Taxi drivers: night bus service will fail due to lack of demand
Monday 18th March 2013, 8:30AM GMT.
TAXI drivers believe a new night bus service will not last long because of a lack of demand.
A number have told the Guernsey Press that a privately run night buses failed in previous years because people wanted a door-to-door service.
The drivers’ comments follow an announcement by CT Plus of a proposed overhaul of bus routes.
The earliest departure would begin at 9.30pm and the latest would end at 2.21am.
Guernsey Taxi Owners Federation president Geoff Savident, pictured, said he did not think night buses would cause a problem for taxi drivers.
‘I think if it [CT Plus] is running night buses it is going to lose so much money. I’m not trying to be naive but I know what the trade is. There won’t be the demand.’
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I know loads of people who will use the night bus service. Very naive comments from a man who “knows what the trade is”.
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If a night bus runs from town to st sampsons at those times, it will be taken up massively.
the previous night bus didnt run that late.
If you venture to the taxi rank any time after 1pm you will usually find a rather large queue of ppl waiting to get a cab home. This queue usually is between 30 minutes or more likely an hour long.
The reason the taxi drivers are saying it will fail as a large number of them have stated: I can earn more than a third (closer to half) of my annual wages by simply working between 12 and 3am on the weekend. In fact its so lucrative that there are a large number of taxi drivers that will ONLY work these hours due to the pricing regime available at those hours.
So, heading north? catch a bus for a few quid instead of waiting an hour for a taxi, freezing whatever the weather is, then being charged a minimum of £15 just to reach the bridge.
Suddenly the only time its worthwhile actually getting a cab is if youve prebooked it and you have at minimum 4 ppl travelling to the same place!
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Admittedly, I don’t spend many late nights in town, but I’d certainly rather pay up to £5 on a bus than £15 in a taxi to get back to the West Coast.
Perhaps there isn’t the demand now because people don’t want to pay such high prices for taxis?
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The only reason the taxi owners have the opinion that the service “wouldn’t be used” is because they would lose their business, no other reason than that!!
I know many people who would use this service and think it is a great idea…
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Maybe some of the restaurants and hotel etc. could get together with the bus company and do “bus & dine” offer
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Somewhere CT cited one of its reasons to scrap the round the island service was that that service uses up 1/4 of its buses to maintain.
What about a night service ? How many additional drivers will be needed, and at very expensive rates of over-time to cover those few extra hours that will be needed by a relatively small portion of the population ?
I think a limited service could be of use on certain routes, not just for party-goers but for employees of the bars and restaurants who have to get home and / or shop staff of any shops that are allowed to open late, but that is about it.
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For god sake will you people read the story properly, the round the island service has not been scraped !!!A nightbus from Town to bridge and St Martins will be well busy, why would you want to pay £12 -£15 to get home when you would be able to do it for a £1.
Taxi drivers need to stop saying it wont work because they know it will, they will need to drop there prices at last, Taxi drivers over here a robbing us blind getting us home, must be one of the most expensive taxi services in the world.
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And for God’s sake will you read the proposal properly !
In the old timetable there were up to 3 buses an hour clockwise and up to 3 anti clockwise all the way around the island, starting before 9 in the morning and carrying on until after 8 in the evening.
In the new proposal there will be just 4 round island buses travelling clockwise only leaving between 10 am and 1pm.
So the anti clockwise service HAS been scrapped entirely – a loss of 30 round island services.
And the clockwise service has been slashed from 31 down to 4 a day.
So old timetable 61 services, new timetable 4. A nett total of 57 round island services lost. Frankly that is as near to scrapped as makes no difference ….
And actially the cost of the night bus after 10pm will be £2 not £1 …..
Who’s looking stoopid now ?
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Exactly Toby…
If CT get their way, then that £2 fare will be before 10 p.m. as well as after !
And although the taxis will lose some business at night time, they may get a small increase in business at other times due to the increase in bus fares.
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AJF
The proposal IS to raise the fare to £2 all the time.
But we lucky locals who can prove our locality ( or anybody who has an Ormer Card ) can get a 50% discount to the bargain price of just £1. But not for the night buses.
Mind you if I had an Ormer Card I could get a reduced rate of 60p ( up by only 10p on what we pay now )
To summarise, the cash fare is going up from £1 to £2 , but on production of an Ormer card you can get a reduction back down to the current fare of £1, but if you buy 50 journeys for the Ormer card the fare is going up by 20 % from 50p to 60p, or buy 20 journeys and the increase is only 13% from 75 to 85p, unless it’s after 10pm when you’ll have to pay the full cash fare of £2.
Simples ….
