NTA Board Appointment Criteria.

markpb

shodge wrote: »

Does it matter?
Where is the plan of action?
IE has a complete monopoly on rail in the country, the short term and long term plan to make the company better/profitable has no need to be secret, there is no rival than can try and beat them to the punch and implement the IE plan on their private rail service.
What have they done to improve the situation?

Your understanding of a monopoly is very strange. A monopoly is one where the customer has no choice. With the exception of a handful of people who can't drive and refuse to take a bus, no customer in Ireland is forced to take a train. For the vast majority of people in Ireland, they have a choice. It's that choice which Irish Rail must compete with.

Also, to be pedantic, they doubt even have a monopoly on rail services in Ireland. There's a small piece of rail in Dublin operated very successfully by someone else.

devnull

end of the road wrote: »

didn't franks used to work for connex and first north western?

Franks did work at First North Western but he was involved more so in the later half of that franchise where it improved, not the disaster which was the first half and things were awful.

Most of his team have had very successful careers, since those days and held some very high profile posts, whereas many of the senior figures in the early days have faired less well.

shodge

markpb wrote: »

Your understanding of a monopoly is very strange. A monopoly is one where the customer has no choice. With the exception of a handful of people who can't drive and refuse to take a bus, no customer in Ireland is forced to take a train. For the vast majority of people in Ireland, they have a choice. It's that choice which Irish Rail must compete with.

Also, to be pedantic, they doubt even have a monopoly on rail services in Ireland. There's a small piece of rail in Dublin operated very successfully by someone else.

IE has a monopoly on rail travel thats a fact.
He has been in the job since 2013 and not a thing has changed.
Tesco wont give a detailed long term plan on new store locations because they dont want to be beaten to the market by Supervalu, now IE dont have this problem, no one can put on rival trains, so why dont they tell us there long term plans, unless of course they dont have any and are just making it up as they go along.

Carawaystick

shodge wrote: »

IE has a monopoly on rail travel thats a fact.

How come I can buy a train ticket from Translink then for a heavy rail line?
Or I can get a luas and not pay IÉ anything?

shodge

Carawaystick wrote: »

How come I can buy a train ticket from Translink then for a heavy rail line?
Or I can get a luas and not pay IÉ anything?

You can buy a bus ticket in SPAR, are they public transport rival to Dublin Bus?
IE operate the trains, the powers that be seem to want run them into the ground, where is the plan to turn it around?
It aint a top secret military operation, no need to keep the plan under wraps, unless of course the plan is not to improve the service.

markpb

shodge wrote: »

IE operate the trains, the powers that be seem to want run them into the ground, where is the plan to turn it around?
It aint a top secret military operation, no need to keep the plan under wraps, unless of course the plan is not to improve the service.

Why would they share the plan with the public, what benefit would that be to the company?

Why would they share their plan with the public when, despite your assertions that they are a monopoly, they do have competitors who could use it to their advantage. If you think that the bus operators (among others) do not compete with Irish Rail, you're seriously missing something.

shodge

markpb wrote: »

Why would they share the plan with the public, what benefit would that be to the company?

Why would they share their plan with the public when, despite your assertions that they are a monopoly, they do have competitors who could use it to their advantage. If you think that the bus operators (among others) do not compete with Irish Rail, you're seriously missing something.

Who are their rivals?
Who can put a train service on to compete with them?
The NTA would have to grant a licence to a bus company, so thats should not be a problem.
NTA head headquarters is not the pentagon, there is no need for secrecy, they can announce plans, short term and long term, unless of course their plans do not coincide with what they state in public.

shodge

markpb wrote: »

Why would they share the plan with the public, what benefit would that be to the company?

Why would they share their plan with the public when, despite your assertions that they are a monopoly, they do have competitors who could use it to their advantage. If you think that the bus operators (among others) do not compete with Irish Rail, you're seriously missing something.

What negative impact would there be to let the public know of their plans to improve the public transport in the country?
Who are their rivals?
Who can put a train service on to compete with them?
The NTA would have to grant a licence to a bus company, so thats should not be a problem.
NTA head headquarters is not the pentagon, there is no need for secrecy, they can announce plans, short term and long term, unless of course their plans do not coincide with what they state in public.

