Bus Vannin in Crisis

[Two-lane]

14 minutes ago, VikingRaider said:

which Longworth tried to wreck

I assume there was an "incident". Was it reported in the press?

[finlo]

12 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

I assume there was an "incident". Was it reported in the press?

Yes but very selective wordings.

[P.K.]

2 hours ago, Happier diner said:

Ha Ha. Fair point. It was going up new castletown road by anagh coar. I think there are times like very early morning, mid morning to mid afternoon weekdays when 3 per hour would be appropriate. 

The 4 an hour is handy but maybe costs a little more than it could. 

The 4 an hour are 2 each to PE and PSM.

Sure the PE bus gets to PSM eventually but from the airport via PE the journey time to PSM is over 40 minutes ie not exactly ideal.

[0bserver]

3 hours ago, Nellie said:

To avoid opening a new thread, I'll use this one to mention that the MER and SMR are also closing in rapidly on an operational crisis, with the number of serviceable trams heading towards the bare minimum, and many laid up with long term defects. 

The SMR has only three (from six) which is just enough to run the basic service, but won't be enough to for any enhancements at TT.

The MER has eight (from fourteen) which includes one which is only for special occasions, and only one of the four high capacity 'winter saloons' can be used. Daily service needs five trams, but it is good practice to rotate those used for weather and maintenance.

It is usual practice to start the season with a full fleet, as they tend to develop defects as the summer progresses, and the situation they have now might happen by September, not May. They then fix them over the following winter.

I know that the MER is not a critical part of our infrastructure, but it is a key part of the tourism offering. Millions are being spent on the track, and overhead, each winter, but if they can't keep the rolling stock serviceable, what is the point. 

Another example of Longworth and his army of managers failing the tax payer and the tourism sector. 

The MER isn't a public transport service. It's a museum novelty. 

Hopefully it's a sign that the cash taps have finally been switched off. 

Plinth them in the Manx Museum.

[VikingRaider]

4 minutes ago, 0bserver said:

The MER isn't a public transport service. It's a museum novelty. 

Hopefully it's a sign that the cash taps have finally been switched off. 

Plinth them in the Manx Museum.

Yes and I'm sure that the many hundreds of tourists who come over every week (yes really, proper tourists not anoraks) would quite happily pay to see them in a museum rather than ride them ... not.

A far better solution would be to encourage more volunteers instead of paid staff, it works for all the other preservation railways across but not here as the Govt. likes to be a control freak.

[ellanvannin2010]

51 minutes ago, VikingRaider said:

Absolute nonsense ... of the 14 only 3 have not been used for passenger service so far this year ... #16 (which Longworth tried to wreck and is due out soon), #20 (which is waiting for new wheels and also due out soon) and #33 (which is perfectly okay but normally used as a works car).

So nothing at all wrong with 19, 21, 32  or Snaefell 1 then?

I thought 33 needed new wheels, amongst other things.

[Will Halsall]

58 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

I assume there was an "incident". Was it reported in the press?

It's my understanding that he has had two derailments due to excessive speed?

Edited May 22, 2022 by Will Halsall

[VikingRaider]

6 minutes ago, Will Halsall said:

It's my understanding that he has had two derailments due to excessive speed?

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde "To have one derailment may be regarded as misfortune to have two you need to be the director"

[Two-lane]

1 hour ago, Will Halsall said:

It's my understanding that he has had two derailments due to excessive speed?

Derailing due to excessive speed is serious stuff. I suppose it is a waste of time asking if any accident reports have been published.

Have any accident reports been published? Were the accidents investigated by an independent body?

[Newsdesk]

1 hour ago, VikingRaider said:

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde "To have one derailment may be regarded as misfortune to have two you need to be the director"

The director should just be gone.

[Nellie]

4 hours ago, VikingRaider said:

Absolute nonsense ... of the 14 only 3 have not been used for passenger service so far this year ... #16 (which Longworth tried to wreck and is due out soon), #20 (which is waiting for new wheels and also due out soon) and #33 (which is perfectly okay but normally used as a works car).

Just because they have been used this year, doesn’t mean that they are now serviceable. And, we’ll see, come TT Week, if any of your ‘due out soon’ promises come to pass. 

 

[Roger Mexico]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:54 PM, Two-lane said:

Derailing due to excessive speed is serious stuff. I suppose it is a waste of time asking if any accident reports have been published.

Have any accident reports been published? Were the accidents investigated by an independent body?

As it happened Gef had a story on this on Friday:

The report into the derailment of an MER tram last year is still not able to be published.

Gef had submitted an FoI into the DoI to seek the publication of the report. However, the department replied: ‘While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance all of the information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 31 of the Act as the information is or may be required in an ongoing investigation / legal proceeding. This is a qualified exemption and therefore subject to a public interest test.’

You'll again how our old friend sub judice can be used to justify hiding information indefinitely - the accident actually took place on 16 July 2021, but no decision has yet been reached.  Or likely ever will be.

Gef also has a large picture of the accident.  Who is that white-haired figure in sunglasses hanging on to the tram?

As to accident investigation, the Isle of Man is too special to submit itself to outside scrutiny by a body such as the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, even though all heritage railways in the UK do so.  So any failings are looked at by the Manx Government Health and Safety people.  Because they may not know much about railways, but they are expert in our special Manx ways. 

[0bserver]

9 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

As it happened Gef had a story on this on Friday:

The report into the derailment of an MER tram last year is still not able to be published.

Gef had submitted an FoI into the DoI to seek the publication of the report. However, the department replied: ‘While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance all of the information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 31 of the Act as the information is or may be required in an ongoing investigation / legal proceeding. This is a qualified exemption and therefore subject to a public interest test.’

You'll again how our old friend sub judice can be used to justify hiding information indefinitely - the accident actually took place on 16 July 2021, but no decision has yet been reached.  Or likely ever will be.

Gef also has a large picture of the accident.  Who is that white-haired figure in sunglasses hanging on to the tram?

As to accident investigation, the Isle of Man is too special to submit itself to outside scrutiny by a body such as the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, even though all heritage railways in the UK do so.  So any failings are looked at by the Manx Government Health and Safety people.  Because they may not know much about railways, but they are expert in our special Manx ways. 

Worth Gef submitting this case to the Information Commissioner. 

[Driver2020]

Health and Safety is a joke on the IoM  lots of garages and building sites would be shut down if they were inspected properly.

[Two-lane]

6 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

You'll again how our old friend sub judice can be used to justify hiding information indefinitely - the accident actually took place on 16 July 2021, but no decision has yet been reached.  Or likely ever will be.

A while ago a conductor sustained permanent damage to his central nervous system from a 500v shock. Someone made an FoI request, which was denied because a court case was still in progress.

When I became aware that a settlement had been reached, I made another FoI request. The response was:

"While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 21 of the Act
most of the information you have requested is absolutely exempt from disclosure as it
is contained in a document placed in the custody of a person conducting an inquiry or
arbitration, for the purposes of the inquiry or arbitration.
The remaining information is also absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act
(absolutely exempt personal information). The Department believes that its content,
with the addition of a small amount of publically available information, would disclose
the identity of parties involved. This is personal data of which you are not the data
subject"

The sub judice aspect still puzzles me - for example the Shoreham air-crash, where the AAIB published a report and the CAA modified its public air display regulations long before the pilot ended up in court. And names were named.

In this case the name of the conductor is known. So whose identity is being hidden?