A report on the suitability of using bendy buses on Manx roads should be made public, according to its main author.
The 50 page report is currently being considered by the Department of Community Culture and Leisure and the Department of Infrastructure who will then make a joint recommendation to Council of Ministers.
Bus Vannin bosses say bendy buses, if introduced, will save £300,000 in staffing and fuel costs, plus £3m of capital costs saved in replacing older buses – and if they do not prove suitable, the savings will have to be found elsewhere.
A month-long trial was carried out earlier this year at a cost of £10,000.
But the exercise was dogged by embarrassing breakdowns. A replacement bus had to be shipped over after one bendy developed a fault on the first day of the trial. The same week a second one broke down near Fairy Bridge. Then in the last week of the trial, there were two breakdowns in two days.
Results of the trial were considered by an independent working group comprising TravelWatch chairman Brendan O’Friel and representatives of the DoI and the Department of Education.
Mr O’Friel said the report ran to 50 pages but he could not at this stage disclose what its conclusions and recommendations were. But he added: ‘One of the issues will be are they going to publish the report in due course? There may be different views on this but my own view is that it should be published - what is the point of this report if it is not in the public arena?’
The independent report was finally signed off this month, having been delayed pending technical assessments carried out by the DOI.
Mr O’Friel has previously said the issue of bendy bus breakdowns was a red herring but it had skewed people’s perceptions of the vehicles.