LXFlyer

shodge wrote: »

What negative impact would there be to let the public know of their plans to improve the public transport in the country?
Who are their rivals?
Who can put a train service on to compete with them?
The NTA would have to grant a licence to a bus company, so thats should not be a problem.
NTA head headquarters is not the pentagon, there is no need for secrecy, they can announce plans, short term and long term, unless of course their plans do not coincide with what they state in public.

Every commercial intercity bus operator is their competition.

shodge

lxflyer wrote: »

Every commercial intercity bus operator is their competition.

Who must obtain a licence to operate a route, if the NTA wanted to they could deny it and remove competition.

end of the road

markpb wrote: »

Your understanding of a monopoly is very strange. A monopoly is one where the customer has no choice. With the exception of a handful of people who can't drive and refuse to take a bus, no customer in Ireland is forced to take a train. For the vast majority of people in Ireland, they have a choice. It's that choice which Irish Rail must compete with.

Also, to be pedantic, they doubt even have a monopoly on rail services in Ireland. There's a small piece of rail in Dublin operated very successfully by someone else.

a small piece of light rail to be even more pedantic. agree with the rest of your post however. rail compets with road, thats where the competition is

end of the road

shodge wrote: »

Who must obtain a licence to operate a route, if the NTA wanted to they could deny it and remove competition.

yes, but it still doesn't change the fact that road is the competition for rail. unless you build a brand new competing line to all the places served by rail currently in the country, and also keep the old line, there cannot be any meaningful competition on the rail network. you could have for example, the 6 am and 8am services in the hands of different operators, but it would be a mess most likely and i'd doubt anyone private or public would go for it, nor would it be competition for those who actually have to use the service. again its road that is rails rival

LXFlyer

shodge wrote: »

Who must obtain a licence to operate a route, if the NTA wanted to they could deny it and remove competition.

An operator could then potentially take legal action under EU anti-competition legislation.

We have some idea of what is happening:

- 10 minute DART frequency to be introduced next year
- Services from Kildare line to Grand Canal Dock via the Phoenix Park Tunnel to be introduced next year
- Completion of the city centre re-signalling project next year facilitating more trains through the city centre and the introduction of the Grand Canal Dock turnback facility
- Ongoing ballast cleaning and track bed renewal on the Dublin-Cork line to lead to a non-stop journey time of 2 hours between the two cities and consequent faster journey times for all services using that line

We don't know whether DART Underground or a DART spur to the airport will happen.

Ultimately all of our public transport operators are behoven to government funding - that dictates what they can and cannot afford to do. If the funding envelope made available to the NTA widens, then the companies can afford to do more.

I don't think it is fair to say that there is no plan, but being honest most of the schemes are ones that will allow for incremental improvements over time as that is all that the funding will allow.

But if you have some crystal ball that can answer what the funding availability is then fair dues to you.

expectationlost

Niamh Walsh
Recently appointed - biography coming soon. http://www.cie.ie/board-member-biographies
she's been appointed ~month and we've no idea who she is

Carawaystick

lxflyer wrote: »

Ultimately all of our public transport operators are behoven to government funding - that dictates what they can and cannot afford to do. If the funding envelope made available to the NTA widens, then the companies can afford to do more.

I didn't think the private coach companies depended on govt funding? and BÉ expressway is supposed to be standalone.

LXFlyer

Carawaystick wrote: »

I didn't think the private coach companies depended on govt funding? and BÉ expressway is supposed to be standalone.

I think you know and understand what I meant. Do you always have to be that picky?

If you want I can rephrase into a perfectly legally correct statement, but frankly I think that most people knew what I meant.

expectationlost

finally new CIE members board bios http://www.cie.ie/board-member-biographies

Christine Moran

Christine Moran was appointed to the Board of CIE in July 2015. She is a previous executive director of KBC Ireland Bank plc where she held a number of senior leadership roles and has extensive experience in the areas of strategic development, audit, finance and risk management. She has been a director or member of a number of public bodies, not for profit organisations and charities i.e. the First Advisory Group to the Irish Marine Development Office and Enactus Ireland. She trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with PWC (Dublin) and completed two international assignments with PWC Belgium and PWC New York and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. She is a graduate of UCD (Batchelor of Commerce and Diploma in Professional Accounting) and is a Certified Bank Director.

