Friday 18 May 2012
Environment Department response to media enquiry from Guernsey Press.
Guernsey Press enquiry:
I am just doing a follow-up story to an article in today's paper P4 about a bus driver shortage after three drivers quit and three are off ill, causing some services to be cancelled.
Would it be possible to get a response from Environment about the questions below:
What is its general reaction to the cancellations of some bus services?
What is there in the contract/ what power does the department have to make sure this doesn't happen again? Can any penalties be given out?
Does the department have a service level agreement with CT Plus? If so, what is it?
As we know from the States accounts, bus numbers are down - Does the department think the unreliable service experienced on Thurs is acceptable?
What will it be doing to ensure that further services aren't cancelled?
Does the department think it is acceptable that passengers were left waiting at the bus stop with no idea that the service had been cancelled?
Can the department provide details of the contract? Cost etc? If not, can the department justify not releasing the details to taxpayers?
Environment Department response:
The Environment Department is aware that CT Plus has been actively seeking to recruit new drivers as part of its programme of scaling up to the Summer Bus Service schedule and understands that driver availability has recently been hampered by the decision of a small number of drivers to leave the employment of the Company together with an unforeseen temporary blip in sickness absence.
CT Plus has assured the Department that it is doing all that it can to minimise potential disruption to the Scheduled Bus Service but that it has unfortunately had to cancel a number of services on each of the past few days. As from Monday 21 May, CT Plus will be broadcasting regular bus service updates through Radio Guernsey on their travel update and are looking to introduce other measures aimed at improving communications with passengers, particularly during morning and evening commuter periods.
Clearly any shortfall in service provision is regrettable as the principal success criteria for any public bus service operation is based around the ability to offer a safe, affordable, frequent, consistent and reliable service to its passengers. Whilst the loss of any one of these elements can be potentially damaging to the service, the Department is hopeful that CT Plus can overcome this temporary driver shortage in an expedient manner.
The contract with CT Plus includes a number of provisions for monitoring performance and there are of course measures in place to ensure that the operator is incentivised to meet its agreed service levels and penalised if it fails.
The cost of the contract to the States is in the order of £2.4 million per annum which is less than the projected spend for 2012 had no action been taken to renegotiate a new contract.
Further details regarding the bus contract negotiation process are available as a Download Document from the States website under Travel, Traffic and Transport/ Public Transport/Buses/Scheduled Bus Services - Contract Negotiations.
Contact Information:
Karl Guille, Traffic and Transport Services Manager
Environment Department
Tel: 243400
