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מסר חשוב מיורם בלומאן !!!
מסר חשוב מיורם בלומאן !!!
here is a brief history of bus privatisation in London from 1985 to date- I mentioned most of it on the phone yesterday. It would be interesting to put in onto Tapuz, for a general debate, so if you think it's a good idea, why not? The UK govn't wanted all public authorities to put to public tender all sorts of services they provided in house: cleansing , meals, transportation, data processing, payment systems, computer services and the like. The idea was to save costs, reduce regulations,in the belief that left to it's own, the market is more efficient. When it came to buses, the Transport Act of 1985 deregulated bus operation in the UK, except for London, manchester, Birmingham Glasgow Edinburgh. Outside those towns, the result was that public subsidy was withdrawn, fares went up, passengers deserted the buses, and now the network is a shadow of what it used to be 20 yrs ago. Outside Mon-Fri day time, and Sat shopping services, there are no public service buses at all. In London, what was London Transport was obliged to tender every individual route, sell off all of it's buses and relinquish control of bus garages, and concentrate on being in charge of the network. Eventually, today, it is called Transport for London [TfL] and it does own the route network, bus stations, publicity, bus stops, some bus garages, and set standards for bus companies to follow. But it all started with 5 routes put to tender in 1985, being won on price alone by other companies. the costs being the most important factor- by law. So, by 1990, there were lots of bus companies most using 2nd hand buses, 'saving' on standards, proper maintenance, cleansing, and buses, so service became bad, erratic, buses were dirty, staff were rude and missing [you pay peanuts you get monkeys]- and wages for drivers fell sharply, so the services could not be maintained properly. Reliablility went down. some bus companies went out of business overnight- there were 4 case of them. By 1995, it was clear that the system failed. Bus rideship in London fell, and a consolidation of the bus industry in London started. Eventually Stagecoach, First, Go Ahead, Arriva now control 75% of the buses, with Metroline and London United controlling another 15%, so there are not that many true independent left. It was not in the companies interest to renew their bus fleets, or invest in better facilities,as it would cost them money and cause losses of tenders. The result was a run down fleet, vehicle age profile went up, and even the paint brush went on strike! In 1999, the new Transport Act, created TfL and switched the emphasis and the criteria in awarding tenders to costs and quality service, so TfL could and did award not on costs alone. So, how is it done today: - Tfl owns the bus routes: it specify where it goes, how frequent, what sort of bus, and service quality standards. Usually the buses specified are new. Even the bus colour- should be 80% red. - TfL installs in each bus their own ticket machine and radios. - The tender goes out and awarded to a company for 5 yrs extended for another 2 yrs if they are good operators. The staff gets bonus from TfL if the route gets a quality standard from TfL. - Service pattern is standard: peak and off peak and Sundays. so it is easy to remember. - TfL is responsible for bus stations,stops, publicity and the like. The result was a better quality service, and a huge rise in bus ridership [up an annual 6-7%], increase in max peak requirement. It now stands at over 6600 buses where in 1995 it was under 5000. We actually know how many buses are allocated to each route. Each driver has a duty card, specifying when he/she signs on for duty and comes off duty, when rest time is due, when the bus is due at certain stops. each bus is allocated a running number. Under quality contract terms, the company also has a roadside inspector to make sure that the buses do run on time and take action if there is a problem. So, at the heart of the system lies a driver with a proper schedule and duty card, and from that you build on a whole system. Make no bones- the quality system is expensive,but it weeds out the cowboys and the standards are maintained and we get new buses, reliable service and the passengers come back. Today, the bus service is better than it was 20 years ago. For the bus fan/enthusiast the first 10 yrs fo bus tendering were really good. The start up companies bought or hired plenty of 2nd hand junk from all over the country, buses came and went and it was great to record and photo them all, bus livery changed all the time. now the fleets are fairly standard, and life is not so exciting. I remember spending many happy weekends trying to keep on top of all of those rather exciting developments! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- regards Yoram. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool emoticons - download MSN Messenger today! http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
מסר חשוב מיורם בלומאן !!!
