Stagecoach ready to take the wheel of the bus service

Stagecoach is taking over the operation from CT Plus, inheriting its buses and a lot of its staff. All had been offered the opportunity to keep their old jobs, said Mr Knight, pictured.

The company is being run locally by a Guernsey manager, who was previously the CT Plus operations manager.

New buses are due to arrive in the island in the coming weeks, but for the time being, two Stagecoach-branded vehicles have been brought over to make up the fleet.

Of the six new vehicles, two will be electric and Mr Knight said the company had more being added to its UK fleet soon, and would ultimately bring more to Guernsey.

‘I think one of the reasons why Stagecoach was successful in getting the contract was that we have got a lot of experience of deploying electric vehicles.

‘We’ve got 90 coming to our operation in the south-west, which is 25% of our fleet, this year.

‘So we’ve got that oversight and that experience of setting up and delivering electric vehicle fleets.’

‘We have 8,000 vehicles in the UK and 24,000 staff. It’s a big pool to pull on if required.’

Mr Knight said the company was taking over the contact today without fanfare or any kind of ceremony.

‘I don’t want it to be memorable. It all comes down to just wanting to get the buses out and get the customers and passengers to where they need to get to.’

Mr Knight said he thought the island was a good fit for the business.

Stagecoach has been developing its south-west operations for a few years in Devon and Cornwall.

‘There are a lot of similarities. We run rural services and we’re very close to our communities. Some of the rural villages in Devon absolutely depend on their bus service.

‘Sometimes they like to have that local contact, as opposed to big national company. I think that’s how we do well in being local delivery with national oversight.’

But Guernsey still had its own challenges, such as some particularly narrow roads, he said.

‘Clearly, the infrastructure is challenging, but it’s not insurmountable,’ he said.

A new website and app is being launched to coincide with the change of operator and they should be available from today at buses.gg.

Stagecoach is aiming for ‘business as usual’ in the coming months, with consultation taking place to see what improvements might be made in the autumn.

‘We need to adapt our business to suit and benefit islanders, and obviously, at the same time, try to develop the service and make it something that the community and the island can be proud of,’ said Mr Knight.

Familiar faces remain

There will be familiar faces behind the wheel of buses this week, as many of CT Plus’ drivers have transferred to Stagecoach.

But the company’s south-west MD Peter Knight said the issue of recruitment continued to be a challenge.

All of the company’s existing staff were offered the chance to carry on in their existing jobs and Mr Knight said he understood that most of them had taken this offer up.

‘They’re on exactly the same terms and conditions as they were,’ he said.

‘That’s part of the contract with the States of Guernsey, that they were to be offered the same role on the same conditions.

‘The labour market in the UK is probably very different to here in that we’re able to attract, recruit and retain driving staff. We’re really interested to have a little look at the current model and whether that works.’

It was possible that in the event of absences in Guernsey that drivers from the UK could come to the island to help out, he said.

‘We could if we needed to,’ said Mr Knight.

‘Clearly there’s a lead time to make sure that they’re all adequately trained and that they’re used to the operating environment here.

‘I think that is another reason why the States of Guernsey were interested in working with Stagecoach. We have 8,000 vehicles in the UK and 24,000 staff. It’s a big pool to pull on if required.’