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Neil Renilson retiring
As a season ticket holder with Lothian Buses, I say "GOOD RIDDANCE! I hope your retirement is short and miserable"
Neil Renilson came to Lothian Buses from Stagecoach - apparently, he was Brian Soutar's right-hand man. The first thing he did was change the livery. For years, it was an elegant 'madder' (maroon) and white, which had been around for years. Then he changed it to white with red & gold squares. The origin of this is interesting. Apparently, he saw a picture of Elizabeth Hurley at some bash, wearing a Versace creation consisting of anodized red and gold aluminium plates. He (Renilson) was smitten by this, and decided to afflict the population of Edinburgh with the subject of his turn-on. Renilson has admitted that he had the Hurley picture on his desk at work. The Versace organisation also came very close to taking him/Lothian to court for breach of copyright or somesuch. I wish they had.
It has to be said that under Renilson, the fleetsize has increased as has passenger numbers, but the quality of service has gone down the pan big-time. The main reason is that Renilson looks ONLY at the balance sheet and doesn't give a damn about the travelling public. Apparently Lothian was the "2007 Bus Company of the Year". How they achieved this accolade is a complete mystery to Lothian travellers.
From a personal viewpoint, I am a regular user of the 18 route, which I use to get from home to my place of work, and to visit my Mother-in-Law (no jokes, please). It used to be part of the 32 route, which was a circular route that went around the outer fringes of Edinburgh (equivalent to the legendary 11 route in Birmingham). This was a brilliant route that linked the suburbs of Edinburgh and could be classified as a 'Social Route'. Someone at Lothian didn't like it, so broke it up, resulting in a drop-off in passenger numbers. I reckon Lothian want to get rid of it, which would be a disaster.
The stock reason trotted out by Lothian for ANY service reduction is "We're reducing the service because passenger numbers are low". In nearly every case, the real reason is that "passenger numbers are down because the service is bad".
Renilson is an accountant first, and a bus-man second. That is the problem with ALL public transport in Britain today.
Up the Revolution!
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12th November 2008, 21:51
