E&I president is hopeful of seeing an electric bus fleet

The States buys the buses, which the contractor uses to provide its services.

But Environment & Infrastructure president Lindsay de Sausmarez said the new company’s extensive experience of putting electric vehicles into use might accelerate progress.

‘Speaking personally, I’m very, very keen to see our bus fleet electrified as quickly as possible,’ she said.

‘It hasn’t been possible up until very recently because we’ve got really specific criteria around width, range and capacity but the market in electric bus vehicles has developed quite rapidly over the last few years and there are now, at long last, some vehicles on the market that look as though they do meet those criteria.’

Tower Transit’s parent company Kelsian had a good track record on sustainability and experience with electrifying bus fleets, she said.

‘So I hope that is one thing that they can bring to the table in terms of their expertise, knowledge and contacts.’

The sale of CT Plus was a commercial transaction between HCT Group – a not-for-profit transport social enterprise – and Tower Transit, which is owned by the Australia-based Kelsian Group, a company which has issued 218m shares and has a market capitalisation of A$1.2bn.

However, Deputy de Sausmarez said E&I had been kept in the loop throughout the sale process and the transition to a company with obligations to shareholders was not considered an issue.

‘From our perspective, we need the assurance that the contract can be fulfilled and we are satisfied that it can be,’ she said.

‘We’ve been kept up to date. We were making sure that services were not going to be disrupted – that was always our priority – and sure enough, so far, so good.’

Tower Transit was fully aware of its requirement to go through a tender process when the current contract runs out in October next year, Deputy De Sausmarez said.

‘The transaction went through with everybody’s eyes open, so they were under no illusion about the length of the contract remaining.’

One of the biggest issues which beset CT Plus during its contract was the lack of qualified drivers, leading to cancellations.

Both the new company and the E&I president have been keen to stress that this is a problem with no immediate solution.

‘The recruitment issues that we’ve been experiencing are not a localised issue unique to Guernsey,’ Deputy de Sausmarez said.

‘They are common in Jersey, in the UK and indeed globally, and the new parent company has explained that these are issues they are seeing in the other jurisdictions in which they operate as well. So there’s certainly no silver bullet or magic wand. However, what the Kelsian group do bring with them, through Tower Transit, is an HR experience and reach, from the UK, that we can hopefully benefit from here, too.’

Deputy De Sausmarez confirmed that E&I had expressed a preference for the return of the real time bus tracking mobile app.

‘I would be lying if I said that hadn’t cropped up in conversation,’ she said.

‘I can’t make any commitments on their behalf, but I can say that it is something we’ve spoken about and I was impressed by their involvement in areas of technology and innovation.’