24 August 2007

Dear Colleagues,

We were in the news this week for the wrong reasons. A tourist asked for information in relation to public transport services to Derry, to be told that no such place exists. Of course this shouldn’t have happened and we again extend our apologies to the lady.

The Derry / Londonderry issue is one that remains sensitive to some in Northern Ireland but it is not one that we as a public transport operator are going to resolve. We deliver services across communities in Northern Ireland and are proudly committed to equality and fair employment.

Our policy is to interchange the names Derry and Londonderry in publications and timetables and also use the name Foyle. Indeed, in joint services with Bus Eireann, we include Irish on our destination screens to provide a full range of passenger information.

But above all we expect all staff to be helpful and polite and sensitive to needs of our passengers. Practically everyone does this as second nature as ‘the right thing to do’.

This incident caused us high embarrassment and damaged our reputation and that of the vast majority of our committed employees – a reputation which you work hard every day to build and maintain.

What passengers think about us is important because it affects if people choose to travel with us. If people do not travel, revenues are reduced and this impacts our ability to fund improvements to services, employ more people or to pay increased wages.

Our focus must be to ‘get it right’ every single time and not to let down our colleagues.

Philip O'Neill

Acting Chief Executive

The Derry / Londonderry issue is one that
remains sensitive
to some in Northern Ireland