here is a brief history of bus privatisation in London from 1985 to date- I mentioned most of it on the phone yesterday. It would be interesting to put in onto Tapuz, for a general debate, so if you think it's a good idea, why not? The UK govn't wanted all public authorities to put to public tender all sorts of services they provided in house: cleansing , meals, transportation, data processing, payment systems, computer services and the like. The idea was to save costs, reduce regulations,in the belief that left to it's own, the market is more efficient. When it came to buses, the Transport Act of 1985 deregulated bus operation in the UK, except for London, manchester, Birmingham Glasgow Edinburgh. Outside those towns, the result was that public subsidy was withdrawn, fares went up, passengers deserted the buses, and now the network is a shadow of what it used to be 20 yrs ago. Outside Mon-Fri day time, and Sat shopping services, there are no public service buses at all. In London, what was London Transport was obliged to tender every individual route, sell off all of it's buses and relinquish control of bus garages, and concentrate on being in charge of the network. Eventually, today, it is called Transport for London [TfL] and it does own the route network, bus stations, publicity, bus stops, some bus garages, and set standards for bus companies to follow. But it all started with 5 routes put to tender in 1985, being won on price alone by other companies. the costs being the most important factor- by law. So, by 1990, there were lots of bus companies most using 2nd hand buses, 'saving' on standards, proper maintenance, cleansing, and buses, so service became bad, erratic, buses were dirty, staff were rude and missing [you pay peanuts you get monkeys]- and wages for drivers fell sharply, so the services could not be maintained properly. Reliablility went down. some bus companies went out of business overnight- there were 4 case of them. By 1995, it was clear that the system failed. Bus rideship in London fell, and a consolidation of the bus industry in London started. Eventually Stagecoach, First, Go Ahead, Arriva now control 75% of the buses, with Metroline and London United controlling another 15%, so there are not that many true independent left. It was not in the companies interest to renew their bus fleets, or invest in better facilities,as it would cost them money and cause losses of tenders. The result was a run down fleet, vehicle age profile went up, and even the paint brush went on strike! In 1999, the new Transport Act, created TfL and switched the emphasis and the criteria in awarding tenders to costs and quality service, so TfL could and did award not on costs alone. So, how is it done today: - Tfl owns the bus routes: it specify where it goes, how frequent, what sort of bus, and service quality standards. Usually the buses specified are new. Even the bus colour- should be 80% red. - TfL installs in each bus their own ticket machine and radios. - The tender goes out and awarded to a company for 5 yrs extended for another 2 yrs if they are good operators. The staff gets bonus from TfL if the route gets a quality standard from TfL. - Service pattern is standard: peak and off peak and Sundays. so it is easy to remember. - TfL is responsible for bus stations,stops, publicity and the like. The result was a better quality service, and a huge rise in bus ridership [up an annual 6-7%], increase in max peak requirement. It now stands at over 6600 buses where in 1995 it was under 5000. We actually know how many buses are allocated to each route. Each driver has a duty card, specifying when he/she signs on for duty and comes off duty, when rest time is due, when the bus is due at certain stops. each bus is allocated a running number. Under quality contract terms, the company also has a roadside inspector to make sure that the buses do run on time and take action if there is a problem. So, at the heart of the system lies a driver with a proper schedule and duty card, and from that you build on a whole system. Make no bones- the quality system is expensive,but it weeds out the cowboys and the standards are maintained and we get new buses, reliable service and the passengers come back. Today, the bus service is better than it was 20 years ago. For the bus fan/enthusiast the first 10 yrs fo bus tendering were really good. The start up companies bought or hired plenty of 2nd hand junk from all over the country, buses came and went and it was great to record and photo them all, bus livery changed all the time. now the fleets are fairly standard, and life is not so exciting. I remember spending many happy weekends trying to keep on top of all of those rather exciting developments! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- regards Yoram. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool emoticons - download MSN Messenger today! http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger