Island has ‘enviable’ bus service – E&I president

Deputy de Sausmarez’s comments came in answer to an accusation from Deputy David De Lisle that her committee had been negligent in allowing bus cancellations and service reductions to continue for months.

‘This is a key responsibility of E&I and they have been negligent,’ he said.

‘The service has not improved and it’s nowhere near what people expect.’

Listen: Chloe Presland and Simon De La Rue round up the first day of the States' September meeting

Deputy de Sausmarez defended her committee’s efforts to find solutions to the ongoing cancellation problems.

‘We should be very grateful for the level of service that we do have, given the current extremely challenging circumstances,’ Deputy de Sausmarez said.

She cited Brexit and Covid as the reasons for the disruptions, after they had caused the driver shortages which provider CT Plus in turn identified as the cause of the cancellations.

‘We have absolutely thrown everything we’ve got at mitigating the challenges that have been presented to us by factors well beyond our control,’ she said.

‘Many other jurisdictions would be envious at the level of bus service that we have here.’

The exchange occurred during question time, in which Deputy John Gollop challenged the E&I president to explain problems faced by both the bus service and the taxi industry.

His questions were submitted prior to the publication of a report into the taxi industry, but several members were keen to explore failings in provision of services, especially in relation to passengers arriving at Guernsey’s airport.

Economic Development tourism lead Deputy Simon Vermeulen wanted to know when the problem would be fixed.

Deputy de Sausmarez reassured him that, in keeping with one of the recent report’s findings, all parties would soon be brought together to find solutions.

Deputy Chris Le Tissier wanted to know whether E&I favoured the introduction of a service such as Uber, but the president was sceptical about the likelihood of there being any interest on the part of service providers.

She suggested they would not be interested due to market forces, as they typically operate in environments where there is a very high number of casual drivers and high demand.

Deputy Gollop suggested a ‘calling all taxis’ system, whereby all drivers could be alerted to a sudden peak in demand with several planes arriving at the airport at once.

However, Deputy de Sausmarez said this would prove difficult, due to a majority of drivers being sole traders.

When asked about the return of the app, which used to let passengers know if their bus was on the way, she assured members that she was very keen to see it return but gave no indication when that might be.

Deputy Gollop’s last question raised the prospect of ‘nationalisation’ and the president reassured him that bringing the bus service ‘in-house’ would be considered as part of the next tendering process.