Metro 1
Headline:
By Pádraig Kavanagh
TRANSLINK has revealed it has received over 3,500 customer complaints about its Metro
bus service in the last 12 months.
The public transport company disclosed the figure today in response to a request made
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) several weeks prior.
The figure emerges among growing public discontent with the company surrounding issues,
such as increases in bus and rail fares and the high salaries paid to senior officials at
Translink.
Translink received 3, 594 customer complaints about its Metro service - the sole public bus
service in Belfast - in the past 12 months, according to figures released under FOI.
Therefore, Translink customers made and average of 300 complaints every month or 10
complaints every day about the Metro service.
These are high numbers considering these figures do not account for unreported grievances.
The FOI request also obtained from Translink listed the categories of the top three most
popular customer complaints about the Metro bus service.
Of these 3,500 complaints Translink received, customers complained mostly about “delays
to service”, that is, buses running late.
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Metro 2
Undoubtedly, some of these cases could be contributed to the general state of traffic on the
particular day.
Buses run late when there has been a road accident on the motorway at rush hour, for
example. Or when there is a parade, a protest, or a bomb scare, events the last 12 months
have seen much of. Such problems are out of Metro’s hands.
However, culpability presumably lies with Metro in the case of some of these complaints of
delays to service.
Sometimes, there may have been no reasonable explanation for a service running late; this
was likely given customers have taken the time to contact the company and formally
complain.
In such scenarios, the bus company will have caused customers to be late for whatever
engagement they were travelling to attend, whether it was work, school, a hospital
appointment or indeed just the city centre for shopping.
Still, a delayed service will get a customer to their destination, albeit lately.
Yet Metro customers also complained that services “failed to operate”, which is to say
“services were cancelled”, or “did not run” in what was the second most popular category of
customer complaint.
Therefore in these cases, a timetabled service simply did not come and the customer could
not get to their destination as planned.
The third most popular complaint was that a driver “failed to uplift”, that is, a “customer
reported a bus did not stop” to pick them up.
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Metro 3
Essentially, this means a particular bus driver drove on past a customer (knowingly or
unknowingly) waiting at a bus stop rather than picking them up which they are obliged to do.
The top three categories of complaints are not surprising. Customers reasonably expect
buses to arrive, to arrive on time and to let them board.
However, Metro customers should be displeased with these latest figures in the light of the
recent fare increases introduced at the beginning of this month.
The beginning of the month saw price hikes of up to 8% on Tranlink’s bus, train and coach
services, with Metro prices rising by an average of 3%. Metro customers now have to pay
£3.70 for the popular ‘all day’ ticket, up from £3.50 as one example.
The price hikes come at a time when the Northern Ireland Executive at Stormont is
encouraging people to use public transport instead of cars.
Translink’s Marketing Executive, Ciarán Rogan, said: “We have worked very hard to keep
fare increases as low as possible and, indeed, over recent years our fares have not kept up
with inflation. Notably, this will be the first increase on some fares for five and even six
years.
“We continually promote our everyday best value fares like our smartlink products and
mlink for rail and ylink discount for young people and want to say to our customers stop
paying more than you need to and look for the best fare deal.
“I would urge customers to start paying the lowest fare for their journey; for instance using
Smartlink Multi journey cards. Metro customers save almost 40% discount if travelling in
the City Zone.”
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Metro 4
It also emerged at the end of last month that senior officials at Translink are paid
substantially high salaries.
Annual accounts show that Translink boss Catherine Mason – Northern Ireland’s highest
paid public sector worker – earns £199,000. That’s more than the Prime Minister David
Cameron and the First Minister Peter Robinson, who earn £142, 000 and £114,000
respectively.
Philip O’Neill, Chief operating officer at Translink, earns a salary of £156, 000.
Last year it also emerged six out of eight senior employees earn £100,000, while some
bosses are entitled to car allowances worth £9,000 on top of their six-figure salaries.
The chairman of Stormont’s regional development committee, Jimmy Spratt MLA, which is
investigating public transport in Northern Ireland, criticised the salaries last month.
The DUP’s Mr Spratt said there are issues surrounding high wages being paid to staff in a
company which has just implemented price increases.
“The salaries are absolutely scandalous for a company the size of Translink,” Mr Spratt said.
“Particularly when the committee can’t get open and transparent answers from them. They
put up defence barriers every time.”
Mr Spratt also criticised Translink for what he called a lack of financial transparency.
“Last year they said there was going to be a deficit of £17 million. Now this year, all of a
sudden, a £5.8 million profit appeared,” he said.
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Metro 5
Mr Spratt contributed this profit in part to the Department of Regional Development having
bailed Translink out with £7 million of taxpayers’ money.
A Translink spokeswoman said the £5.8 million, which was unveiled at a Stormont
committee meeting last month, was due to the popularity of its services.
She also defended Translink’s performance. “Translink has had a very successful last
twelve months with passenger numbers growing strongly,” she said.
Taxpayers also ploughed almost £130 million into Translink in the last financial year, the
company’s accounts reveal.
The public transport company received the money from Stormont between April 2011 and
March 2012.
The huge amount includes £68.3 million for buses and re-laying the railway track between
Coleraine and Derry, a £23.2 million public service obligation (or fee providing the service),
and £35.4 million for non-paying passengers, such as pensioners.
Yet despite the almost £130 million subsidy from the public purse, fares have increased by
up to 8% on some services and the company records high numbers of passenger complaints.
The news has provoked outrage amongst hard-pressed customers who are struggling to
make ends meet in the current economic climate.
~ends~