Bus Vannin in Crisis

[Bandits]

1 minute ago, Nellie said:

One of the problems which I suspect Alf Cannan is trying to address, is that senior posts in IOMG need to be held by more, shall we say ‘rounded’ individuals. People who are good at their job, but also have the wider skills to build effective relationships with, and generate respect from, all people, colleagues and stakeholders that they interact with. 

Or in Longtails case. Not by insane megalomaniac bullies with borderline personality disorders. 

[0bserver]

8 hours ago, Amadeus said:

Hate to pop your balloon here but the minister spoke rather highly of him at a recent meeting. Apparently he increased passenger numbers a lot. Didn’t sound like a candidate for the chop to me. 

That's what a smiling political assassin would  say... 

Four short weeks ago Alf Cannan said he had no plans to look at the size and scope of government... we all know what's happened since then.

[WTF]

9 hours ago, Amadeus said:

Hate to pop your balloon here but the minister spoke rather highly of him at a recent meeting. Apparently he increased passenger numbers a lot. Didn’t sound like a candidate for the chop to me. 

i could hand out free buses passes to friends and family and increase passenger numbers if you like?

[Passing Time]

9 hours ago, Amadeus said:

Hate to pop your balloon here but the minister spoke rather highly of him at a recent meeting. Apparently he increased passenger numbers a lot. Didn’t sound like a candidate for the chop to me. 

Yet loses money year on year?

[Roger Mexico]

10 hours ago, Amadeus said:

Hate to pop your balloon here but the minister spoke rather highly of him at a recent meeting. Apparently he increased passenger numbers a lot. Didn’t sound like a candidate for the chop to me. 

The trouble is that we've seen problems with the accuracy of passenger numbers before (and a lot of other things that Longworth comes up with).  And even with reliable data, you need to look at the figures in detail and make sure you are comparing like with like.  Were pass holders such as pensioners being counted properly before, for instance?

That said numbers probably have gone up on the South routes, as I said above.  People are more willing to use buses if the service is reliable and frequent - there's a sort of 'tipping point' effect once they hit a certain frequency.  But that's hardly difficult to realise and you can't say they've lacked resources.  You wonder if the other routes have seen the same increase.

Of course what the establishment was praising Longworth for before was for having more drivers on zero hours so as to save money.  How's that working out?

[Declan]

1 minute ago, Roger Mexico said:

That said numbers probably have gone up on the South routes, as I said above.  People are more willing to use buses if the service is reliable and frequent - there's a sort of 'tipping point' effect once they hit a certain frequency.  

This bit of the service has been successful. You're more likely to take the bus to work if you know you can take a call at five o'clock and it doesn't matter if you miss your bus because there'll be another one when you're call is over. 

However that's aspect of what his influence is. Previous industrial tribunals haven't painted a good picture of the staff management there. And now the frequency and reliability successes are being compromised by the staffing issues. And that's going to impact the revenue stream.

[Steve_Christian]

1 hour ago, Passing Time said:

Yet loses money year on year?

Just a question. Is it supposed to be profitable or is it a required public service which provides essential transport and therefore a loss is acceptable to enable people to be able to travel around the island? 

[Numbnuts]

2 hours ago, Steve_Christian said:

Just a question. Is it supposed to be profitable or is it a required public service which provides essential transport and therefore a loss is acceptable to enable people to be able to travel around the island? 

My opinion , it has to run on a deficit as its a necessity but the level of losses is too much. Last figures were 7 million which is far too excessive .

Edited May 27, 2022 by Numbnuts

[Declan]

I don't think you can say to a service - 

• you have to give pensioners and under 18s half price
• you can only charge a small amount for the school journeys
• you have to provide service to rural areas even though the revenue will be small

And expect it to turn a profit because you'd have to charge the regular passengers so much they wouldn't use the service. 

No reason why an eye shouldn't be kept on costs and encouragement given to the revenue generating parts. 

Unfortunately, we never see figures saying whether the fare paying passenger element loses money.

[Passing Time]

1 hour ago, Declan said:

I don't think you can say to a service - 

• you have to give pensioners and under 18s half price
• you can only charge a small amount for the school journeys
• you have to provide service to rural areas even though the revenue will be small

And expect it to turn a profit because you'd have to charge the regular passengers so much they wouldn't use the service. 

No reason why an eye shouldn't be kept on costs and encouragement given to the revenue generating parts. 

Unfortunately, we never see figures saying whether the fare paying passenger element loses money.

Why not just make bus travel free all over the Island

[Roger Mexico]

37 minutes ago, Numbnuts said:

My opnion , it has to run on a deficit as its a necessity but the level of losses is too much. Last figures were 7 million which is far too excessive .

There are lots of queries over the finances and you wonder how much of the loses comes from things like the purchase of all those minibuses, sitting unused 99% of the time (at best).  Other queries are over the various Connect services, the dining car operation, allocation of revenue and so on.  I quoted earlier this week from an FoI that had received a response claiming that there weren't even any separate budgets for the different vintage services and you get the impression that there is either a complete lack of financial control or a lot of dodgy goings-on.  Possibly both.

3 hours ago, 0bserver said:

That's what a smiling political assassin would  say... 

Yes I wondered about that too.  I don't think we'll see any moves against the DoI mafia till after TT for obvious reasons, but I don't think they're safe.  Caldric Randall, the acting Chief Sec, first came into public service as Head of Internal Audit and you suspect he may know where quite a lot of bodies are buried.

[hissingsid]

Caldric….sounds like a refugee from the black adder show….🤣

[Declan]

2 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Why not just make bus travel free all over the Island

The political will isn't there. Although at the moment they couldn't cope with the increased passenger numbers and it would require a prohibitive capital outlay. 

Personally, as a tax-payer and bus-user, I'm happy for my fares to pay for me to get to work and my taxes to subsidise fares for kids, the old and needy. I don't expect the government to give me a free ride.

[Steve_Christian]

13 minutes ago, Declan said:

The political will isn't there. Although at the moment they couldn't cope with the increased passenger numbers and it would require a prohibitive capital outlay. 

Personally, as a tax-payer and bus-user, I'm happy for my fares to pay for me to get to work and my taxes to subsidise fares for kids, the old and needy. I don't expect the government to give me a free ride.

I agree. 

[Banker]

3 hours ago, Passing Time said:

Why not just make bus travel free all over the Island

Because taxpayers would have to find an extra £5m based on existing usage & income making£11/12m losses pa . Usage & therefore losses would likely increase more.