n97 mini wrote: » Minister Ross was on drive time earlier. Said he's not getting involved as they'd only want him to open his cheque book. He's dead right not to get involved.
Brendan Bendar wrote: » Yes heard that. O'Leary and Noone might be out on a limb here. A pity because there are good people working there. Noone must have thought he was back in Aer Lingus in the 'good' old days:D
Flex wrote: the only thing more remarkable than it is that those PAYE workers they so openly seek to rip off never stand up against it
Flex wrote: » NBRU saying the strike is inevitable due to and being caused by the Minister for Transport refusing to get involved and use taxpayer money to bail them out. The contempt the trade unions in Ireland hold PAYE private sector workers in is remarkable, and the only thing more remarkable than it is that those PAYE workers they so openly seek to rip off never stand up against it in any coherent or organised fashion as they dip their hands into our wallets, IMO (and I say that about myself as well) no political party is willing to make even a half-assed attempt at representing those taxpayers
Del.Monte wrote: » What exactly does the so-called Minister for Transport do in relation to his brief? All responsibility is conveniently farmed out to CIE and the NTA and he is surplus to requirements - axing him and his whole useless department would result in considerable savings.
kingshankly wrote: 1.2 million people with free passes !!! That's over 1/4 of our population surely this has to be looked at Is it any wonder public companies are struggling
Deleted User wrote: » Transport services are classified as a service of general economic interest and therefore BE are not subject to the same state aid rules as Apple. Its the same reason that the courier companies couldn't object to the state aid that was given to An Post. Furthermore some of the state aid that is given to BE was established before we joined the EU and is grandfathered in
SweetCaliber wrote: » Probably a bad time to ask if Bus Eireann are ever going to buy new commuter buses. Tramore to Waterford bus for example, full nearly all the time yet buses are 10 years old, leaking when it rains, and always making incredibly weird and unnerving noises. Same buses are run every half hour every day of the week.
jimmycrackcorm wrote: » It's not like you cannot get a seat on a bus because it's full of grey haired people. In fact because they don't need to go to work or college it's likely that any journeys they undertake are only necessary and by a fraction of the people who can avail of ftp. My own mother who is in her eighties thinks it's marvelous to have, even if she had only used it twice in over twenty years!
loyatemu wrote: » too much is made of the free travel pass - the vast majority of the 1.2m are pensioners and the disabled and everyone seems to agree that they shouldn't be touched. There's 2 options; either the govt increases the amount it pays CIE for the FTP users, which would basically just be an increase in the subvention, aka "opening the taxpayers chequebook" that everyone is so vehemently arguing against. Or they try to reduce the number of FTP users, but even if they took such a politically unpopular move the only way it would help CIE's financial position is if they used the reduction in passengers to justify cutting services and laying off staff which nobody seems to want either (it would result in fewer services for paying customers too).
loyatemu wrote: » too much is made of the free travel pass - the vast majority of the 1.2m are pensioners and the disabled and everyone seems to agree that they shouldn't be touched. There's 2 options; either the govt increases the amount it pays CIE for the FTP users, Or they try to reduce the number of FTP users,
Idbatterim wrote: » I wonder would private operators step in on routes that it is proposed are scrapped? Bus eireann are crap at what they do... would be interesting
devnull wrote: » Threats of disruption to Dublin Bus services I'm hearing, as a picket at Bus Eireann Broadstone depot which is a shared facility with Dublin Bus, may not operate because of DB staff will not go near the picket. According to an article I read, DB are attempting to move staff and buses to other depots ahead of the strike in order to ensure that the service keeps running.
road_high wrote: » I'd imagine the Clonmel/Kilkenny/Dublin route could and should be profitable with the right operator. There's no other competition from Clonmel to dublin. Also, while the journey times are very good via the M9 motorway (a little over an hour from Kilkenny), the times in the morning are ridiculous. The 05.25 is far too early for anyone commuting to dublin, the 07.25 too late as it reaches Busaras at 09.07 am. Why not readjust to 07.00 am and be a viable option for commuters/ day trippers/business people?
bk wrote: » Broadstone seems to be a smaller depot, just 40 buses out of 980. Shouldn't have a major impact on DB either way.
devnull wrote: » There is competition:http://jjkavanagh.ie/timetable-detail-page?RouteNo=717&IsWeb=1&IsCollegeRoute=0&Direction=0&RGrp=Main%20Routes%20^%20Airport%20Routes However it serves more places, but that puts to bed speculation that privates don't serve small places.
road_high wrote: » Forgot Kavanagh also go as far as Clonmel too. Not sure if they're any cheaper? Got it from the Red Cow last week to kk, €13 one way. Dublin coach are €10. They still send some of the services via Athy, the rest now direct via M9.
devnull wrote: » Most of the routes it operates are peak time only and xpressos etc though so at peaks this could have an effect.
