Sale of Local Authority bus companies

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Sale of Local Authority bus companies

(20/12/2015 13:15)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  The problem I believe people don't see is that very early in the morning and after 8pm at night the buses are running quite empty. Drivers wages, garage staff, fuel etc etc are all costs to the company during this time. Therefore can we assume as a result of this, they need to generate enough capital during the day to account for the losses made during these 'quiet' periods?

Are these services commercially run? If so, why? If they're not making money, particularly in the evening, then running them commercially is not a good use of taxpayer money by either the council or NW. If deemed socially necessary, the services should be going out to tender and being run as subsidised services by the operator offering the best deal to the taxpayer and public. Do the council, in the form of their own bus company, necessarily offer that?

(20/12/2015 13:15)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  As for taking a loan out to purchase new vehicles, we don't know how much exactly this was and the Warrington Guardian who covered the story don't exactly hold Network Warrington in high regards. Therefore could the article be slightly biased not declaring all of the facts?

I honestly couldn't have told you who's written what about the loan so whether or not it was covered by a bias source is irrelevant to at least me. You've skirted over the fact here that the company have failed to declare the value of the loan though. Consider the fact that no matter what the value of the loan was, it could have been reduced by purchasing second hand vehicles instead of new.

Not knowing how much the loan was for, as you point out, could a loan have been completely avoided by purchasing second hand? Could some of the fare increases have been avoided by purchasing second hand. This all comes back to appropriation of funding and best use of taxpayer funds, in my opinion.

(20/12/2015 13:15)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  People are always happy to spread rumours about the company yet appear to lack real insight into why the company make the decisions they do.

I wouldn't say that I've personally 'spread' a single rumour here. I'm commenting on what we do publicly know about the companies operations and anything else has been posed as a question. Whilst I appreciate that you're loyal to your employer, is your posting not also likely to be bias? And whilst you're a driver for the company, is it likely that you're fully in the know as to the decision making or how truly in the public interest it is?

As a council owned entity, anything NW do should be in the interest of the taxpayer and certainly in light of some of the discussions currently taking place in this thread, it's questionable as to whether that's actually the case.