2nd January 2013

LibertyBus is founded

When CT Plus won the contract to run Jersey’s buses, it asked islanders what the service should be called. It had already decided that its vehicles would have 12 sails painted on their body – one for each of Jersey’s dozen parishes – but it needed a snappy name to match.

Not surprisingly, Douze Vailes – Jèrriais for Twelve Sails – polled well, but it couldn’t match LibertyBus. So, that’s the name under which the service rolled out on 2 January 2013, although it could very easily have been Avachi instead. Another Jèrriais word, Avachi means ‘advance’ and, according to the BBC, it garnered 41.23% of the vote, which was extremely close to the 41.98% who voted for LibertyBus.

Jersey’s bus service had been contracted to Connex for the previous 11 years, but when Connex’s contract wasn’t renewed, not-for-profit operator CT Plus was chosen from seven competitors as its replacement. As part of its bid, CT Plus agreed to pay 50% of all profits above the initial 3% to the States of Jersey. The contract itself was expected to be worth £3.5m to the island, and drivers employed by Connex at the time of the change would be able to transfer to the new operator.