BUSRAGE Discussions » General Issues

1. Steve OShea
   Member

   
   Surprised that no one has posted yet about the FirstGroup buyout of Aircoach.
   
   Aircoach is a growing company, but it's not the real prize - First are using it to position themselves here for any privitization / breakup of CIE etc etc etc.
   
   Londoners will tell you that First operate their services to a high quality, as indeed they do, when regulated by Transport For London. People outside London, particularly in areas such as Devon and Cornwall, will tell of axed routes and bare-to-the-bone frequencies, starved of investment, surviving on cast-off vehicles from the London fleet.
   
   It will be interesting to see how they get on in Dublin. Obviously they will rebrand and massively invest in the Aircoach fleet - there are rumours of them going head to head with Bus Eireann on routes such as Dublin-Cork for example.
   
   They will be doing everything to win the battle for hearts and minds (tired Gulf War cliche) while they position themselves to grab a slice of what they really want - the dublin city market.
   
   Steve

   Posted 5 years ago #

2. AlekSmart
   Member

   Got it in one SoS.
   The key to all of this is what (If Any) regulatory system Oul Mr Brennan will have in place for both Dublin and the Regions.
   To date the Department of Transport have shown a virtual vacuum in their knowledge of what is required of an effective Public Transport regulatory system.
   In the early days of Seamuseen`s smash-CIE crusade it was the TfL London model which he constantly pointed to.
   However,in the recent past as the TRUE cost of running an effective regulatory model becomes apparent in London our Oul Man has become much less strident in his comparisons.
   First London and all the other Private companies provide hi-class and hi-frequency and all the rest because they are Rigorously supervised at each and every point of their service delivery.
   Seamus Brennans orginal plans called for all of these Companies to be invited to a Big-Breakfast where they would be Gifted a bunch of routes and allowed to trot off and run them with NO regulation until "Somewhat Later "....
   This represents a DoomsDay scenario for ANY form of good governance and thankfully the incredibly inept performance shown by the RPA/LUAS and the National Roads Authority seems destined to make it virtually treasonable for Seamuseen to refuse to put a PROPERLY structured regulatory and oversight body in place BEFORE allowing the Cats into the Pigeonloft !!

   Posted 5 years ago #

3. Al
   Member

   In the early days of Seamuseen`s smash-CIE crusade it was the TfL London model which he constantly pointed to
   
   Why? Was there something wrong with the model presented by New York’s MTA or something? IMHO, the MTA beats the trousers off TfL millions of ways to one. There are loads of bus and rail routes that could be cut on the MTA, but it is just not done because the need is recognised. And the subsidy necessary is not as high as closed minds like Brennan may like to believe…
   

   Posted 5 years ago #

4. Steve OShea
   Member

   
   I'm afraid I don't have enough experience of MTA to comment.
   
   However I can confirm that TFL works very well now - the trick if apeing London is to look at how they learned from their mistakes, and not just go for their 1985 model which had many flaws.
   
   Steve

   Posted 5 years ago #

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