n97 mini wrote: » Kavanagh's: Clonmel to Eden Quay = €10 BE: to Busarus = €11.40
road_high wrote: » I paid €13 one way to Kilkenny with JJ Kav just last week
Bass Reeves wrote: » No what the government should do is tender out routes and have an open competition for bus companies to provide the service. You be amazed at how much the subvention would reduce over time.
end of the road wrote: » i would because it' seems to be only a belief rather then actually being the case. there is only 1 way to achieve subsidy reductions and that is by passing the cost on to the passenger.
bk wrote: » I don't see why they wouldn't. Aircoach, Citylink, etc. seem to be quiet happy to run services 24/7, with zero subsidy. For a route like the 109 it would depend on what basis if it is run. If it is run on a purely commercial basis, with no subsidy, then it would be up to the private operator as to what schedule they want to run on it. You would assume that as long as it had enough passengers to be profitable, they would run at those times. As you mentioned, some Aircoach buses to Belfast might have just 5 passengers, yet they still run it and the route overall is very profitable for them. If it continued to be a PSO route, then a tender would be put out by the NTA to run the route and the NTA would be the ones who would decide the schedule, etc.If the NTA decided that the route should have buses running late into the evening or even 24/7, then the winner of the contract would have to deliver exactly that. The fact that some of the departures might be quiet and unprofitable, would be irrelevant to the private operator as the cost of them would be covered by the PSO subsidy. I also don't like this idea that BE are the only company willing to run late services as it clearly isn't true. The last BE bus from Cork to Dublin was 6pm! Imagine that, there was no bus service between the two largest cities in Ireland after 6pm! Insane. People were asking them for later buses for years, yet they claimed there was no demand for it. Then Aircoach come along and offer hourly buses operating almost 24/7 and guess what, massively successful. Often up to three extra reliefs put on per hour, the demand is so high! Proving that BE were dead wrong about the demand and also proving that privates are very willing to operate 24/7.
horseburger wrote: » Robert Troy said: "Quite amazing yesterday, the CEO of The NTA confirmed what I already knew, that when somebody is issued a licence, be it from Cork to Dublin, a private contractor, when they apply for the licence, they can apply and they can stipulate they are going to service a number of towns along the route". He added "After a couple of weeks, they can go back to the NTA and say 'I'm sorry this is not commercially viable, we're no longer servicing these towns'. And the NTA has no recourse to sanction, or to enforce them to operate their licence, as they were originally given. The NTA take their word that it's not commercially viable and they allow them pull out of" towns on that bus route.
Imelda Munster stated: "It's a political policy to run down our public transport network".Imelda Munster referred to the confirmation by Anne Graham of the NTA, that private companies can decide not to serve intermediate towns, even tough the licence granted, was granted on the basis that these towns should be served.
Imelda Munster said "again yesterday, I had said to her (Anne Graham CEO of The NTA) that that statement in itself was telling. What she said was that if a private operator was granted a licence, and if that private operator felt that that licence was no longer financially viable, they can pull from that route straight away.
So, where are you left then? Your public service is gone. Public transport should be about providing a public service".
devnull wrote: » A nice balanced discussion there, Imelda Munster, a Sinn Fein TD and Robert Troy a Fianna Fail TD, who are twisting what the other side says, who has no right of reply on the radio, a one sided discussion if I ever saw one. It appears that Anne Graham has had her words twisted again when she is not on a show to defend herself, no doubt if it's how the poster said it is, they will also be getting correspondence like the Irish Examiner to correct them.
devnull wrote: » Robert Troy is spinning to the extreme here, there is technically no such thing as a private operator as far as the NTA are concerned as far as their regulation remit goes. and there never has been, the only ones who say there are, happen to be unions and those who would be heavily involved in the union movement . They are called commercial operators, of which Expressway is one and there is a level playing field in that an operator such as JJ Kavanagh and Expressway have to adhere to exactly the same rules as each other. This is what commercial is, they are self funded and they are run with their own money so they control themselves, but subject to regulation on routes. You cannot force a commercial company to continue running a service they don't want to.
devnull wrote: » What I'm sure that Anne Graham said is that a commercial operator (of which Expressway is one) felt a service was no longer viable they can pull that route straight away. The trouble is that a lot of people think that commercial means private but it does not. It means any company or business unit that is self funding and run on a commercial basis. I have not heard the NTA use the word private ever in any statement or in any document issued over the years, they always refer to the operators as commercial operators.
devnull wrote: » I know that some people are deliberately are hiding this from members of the areas that they re represent because they are trying to weaponize the old, the elderly and the sick and scare them into thinking that they will have no bus service, but personally I think that is quite abhorrent and instead of trying to do that, it's about time that they started to represent the many instead of the few in the unions and to be on the side of the vast majority of people in this state and be honest, rather than persisting with fake news.
