counter-productive.

And to do that to service one-off customers from cruise liners is crazy. I wonder whether there's been political pressure on them to support the DoE's drive for this trade.

[Numbnuts]

1 hour ago, Bandits said:

Can I put myself down for the DOI? I’d have the place shut down in a week. 

I'm in . Will give you some competition for the gig ..

[Will Halsall]

The writing has been on the wall since 2013 when Longworth, Black and Cregeen (hiding behind the governments need to reduce costs because of the VAT reduction), decided to ride roughshod over the bus drivers by attempting to reduce their wages by £3k a year, which resulted in accusations of bullying and lies from BV/DCCL management, culminating in 73 out of 77 drivers voting for strike action. Several 'striking' drivers were intimidated by management, fired for dubious reasons and reinstated after HR pressure, we also had a consultant from the NW of England who did the hiring and firing. We had Bobby Morton agreeing a resolution with Black on the Fri, only for Black to state that he had a loss of memory due to a change in medication, and reneged on the agreement (after IL's input) on the Monday. 

Over time, the working terms and practices have been overhauled to compare with casual drivers in Bolton and Preston, the culture of the IOM has been completely overlooked in an appalling manner, particularly with the draconian implementation regarding School Go cards, and 6th formers being denied transport to see/uplift elderly people during school days. 

I could go on and on and on, but the truth is, between Cregeen, Longworth and Black, it was only a matter of time before we arrived at this stage with no bugger wanting to work for BV. And don't forget that Crookall supported all these failures and is now reaping what he sowed, whilst trying to absolve himself.

A classic example of everything that is being said right now about IOM Gov management arrogance and bad practice.

Lessons will be learned I can hear - will they fuck, there are too many managerial fuckwits just whinging it within IOM Gov!!!!

[Manx Resident]

In the spirit of the statements made by the Chief Minister earlier today the DOI Minister should get a grip of bus services by retiring the ‘retired’ manager who seems to answer to nobody for the services being provided by Bus Vannin.