Dublin Bus seeks to allocate routes for private sector

Victor

This is akin to putting the fox(es?) in charge of chicken security. I think substantial work needs to be done by an independant agency to bring all the bus operators into line.

---

Dublin Bus seeks to allocate routes for private sector
From:ireland.com
Saturday, 11th January, 2003

Dublin Bus has told the Government it wants the power to allocate routes to private operators when the bus market is liberalised. The proposal is contained in a strategic plan, seen by The Irish Times, which says there is "little doubt" that the company will face increasing competition in the future.

But while the CIÉ subsidiary wants to tender services to private companies as the market opens, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is thought to be strongly opposed to the proposal. He wants this responsibility vested in an independent regulatory body.

Sources close to Mr Brennan said the plan did not make sense. "You can't have the dominant company in a market deciding who gets what," said one person.

But the Dublin Bus document said the model would allow it to become the implementing agency for the regulatory authority, protecting its own strengths. It would also ensure that the company would not be dismantled.

Senior sources within Dublin Bus deny that the document implies the company effectively accepts the inevitability of competition in the market. They say this has not yet been agreed by the company or its parent, the CIÉ Group. Neither has it been agreed with the group's traditionally militant trade unions.

Such sources see the strategic plan as a tentative document only because the Government has yet to produce firm proposals for the extent and scope of regulation in the market.

Still, the document said Dublin Bus was in a position to proceed with the "immediate tendering" of 40 buses and 60 schools services subject to agreement with all stakeholders. With 1,600 buses on the Dublin network, the company said up to a quarter or 400 could be tendered.

This is in line with Mr Brennan's pledge to open a quarter of the Dublin market to competition, although he wants this achieved this year.

The Minister wants to break up CIÉ, establishing Dublin Bus and its sister companies Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann as independent entities.

Such proposals were presented by the Government's consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), to the CIÉ board on Thursday. But while the State company has yet to formulate its response, there are strong indications that the group's trade unions are very unhappy.

The National Bus and Railworkers' Union (NBRU) expressed disappointment with the plan on Thursday and it emerged yesterday that officials in the union had refused to attend a briefing by PwC in the Department. Other trade unionists who did attend the meeting are said to have expressed dissatisfaction with the plan.

The NBRU general secretary, Mr Liam Tobin, wrote to Mr Brennan on Tuesday, complaining that he had expressed determination to face down union opposition to his plans. With Mr Brennan stating that he was "deadly serious", Mr Tobin said such utterances set a bad tone for future meetings with the union.

Referring to the issuing of new licences to private-sector rivals to Bus Éireann, Mr Tobin said: "Recent developments suggest that privatisation is in fact already under way and we need urgent clarification of the situation."

kamobe

That's almost as dumb as deregulating a telecoms market, but leaving one company with complete control over all the lines. Surely, in this fine country, nothing so foolish would ever come to be.

sceptre

Obviously it's nuts

Now, leaving that aside...

Did Seamus Brennan start taking pills about a year ago or something:D? I mean, he was always pretty OK or satisfactory at any Ministerial position he was given but since being put in carge of Transport he's coming across as easily the best, most competent Minister we have. What the hell happened? This just comes across as too committed for an FF minister - is he planning on defecting somewhere or something:)?

seamus

It's never gonna happen.

Originally posted by sceptre
Obviously it's nuts

Now, leaving that aside...

Did Seamus Brennan start taking pills about a year ago or something:D? I mean, he was always pretty OK or satisfactory at any Ministerial position he was given but since being put in carge of Transport he's coming across as easily the best, most competent Minister we have. What the hell happened? This just comes across as too committed for an FF minister - is he planning on defecting somewhere or something:)?

Well Dermot Ahern (the *good* Ahern ) seems to be on a bit of a good deeds buzz too. I'm thinking either;

1. They're sick of the state of the country and have finally realised that they're the ones in the driving seat.

2. They've finally realised that they're the ones in the driving seat, and the country is in a sh1te state, so they're being highly proactive to save their (more than generous) jobs.

Victor

Originally posted by sceptre
Did Seamus Brennan start taking pills about a year ago or something:D?

Maybe he has ambitions?

mike65

Seamus is deffo my favourite minister!
But allowing Dublin Bus to dictate who gets what is plainy nuttier than a bar of fruit and nut.

Mike.

dmeehan

Originally posted by kamobe
That's almost as dumb as deregulating a telecoms market, but leaving one company with complete control over all the lines. Surely, in this fine country, nothing so foolish would ever come to be.

could not have put it better myself!
obviously some indepedent body should be in charge of dishing out the routes, and i think dublin bus should also tender for some of the more "profit-garunteed" routes

Victor

Further story:

---

Bus and train drivers to strike on Wednesday
From:ireland.com
Monday, 13th January, 2003

Commuters will again be made victim of industrial unrest when public transport workers protest against plans to deregulate the industry on Wednesday with a four-hour work stoppage.

Bus and rail services nationwide will be affected by the action, which will see around 3,000 drivers holding marches across the country between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The drivers are protesting plans to break-up CIÉ which they say they have not been consulted about.

The Labour Party have called on the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to arrange a meeting with the unions in an effort to avert the action. Transport spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall criticised at the Minister for his failure to consult unions.

"Clearly decisions on the future structure of the CIÉ group of companies will have serious implications for workers in those companies. The very least they are entitled to is to hear directly from the Minister himself his plans for their future," she said.

She also said Mr Brennan was taking a "bull-in-a-china-shop" approach to restructuring CIÉ which amounted to abolishing the company.

The company was split into Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail in the late 1980s in an effort to achieve efficiencies, but Ms Shortall said there had been no noticeable improvements for passengers.

"Commuters are far more interested in having a reliable and economic public transport system than in seeing Minister Brennan shuffle the CIÉ deck again," she said.

mike65

When Brendan Ogle (of the railway drivers) held much of the country to randsom two summers back, all he did was piss-off the public, he did'nt achieve his aims as I recall...

Mike.