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The bus company could simply run the 7 or 7A service and it would appeal to many people, even at an increased rate. I live in the south and am frequently discgusted at the prices I have to pay to get home. I would say the taxi fare is the largest outlay on my nights out, even ahead of drinks!
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Same here. I live in torteval and it costs me £25-£30 to get home! Ridiculous .
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well dont go out then
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Cracking idea as there’ll be tons of demand for the buses.
The reason it will fail won’t be the lack of demand, it’ll be the bus drivers refusing to do the run after the first weekend of having to deal with pub and nightclub fallout, and i wouldn’t blame them.
There’ll be people being sick and fighting on every route. I take it the police will be putting someone on each bus? Oh that’s right, that’s the same police that don’t even station any men down the rank each weekend.
This islands drinking culture has gotten so bad that town is now a hell hole to go to on the weekend, with the only atmosphere being that of aggression due to overdrinking.I wouldn’t get on a nightbus with the idiots from town after 10pm if you paid me.
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they run in nearly every town and city in the uk why not here?
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…spot on!!! yep,back in the old days,we had pub related fun,but it wasn’t the moron booze culture that afflicts British society now.We had late busses back then,not a bit of trouble either…. you could see the police patrols also, and respected them.But wait!! the armoured car could at last, be put to good use,can anyone drive it?? Biensur non.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if CT Plus pay a security firm to put one or two people on the bus.
There is also CCTV so hopefully anyone idiot enough to try anything will be caught. A heavy fine and a 12 month ban from the buses and every island pub/club should act as a deterrent.
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Hmm, a very pessimistic view. Can’t they stick a security doorman on each bus (I’m assuming 3 max) and if someone misbehaves then escort him or her off making sure that they smile at the CCTV camera on their way out. Then get the police to come pick them up (they won’t get far) and email them the CCTV footage in the morning.
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….another classic case of Island winging,competion is a healthy thing!! Good luck to the proposed late bus service, it needs all the support it can get,hope it works out,and if it does not,well at least no one can say they didn’t try.And another alternative great idea on offer,is the little electric scooter car return service.
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But yet you try and book a taxi at short notice and you can’t get anybody to come out to get you? Bring on the bus i say!
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If memory serves me I think the private night bus service also fell victim to targeted vandalism to keep it out of service.
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I am feed up of telling people that the taxi prices are set by THE STATES OF GUERNSEY not by the taxi drivers. Complain to the states.
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but they don’t have to charge those rates
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but who makes representations to the States to indicate what level they need to be set at???
The States would set them at 5p per mile if they thought that taxi drivers would still work for that. No, the States has to set them at the level which the cabbies tell them they are happy with.
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The Environment Department sets maximum rates according to a formula. Drivers are free to charge anything up to those rates
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Government sets a rate and Ms Burford believes taxis will charge less than that?
It’s a legalised cartel which is why the competition regulator has it in his sights.
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Being currently a student studying in London where there are buses 24 hours a day every 10 minutes, I think this is a great idea. Yes, it won’t be door to door, but a small walk from/to bus stops is better than paying ridiculous prices of a taxi. I live on the west coast and a taxi costs me £20 normally. Taxis are for those who have the money to spend, buses are for those on a budget. At the moment there is no choice at 2am but to go with taxis or walk in the cold
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You poor thing.
When I was studying in England many years ago, on more than one occasion I missed the last bus and walked home… 8 – 9 miles !
No night buses and no way was I going to pay out money for a taxi.
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And just thought of something else…
Once when I came back to the island for the Xmas holidays, I arrived off the boat at about 6 a.m.
Of course, I had to work home all the way to St Martins with my luggage as there were no bus services so early in the morning.
It might be sensible to have a bus service for the ferries coming in early morning.
In fact, it would be a good idea if the White Rock was included in a couple of bus routes for the benefit of the passengers of the different ferry companies and the workers who are employed down there. If one of those routes also served the airport that would be also greatly beneficial as incoming passengers to the airport could easily connect to the Sark or Herm ferries, maybe also including the PEH for the benefit of Herm and Sark residents.
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I dont understand how they can charge you Min £5 before you even get into the Taxi why is this.
then they go the long way around !!!!
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They may not be fighting on the buses.
They might be singing, and indulging in good natured drunken tomfoolery, jolly japes and drunken fumbles with the fairer sex, and all for a couple of quid, what a bargain.
Just out of interest, will the cool kids still sit at the back?
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bring back the party buses.pub to pub.A good sing song in between.get home safely
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I wonder how many cabs will hang about he Bridge or St Martins’ bus stops to pick up fares to rob…..sorry drive people the short distance between the bus stop and their home, making for a quick turnaround (and profit) back to the bus stop for more fares
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My sister in law worked in the taxi trade and said it was embarrassing in the summer, having to explain to tourists that needed to catch a 7am flight that there were no 6am cars left.
