Supplementary written evidence from Confederation of Passenger Transport – 1 April 2008

During the evidence taking session held on 18 March 2008, I agreed to seek additional information on four points raised by Committee members.

1) Tender for Scottish services

I contacted senior management at both FirstGroup and Stagecoach and asked why they did not bid for the tender to run Scottish ferry services.

FirstGroup:

“At the time that these ferry services were being tendered, we were in the midst of frenetic bidding for UK rail franchises, which is clearly a huge, complex and resource demanding exercise.

We have minimal in-house experience of running ferry services, so this would have been non– core at what was a very busy time. If/ when they come on the market again we may have bidding resource, but again, minimal direct ferry experience and may not be seen as core.”

Stagecoach:

“It is simply not part of our core business strategy.

Whilst we are interested in estuarial crossings (eg hovercraft or even a fast ferry across the Forth) due to our past experience in New Zealand, the nature of services being tendered was very different to that.”

2) to ferry service

I made further enquiries with the relevant bus and coach operators regarding customer relations on this service, and have now elicited the information that problems experienced relate to some operational problems between coach drivers and Western’s ferry handlers during coach loading and unloading in high and low tides.

New information received from [WCM] (– who had not commented on Western previously): “Our dial-a-bus service from Dunoon to travels via Western Ferries on the last Saturday of every month and any private hires, mainly school trips to plays/ pantomimes, go via Western Ferries when heading in the direction. To date we have never had any problems with their service; in fact, they are very obliging at carrying spares for us!”

Following this exercise, as the issues seem to be more educational at staff level than management decisions, CPT apologises for including the issue in the original submissions to the TICC Committee. I have personally also telephoned Gordon Ross, Managing Director of Western Ferries to state that this correction has now been made, and Gordon Ross has stated his willingness to follow up personally on specific complaints.

1 3) Bus Interchange infrastructure – and in particular Scrabster

Information received from Scottish Citylink: (i) The interchange at Scrabster is relatively new having been redeveloped when Northlink introduced their latest ships onto the route 3-4 years ago. Coaches are able to wait near the terminal building and as well as the Scottish Citylink departures there is a local shuttle for the rail station operated by Highland Country Buses. Some leeway is allowed with inbound ferries in that the waiting time in Thurso [next stop after Scrabster] can be absorbed to wait for a late ship arrival and still allow us to keep to the scheduled timetable south of Thurso. In the event of very late running a bespoke vehicle is provided to operate via a shorter route to Latheron whereby it meets the service car and passengers can be transferred there.

(ii) The Oban Interchange project is part of the overall "Oban Action Plan" which consultants completed in May 2006. The Transport Interchange sub-group is currently at the stage of putting together a STAG appraisal. Thereafter the proposals will go back to the Harbour Development Group given that it will impact on other businesses currently using the Railway Pier area. To date there has been no mention of any projected timescale for the project although anticipate a 2-3 years minimum.

Information received from West Coast Motors [WCM]: The Managing Director of WCM has spoken very recently to Blair Fletcher of Council who has advised that the Oban Interchange Group have no money and until such time as they get some no progress will be made on a new interchange. The best they can hope to achieve within the next 12 months would be improved signage.

4) Operational arrangements

Information received from Scottish Citylink: There are currently no statistics kept whereby we could illustrate the frequency of services having to be held back for late running ferries. Under the present regime Caledonian MacBrayne have to try and ensure they meet arrival/departure targets for the Scottish Government and in some cases this has resulted in ferry timetables being eased to better ensure these targets are met. Any regular problems with late running are discussed with Caledonian MacBrayne [eg when ships are in for refit and a replacement ferry is unable to achieve a crossing time comparable to the regular ship].

The Oban Interchange project is part of the overall "Oban Action Plan" which consultants completed in May 2006.The Transport Interchange sub-group is currently at the stage of putting together a STAG appraisal. Thereafter the proposals will go back to the Harbour Development Group given that it will impact on other businesses currently using the Railway Pier area. To date there has been no mention of any projected timescale for the project although I would have thought we would be looking at 2-3 years minimum.

Information received from West Coast Motors (incorporating Oban & District): “Unfortunately we do not keep a log of the occasions we have been asked to hold our Citylink services on Oban for a late running ferry but I would guess of 5 or 6 occurrences a year. The same applies for the – ferry”.

CPT trusts that this information will be helpful to the members of the TICC Committee. Yours sincerely, Marjory Rodger

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