Ruairi O'Flynn

Ruairi O’Flynn was appointed to the Board in July 2015. He is also on the Boards of FBD Holdings plc, Canada Life International Reinsurance, and Irish Life Investment Managers. He was previously CEO at Canada Life Ireland and was also CEO at Setanta Asset Management and at Lifetime Assurance. His early career was at Bank of Ireland Group and he has also been a full time member of faculty at the IMI. Ruairi holds B.B.S. and Msc. (Mgt) degrees from Trinity College. He is a participant in the 2015 International Directors Programme at Insead Business School.

Niamh Walsh

Niamh Walsh was appointed to the Board on July 24th 2015. She has 25 years Investment Banking experience gained in London, Hong Kong and Dublin. Her more recent roles include Chief Risk Officer for JPMorgan Bank Dublin plc and Joint CEO for Bear Stearns Bank plc. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators.

expectationlost

6 NTA appointments were stealthy updated in the DTTAS transport boards pdf on th 5th of October

http://www.dttas.ie/corporate/english/state-board-membership-and-approved-fees

no announcement with resons/bios as is required by the state board guideline 13.6 http://per.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/Guidelines-on-Appointments-to-State-Boards.pdf

so I have to search and guess who they are

Pat Mangan former Light Rail Project Director http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/committeetakes/TRJ2005102700003?opendocument
Frank O'Connor http://www.tuugo.info/Companies/o-connor-transport-%28foynes%29-ltd6/0340002606253#!
Sinéad Walsh https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Sinead/Walsh
Frank Gleeson https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/frank-gleeson/16/81a/b5a
Fiona Ross https://ie.linkedin.com/in/fionaross
Ann Fitzgerald ?

end of the road

expectationlost wrote: »

6 NTA appointments were stealthy updated in the DTTAS transport boards pdf on th 5th of October

http://www.dttas.ie/corporate/english/state-board-membership-and-approved-fees

no announcement with resons/bios as is required by the state board guideline 13.6 http://per.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/Guidelines-on-Appointments-to-State-Boards.pdf

so I have to search and guess who they are

Pat Mangan former Light Rail Project Director http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/committeetakes/TRJ2005102700003?opendocument
Frank O'Connor http://www.tuugo.info/Companies/o-connor-transport-%28foynes%29-ltd6/0340002606253#!
Sinéad Walsh https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Sinead/Walsh
Frank Gleeson https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/frank-gleeson/16/81a/b5a
Fiona Ross https://ie.linkedin.com/in/fionaross
Ann Fitzgerald ?

i'm not getting what any of these will bring to a national transport authority? anyone?

RainyDay

expectationlost wrote: »

6 NTA appointments were stealthy updated in the DTTAS transport boards pdf on th 5th of October

http://www.dttas.ie/corporate/english/state-board-membership-and-approved-fees

no announcement with resons/bios as is required by the state board guideline 13.6 http://per.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/Guidelines-on-Appointments-to-State-Boards.pdf

Strange, do you have any friendly TD who would ask a PQ as to when they plan to comply with the Code of Practice?

I'd say you've got the right Fiona Ross anyway. Could well be this Ann Fitzgerald;
http://corporate.nca.ie/eng/Media_Zone/Press%20Releases/Ann%20Fitzgerald%20speech.html

expectationlost

RainyDay wrote: »

Strange, do you have any friendly TD who would ask a PQ as to when they plan to comply with the Code of Practice?

I'd say you've got the right Fiona Ross anyway. Could well be this Ann Fitzgerald;
http://corporate.nca.ie/eng/Media_Zone/Press%20Releases/Ann%20Fitzgerald%20speech.html

by the time its asked, he may have made the announcement

emailed the minister last week, as you see above it took 2 months to get bios re CIE appointments

Carawaystick

AIE and FOI request from the Authority and minister?

expectationlost

Carawaystick wrote: »

AIE and FOI request from the Authority and minister?

thanks but its not an FOI or AIE issue

expectationlost

finally somebody else gives a crap, and writes an article http://dublininquirer.com/2015/10/13/whos-on-the-board-of-the-national-transport-authority/ didn't get any further then me, but explained it a little more fully

alcaline

One of them has a Masters in CyberPsychology, sure thats essential to running a bus service these days.

expectationlost

Here’s Who’s on the Board of the National Transport Authority http://dublininquirer.com/2015/10/20/heres-whos-on-the-board-of-the-national-transport-authority/ more info here https://www.nationaltransport.ie/about-us/board/