New figures have been released by the Isle of Man Government revealing the cost of Bus Vannin’s ticketing system. The details were released by the Government in Tynwald, in response a written question from David Ashford MBE, one of the Members of the House of Keys for Douglas North.
The Government revealed that it spent £2,500 per Ticketer machine, with 95 such machines deployed across the Isle of Man, for an aggregate cost of just under £240,000. In addition, service costs of approximately £150 per machine per annum come to an annual cost of £14,250. The Ticketer machines are deployed across buses and certain retail points.
Further, Bus Vannin has significant cash processing costs. While exact costs were not disclosed, it appears to cost at least £70,000 to operate a number of Scancoin machines in Douglas, Ramsey and Port Erin. Additional costs are paid to transport the cash to bank accounts, and are in addition to processing fees for cards.
The combined annual cost of ticketing machines, plus cash processing fees, appears much less than Bus Vannin’s annual staff budget payroll blowouts at over £300,000 per year.
22 October Update: Moments after publishing, an error was corrected in the final sentence above, clarifying that the annual cost of the ticket system was much less than Bus Vannin’s annual payroll budget blowouts.