Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Free travel passes not to be touched in budget - Minister Burton
Options
Comments
-
Would you agree that the routes included in the 10% for privatisation do on a regular daily basis carry many many more passengers both paying and free travel pass holders than either of the two knee-jerk routes which were formed to appease the residents of a couple of small villages?
The route structures,loadings,timings are irrelevant in this case as are personal opinions as to knee-jerking etc.
The issue at hand is the veracity,or otherwise of Minister Burtons statement that "Free Travel Passes will NOT be touched in the Budget" and opinions as to the developments in the FREE Travel Pass situation since then ?
Quite obviously,IF the basic PSO Tender Specifications we now see in use are to be continued in the 10% Bus Atha Cliath situation,then we are heading for a "situation" not alluded to by Ms Burton....;)
The Government (via the NTA) need to clarify the situation IMMEDIATELY rather than waiting for the NTA alone to do an 11th hour job when it slips out of the bag later.
It is at this juncture that the Non-Statutory nature of the Free Travel Scheme now assumes significant importance....any bets as to how much longer this scheme has left...?
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
0 -
-
Indeed there will be no interest in those routes if the operator(s) are supposed to offer a 50% reduced price for free pass holders while not receiving any other payment at all for carrying these people. The main problem being that if free travel pass holders have to pay they will travel on the bus as little as possible and make alternative arrangements for most of their jorneys meaning the bus services will be so underused there will be serious reductions in services until the routes are not viable.
But but but...the very reason for these route's being PSO in the first place IS their lack of "viability"...so now they will be doubly un viable....is that it ?
These PSO Tenders will sure be an interesting read altogether....I'm sensing an Irish solution to an Irish Problem in the offing......;)Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
0 -
But but but...the very reason for these route's being PSO in the first place IS their lack of "viability"...so now they will be doubly un viable....is that it ?
These PSO Tenders will sure be an interesting read altogether....I'm sensing an Irish solution to an Irish Problem in the offing......;)
Ah they are currently viable while people are able to use them but take so many passengers away and it wont be long before the routes are cut to nothing and scrapped in favour of some twice a day localink service0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Sam Russell wrote: »I thought CIE got a fixed amount for all FTP and capped at that, while Aircoach were getting a per journey amount.
Nope Sam,the entire FTS budget has been capped at 2010 levels.
There is no difference in the method of apportioning the FTS amount as it is on an agreed basis with the DSP.
The major difference is that the CIE group recieves it's allocation en bloc to the Holding Company,which then allocates the appropriate amount to each subsidiary.
Private operators are free to similarly negotiate an appropriate rate for their participation,which is subject to verification and possible inspection by the DSP.
However,it is fair to say that the DSP has historically maintained a minimal level of such monitoring,a aspect referrred to several times in the only accurate study ever carried out into the FTS back in 2000.
https://www.tcd.ie/policy-institute/assets/pdf/BP5_Quinn_Free_Schemes.pdf
The net effect of the 2010 cap, is that any services introduced since then are not included in the FTS remit,although it is entirely open to any operator to honour DSP Passes at their own expense,should they consider it socially or commercially beneficial to do so.
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Sam Russell wrote: ».
You could introduce restricted cards, only valid for certain journey types.
You could introduce a Leap type card that requires validation and monitors use to highlight misuse.
Fraud avoidance is the most urgent requirement. . Reducing the cost has been achieved by capping the cost, but that cannot continue much longer.
From Q4 2015,The Old "Cornflakes Box" Free Travel Document will be Invalid for use.
Coincidentally with this,a requirement to Tag-On the Free Travel Card per journey will be introduced.
Either Bus Validator can be used,except when a Spouse/Partner/Companion is travelling in which case the second person MUST get a paper Ticket (Zero Value) in the same manner as a LeapCard Companion currently.
The 2015 date is a target,which it now appears will be achieved somewhat earlier,so I would suggest Summer 2015 as the date for the full changeover.
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
0 -
-
-
-
-
BE are allegedly to introduce changes to pass holders using expressway services or at the very least all commercially operated expressway services. Free Travel on these services will no longer exist and this will happen in the very near future. Just heard drivers discussing when it can happen and the amount of surcharge per pass. Staff are surprised its come in but its happening allegedly.
Interesting times ahead....
None of these alterations are last minute,off-the-cuff,or otherwise unconsidered.
The reality is,that following almost two-years of considerable internal review,it has finally hit home,that the Free Travel Scheme had deteriorated into a shambolic mess.
A number of scenario's were developed,and modeled before a loosely agreed combination of actions was commenced.
What we are now seeing is the actual changes on-the-ground now approaching introduction,and it will not be without considerable disruption (particularly to those NOT entitled to the benefit they had enjoyed for years).
In relation to the timeframe,it appears that issuance of the Free Travel enabled Card is running somewhat ahead of target,which has allowed some elements of the associated plan/s to be brought forward too.
It is a shame it had to come to this,but it was inevitable due to the total lack of any supervision and accountability on the part of Central Government and it's agencies.....nothing really new there I suppose ?
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
Yeah, i'm still seeing brand new paper passes coming across my desk every day.
I simply can't wait for the unmitigated joy that my job will become when we have to start charging freebie holders something for their travel
Our station manager told me that in the last accounting period, free travel was roughly just over 65% of our issued tickets in the 4 stations he covers.
Crazy stuff and a tipping point has now been reached in this frankly unsustainable vote-buying scheme. Trains are leaving the station i work at daily with standing room only and considerably more than half the people on them are traveling utterly free of charge.
How are you supposed to convince people to pay for a ticket to travel on the same services?0 -
-
From Q4 2015,The Old "Cornflakes Box" Free Travel Document will be Invalid for use.
What a nonsensical timeframe, especially as the system to replace one's FTP paper pass with a proper card is still currently "invite-only".
I've had my paper pass five years and it's barely hanging on despite being laminated...
0 -
Not the first time some bus eireann employee broadcast utter crap to bus passengers. There was a driver on the Waterford route a couple of years ago that was telling all his passengers that JJ Kavanagh's were finished, couldn't afford new buses and those which had been bought would be repossessed for non payment. it is just crap from sour grapes wasters, People with a grudge or chip on their shoulder!Foggy it was said to a bus load of passengers, and they will have a service but it won't be free. Times are changing and for the better.
BE didn't give me a straight out answer when I queered it either..
You can see how routes are under pressure, BE came out today and said either use route 21 or lose it so the charge for passes is needed to sustain service.
and we all know that Bus Éireann couldn't give a straight answer with a steel rule.
Bus Éireann know that such changes will result in mass service reductions and mass redundancies but that will play right into their hands as the resulting strikes will result in the company going to the wall and will allow a sort of cleansing from within.
As for route 21 the slogan is "use it, don't lose it" but it also states "free travel for all pass holders".
It sounds like numbers on this route are so low thay are considering reducing frequency or getting rid of it and using other services to fill in the gaps.
0 -
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
Advertisement