Bus Eireann: €3.5 million profit for 2018?

MGWR

Funny this forecast in light of the big 2017 loss. Cutting more routes, of course. (Also funny how no private company takes up the slack; sounds like regulatory squeeze.)

Irish Times

State-owned public transport group Bus Eireann hopes to make a €3.5 million profit in 2018, following a €13 million loss this year, according to its chief executive, Ray Hernan. ...

Speaking after addressing the conference, he explained that on that day Bus Eireann intended introducing new rosters for drivers that would see all of them working five days out of seven, including weekends. ...

The new rosters also mean that drivers will drive for seven hours of a nine-hour day, as opposed to working for four as they did in the past. “Their working day will not be longer, but they will drive more,” Mr Hernan said.

About 240 staff are due to take voluntary redundancy from Bus Eireann. About 140 have left and the rest are due to go next year.

Mr Hernan did not rule out further closing or cutting of services on loss-making routes. “We have closed three already and there are more probably to come,” he warned. ...

Does not look like good news overall. Never mind counting chickens pre-hatching.

BowSideChamp

Amazing how they don't turn a profit everyyear when the taxpayer pays for all the buses, bus stations etc.

end of the road

BowSideChamp wrote: »

Amazing how they don't turn a profit everyyear when the taxpayer pays for all the buses, bus stations etc.

because most of their routes are loss making subsidized PSO routes. tax payer subsidy doesn't simply equal profit for the companies.

magentis

because public transport should not be about profit.

magentis

magentis wrote: »

because public transport should not be about profit.

Should not be about unsustainable losses either.

end of the road

salonfire wrote: »

Should not be about unsustainable losses either.

public services by their nature are about "unsustainible" losses. if they were companies they would have gone bankrupt long ago with the losses they make.

amcalester

end of the road wrote: »

because most of their routes are loss making subsidized PSO routes. tax payer subsidy doesn't simply equal profit for the companies.

Loss making to the NTA, that BE hasn’t been making a profit is entirely down to its own inefficiencies.

end of the road

amcalester wrote: »

Loss making to the NTA, that BE hasn’t been making a profit is entirely down to its own inefficiencies.

no the routes are loss making full stop.

magentis

salonfire wrote: »

Should not be about unsustainable losses either.

Public transport is a social service,because you are from say somewhere like stepaside,what gives you more of a right to these services than a person from Donegal?

amcalester

end of the road wrote: »

no the routes are loss making full stop.

Makes no difference to BE as they are paid regardless.

magentis

A change in government will hopefully see things in a different non capitalist light.

amcalester

magentis wrote: »

A change in government will hopefully see things in a different non capitalist light.

A government can only spend what it takes in, so where would you divert money from in order to redirect it to BE?

Jamie2k9

CIE making losses is best for the taxpayer. How on earth do they expect a 3.5 million profit in 2018. Unions will be rightly p*eed off if they make such a profit.

amcalester

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

CIE making losses is best for the taxpayer. How on earth do they expect a 3.5 million profit in 2018. Unions will be rightly p*eed off if they make such a profit.

Businesses are supposed to turn a profit, they’re not run to benefit the union.

Jamie2k9

amcalester wrote: »

Businesses are supposed to turn a profit, they’re not run to benefit the union.

No need to tell me but if they make such a profit you can be sure customers and BE will pay the cost in 2019 or whenever the current deal ends.

MGWR

salonfire wrote: »

magentis wrote: »

because public transport should not be about profit.

Should not be about unsustainable losses either.

Correct. Government did not take over bus and rail services because they were inherently loss-making (they actually were not), but because they wanted to control those sectors. What is needed is mass transport rather than "public".

PS. There is no such thing as a "sustainable" loss versus "unsustainable". A loss is a loss, and all losses are an economic drain. Losses due to deliberate inefficiencies are inexcuseable.

amcalester

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

No need to tell me but if they make such a profit you can be sure customers and BE will pay the cost in 2019 or whenever the current deal ends.

Apologies, I misread your post to mean that you thought that money should be paid out to staff.