F Great Eastern
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http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/...to-intervene-in-bus-eireann-talks-778103.html
As the talks near an end, as expected the unions are now calling for the regulator to resolve the issue by investing extra amounts of cash so everything can plough on as it has for the last however number of years without any changes, basically throwing money at a problem to avoid dealing with the underlying problems.
This appears to be an ask for illegal state aid to Expressway financially and also an ask for licenses to be granted for corridors which they missed the boat because other people got in there before them. which would be a total travesty for the public of Ireland as it would essentially result in the benefits of the company/staff being put before the benefit of public transport as a whole.
Just to remind people, on commercial routes in Dublin, two licenses are handed out per corridor and routes, first two apply get the license, Multi-Stop and Express services are considered different routes. After the first two licenses are handed out nobody else can apply until one is freed up. In many cases Bus Eireann were not the first two to apply on these corridors so they were not able to get licenses for said routes.
Essentially what the unions are calling for is for a third license to be added to those corridors to allow Bus Eireann to run, with the aid of taxpayers money, to push out the competition on the other routes with state aid to become the dominant operator on the route. However it appears to be stating that no further licenses should be permitted on routes where Bus Eireann is already one of the two operators - essentially wanting to change the dynamics of the industry so it's in favour of the company, rather than the bigger picture.
The side effects of this would be catastrophic and will discourage any company from offering innovative or ground-breaking services in the knowledge that any niche proven successful, can have a taxpayer funded operator come in and piggy back on their investment and act like birds of prey and predators on their services. This means that no commercials will take the industry forward, which will lead to poorer services overall for the public.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
The continued tactic of scaring rural communities with totally off the wall claims with no basis on reality and using them as a tool to beat the company with and to try and push a government over the edge is getting increasingly tiresome and as I wrote out earlier, by the week the regulators patience with these claims is getting ever more thin. If it carries on in this vein for much longer I wouldn't be surprised if it decided to take some hard action against the people who keep repeating them.
The only routes which have been talked about being changed or cut back are routes which are commercial routes connecting major towns and cities. Over the past few years there has been year on year growth on subsdised and rural routes as the regulator has invested large amounts of money on modern fleets, full network redesigns and has seen large passenger growth. These services have not been and never will be at threat and the only people who claim they are, are the unions who are attempting to weaponize people in rural communities.
The routes that are at threat are commercial routes and these are 99% not serving rural areas. Where commercial routes have been withdrawn in the past and they lead to a reduction of services to people in some areas, new PSO services to connect those towns and villages to the commercial network have been fully funded by way of further investment in the public transport network, this happened when Bus Eireann withdrew a route in the past and I'm sure it will happen again.
The more and more I read on this the more I believe it's impossible to resolve, the unions are attempting to use more and more people as bargaining chips, repeating statements over and over again that have no basis on reality, the regulator is getting fed up with such statements being made and is actively challenging such statements to the point where the CEO is now writing to media outlets for essentially believing what the unions tell them without even checking their facts, whilst at the same time the unions are claiming that the only solution is for more money and to carry on as is.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/...to-intervene-in-bus-eireann-talks-778103.html
As the talks near an end, as expected the unions are now calling for the regulator to resolve the issue by investing extra amounts of cash so everything can plough on as it has for the last however number of years without any changes, basically throwing money at a problem to avoid dealing with the underlying problems.
This appears to be an ask for illegal state aid to Expressway financially and also an ask for licenses to be granted for corridors which they missed the boat because other people got in there before them. which would be a total travesty for the public of Ireland as it would essentially result in the benefits of the company/staff being put before the benefit of public transport as a whole.
Just to remind people, on commercial routes in Dublin, two licenses are handed out per corridor and routes, first two apply get the license, Multi-Stop and Express services are considered different routes. After the first two licenses are handed out nobody else can apply until one is freed up. In many cases Bus Eireann were not the first two to apply on these corridors so they were not able to get licenses for said routes.
Essentially what the unions are calling for is for a third license to be added to those corridors to allow Bus Eireann to run, with the aid of taxpayers money, to push out the competition on the other routes with state aid to become the dominant operator on the route. However it appears to be stating that no further licenses should be permitted on routes where Bus Eireann is already one of the two operators - essentially wanting to change the dynamics of the industry so it's in favour of the company, rather than the bigger picture.
The side effects of this would be catastrophic and will discourage any company from offering innovative or ground-breaking services in the knowledge that any niche proven successful, can have a taxpayer funded operator come in and piggy back on their investment and act like birds of prey and predators on their services. This means that no commercials will take the industry forward, which will lead to poorer services overall for the public.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
The continued tactic of scaring rural communities with totally off the wall claims with no basis on reality and using them as a tool to beat the company with and to try and push a government over the edge is getting increasingly tiresome and as I wrote out earlier, by the week the regulators patience with these claims is getting ever more thin. If it carries on in this vein for much longer I wouldn't be surprised if it decided to take some hard action against the people who keep repeating them.
The only routes which have been talked about being changed or cut back are routes which are commercial routes connecting major towns and cities. Over the past few years there has been year on year growth on subsdised and rural routes as the regulator has invested large amounts of money on modern fleets, full network redesigns and has seen large passenger growth. These services have not been and never will be at threat and the only people who claim they are, are the unions who are attempting to weaponize people in rural communities.
The routes that are at threat are commercial routes and these are 99% not serving rural areas. Where commercial routes have been withdrawn in the past and they lead to a reduction of services to people in some areas, new PSO services to connect those towns and villages to the commercial network have been fully funded by way of further investment in the public transport network, this happened when Bus Eireann withdrew a route in the past and I'm sure it will happen again.
The more and more I read on this the more I believe it's impossible to resolve, the unions are attempting to use more and more people as bargaining chips, repeating statements over and over again that have no basis on reality, the regulator is getting fed up with such statements being made and is actively challenging such statements to the point where the CEO is now writing to media outlets for essentially believing what the unions tell them without even checking their facts, whilst at the same time the unions are claiming that the only solution is for more money and to carry on as is.
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