Bus Vannin is preparing to reduce its fleet of minibuses.

The heyday of the minibus came under the tenure of Ian Longworth as director of public transport when dozens of Mercedes Sprinters were acquired and new on-demand services launched.

Bus Vannin took over patient transfer services and even school minibuses.

Now under a proposed reform of the Department of Infrastructure (DoI), minibus services used for non-emergency patient transfers, ConnectPorts, renal and day care transport are planned to be transferred to Manx Care.

It is also planned to transfer special assistance school minibus services back to the Department of Education, Sport and Culture.

Confirmation came in a written response from Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall to a Tynwald question from Douglas South MHK Claire Christian.

Until recently Bus Vannin had a fleet of 55 Mercedes Sprinter minibuses together with 24 older vehicles of various manufacturers.

The Sprinters were purchased between 2013 and 2021, with the largest number acquired between 2017 and 2018.

A 2019 Freedom of Information response said the approximate purchase cost of a new minibus was £50-60,000 while a separate FoI from November 2021 gave the most recent quote as £74,822 each.

It said that minibuses are generally replaced after seven years or 100,000 miles.

A number of Sprinters are being sold off at auction and the DoI confirmed that there were no plans to buy more minibuses.

The oldest Sprinter, dating back to 2013 and with 115,665 miles on the clock, was sold for £13,200 at Chrystals auctions on August 31 and another 2015-built vehicle, with 124,280 on the clock, went for £14,000 the previous month.

A third Sprinter is listed for Chrystal’s vehicle and equipment auction on September 28. There is no estimate for this vehicle, which Bus Vannin acquired in 2018 and has clocked up 159,000 miles.

The minibus fleet provided a range of services.

Some vehicles were used almost exclusively for schools, others for transporting patients or clients with special needs and others provided the ConnectPorts or ConnectVillages services.

On-demand minibus services under the banner of ConnectVillages were launched in December 2018, replacing scheduled bus services in Andreas, Bride, Maughold and Ramsey and subsequently extended to Jurby.

This followed the introduction of ConnectPorts which was designed to take passengers from the north of the island to the the airport in time for their flights.

Following complaints by some villagers that they had been left cut off by the introduction of dial-a-ride, some scheduled bus services were restored and a ‘Flex’ service brought in which has fixed pick up times for the minibuses in Jurby and Ramsey.

A spokesperson for the DoI confirmed there are currently no plans to buy more minibuses. He said ConnectVillages will continue in line with the current operating licence.

He said: ‘Cross-departmental discussions are ongoing and it is not possible at this stage to confirm whether staff and/or assets will transfer.

‘Established processes and appropriate consultations would be followed if this were to be the case, and staff informed at the earliest opportunity.’

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan announced in July last year that it had become ‘increasingly clear’ that the DoI, with its varying range of responsibilities, was in need of reform.