(30 Oct 2023, 10:12 am)MurdnunoC wrote Seemingly, it's impossible to get bus drivers for love nor money nowadays…
Getting a bit more of each from GNE i believe is the entire point.
A good point though, ideology aside, staff are a commodity to run any business. Is it worth running a bus on cheap repairs and maintenance or will it cost you more in the long run in down time and early termination? Some businesses will always opt for the cheapest way without considering value. Same applies for labour.
The GNE strike is another chapter in the story of the death of commercial bus businesses. Factors in and out of the operator’s control have engineered a circumstance where buses will never be profitable. The system nationwide is currently on erratic life support through the umpteen streams of public revenue.
As in recent years, operators will continue to be sold to pension funds and ‘infrastructure specialists’ who see the writing on the wall. The bus network will be treat the same as our rail, energy and water. Technically privatised but really strictly tendered out with narrow wiggle room and stable management fees to the operators.
It’s franchising in Manchester but it may take other forms across the country. Like it or lump it, there’s a Labour government coming and they’ll accelerate the proposals in Merseyside, West Yorkshire & wherever else because it’ll be a great early goal to repeat the public facing message of ‘we own this’ claimed in Manchester. They don’t own it, but it’s yellow and that’s what matters don’t you know!
Go Ahead don’t give a hoot about the long term network stability of Washington any more than they do about North Manchester where it’s about to be taken from them. They’re just waiting until the franchising gets up to here. Go North East and its junior managers can play around the edges until that happens.
It won’t help them now, but the clever time to strike is after franchising has arrived. Right after local government takes the glory for the operation, demand better working conditions and the public will truly be on your side as they’re ‘our’ bus and ‘our’ lads & lasses driving them. Operators won’t care, they’ll pass the bill onto the combined authority and we’ll all pay for our drivers of our buses. Not that we truly own any of it, but we’re paying for it anyway, just like we are today.