Head of Elron: PR Was Our Weak Point
Appearing in Parliament to testify on his company's problems in the first weeks of its contract to provide nation-wide passenger rail service, Elron director Andrus Ossip said one of his company's biggest mistakes was not doing enough in the area of communication.
Ossip told MPs after meeting with Economic Affairs Committee members today that Elron should have done a better job explaining changes to passengers and also alleged that competitor Edelaraudtee got the best of it in the media wars.
He said the company failed to realize that for passengers "everything changed" - schedules, ticket sales and the website.
All three of those facets have at times been non-functional for Elron, and in fact later in the evening the company announced the cancellation of three departures tonight, which were replaced promptly by buses.
"We should have communicated better everything that changed for passengers," Ossip told ETV after the hearing.
Economy Minister Juhan Parts was also in Parliament today. He told ETV no changes in the state-owned Elron management were planned.
Committee chairman Kaja Kallas (Reform Party) said the hearing discussed a number of questions, the most pressing of which was passenger comfort.
"In summary we can say, it takes time for things to get running normally," said Kallas.