Quaint, traditional, old fashioned lovely Guernsey is wonderful and an excellent selling point for tourists, but a taxi service that cant get tourists to the airport is not quaint.
And the argument that people should complain to the Traffic office is nonsense because tourists dont know about the Traffic office!
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I think it is embarrassing for Guernsey as a whole that whilst there are numerous flights out of the island at 7 am or thereabouts, there is no bus service and people have to rely on taxis, private cars or walking !
Might be wise having a bus service on certain key routes to serve the airport, and, for that matter, the White Rock.
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I agree Alvin. An early morning bus service from St Peter Port, the Bridge and St Martin’s to the airport might work well. I live in the Vale and rather than stump up £20 plus for a taxi I usually go up on my scooter and leave it parked at the airport for free while I’m away, leaving my lid and waterproofs under the seat. If there was a bus I’d use that instead.
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If the late bus service runs it will do well, the people i have spoken to will all use it, not only that it will get more people out at night as they will be able to afford to get around because at the moment the prices of taxis are through the roof and most people will not pay the money. please bring on the late bus service!
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In my lifetime, 2 attempts at late bus services, same 2 companies failed to pay their creditors! I guess the guernsey tax payer will be funding the losses on this next venture so may take longer to fail at an expense to all of us!!
CT minus have failed to deliver the service they agreed to provide, lets reward their failure by indulging them some exploration of the local bus market at our expense!!
ID RATHER NOT !!
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Guernsey is a small island and it is easy to walk from one end to the other. However many get to the age where they cannot walk far at all and fewer of those aged ones have cars. A good bus service would benefit them as well as those who like to dine out with a bottle of wine. Good for those who like to play away with their darts teams as well – I am sure a lot more reasons can be found to justify an efficient bus service.
Bus services were very good at one time and vandalism was unheard of – fear of the birch took care of that.
There was too many cars in Guernsey the last time I was there and the number has since increased to such a state that it became dangerous to the health to try walking up St Juliens Avenue!
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I usually drive, I’m far too pi**ed to walk.
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Is that Geoff Savident’s unbiased viewpoint? I hardly think so…
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I think its worth a go. Give it a trial run over a couple of months and then make a decison on whether to make it permenant or not.
Of course taxi drivers are going to want this to fail, which it may very well do, but I’d rather try this and see, rather than pay the fares that the local taxis are charging.
Haimee, I think your post of rates being set by the States has been trumped by that of Yvonne Burford, advising that these are maximum levels, and drivers can charge what they want.
It would be interesting to see the formula that they use, as however they work it out, it is still seems overly expensive.
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I think this should be done and will work well, but IMO the buses would need to leave town about 20mins after the clubs close. You could have one going towards Bridge/Lancresse then in at l’islet, another St Martins and Torteval way, then a third Cobo Vazon. They would be used by many, I’d be surprised if they weren’t full and I imagine there would be good banter, anyone seen to cause trouble would be caught on the cameras the buses have and be seen by the other people on the bus. The taxi drivers saying it wouldn’t work are talking complete rubbish, at these times are the only times when there is a queue at the taxi rank because they cannot keep up with demand.
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Night bus a 2am….fighting, people being sick, lots of abuse, sounds lovely, I’ll tell you where I am, I’m out
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i have been reading these posts and some people have said about the price of taxis but not about the amount they have spent around town that night? will they be willing to walk home from where the bus drops them of in the rain? how will the bus company deal with fighting on the buses as it will happen and we all know how quick people are to come forward and help the police in theses maters NOT and will the bus have to be taken off the road imiedatly if someone is sick on the bus and leave the passangers by the road? as the taxis have to. and lets see how long the drivers last once they have been threatened and abused while doing there job. one last thing if you stand on the taxi rank at 2am on the weekends and see how some people behave towards others then you want to put them all together on a bus WOW that sounds so much fun to me .
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I didn’t realise Guernsey was pioneering night buses! If they can night bus services in cities and towns around the world, im sure it will be fine in Guernsey. It makes perfect sense, although I agree that the routes could be improved a bit, L’islet and the Western Parishes could do with being included and as a result perhaps run the srvices every 45 minutes or hour instead of every half hour so as to include slightly longer routes
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Totally agree with Just a Thought, I drove many years ago and I can especially understand the part about threats and abuse,it was the main reason I quit. Also, there have been many comments on the fares, whilst it’s true the States do set the maximum fares and drivers could choose to charge lower, why should they?
Would for example, someone who works in an office, be offered an hourly wage but told they could receive less if they wanted? Would anyone say YES! pay me less! I don’t think so.
Good Luck to the staff of CT Plus, you will need it.
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