Manchester Buses

New GMPTA Chief plans Metroshuttle expansion, new orbital services

GMPTA's new Chair, Matt Colledge, has decided to make his presence felt on his first day in office by announcing a plan to expand Manchester's free city centre Metroshuttle bus service to other town centres in Greater Manchester.  Although the towns under consideration haven't been announced, it's likely the scheme would be popular if implemented.

The expansion of Metroshuttle mirrors West Yorkshire PTE's expansion of the Leeds Free City Bus to Huddersfield and Wakefield (with Bradford to follow later this year).  Funnily enough the Leeds scheme was brought in following the sucess of Metroshuttle - they just managed to expand it quicker than Greater Manchester.

Likely candidates for Metroshuttles would be those town centres that sprawl over a large area, rather than compact ones.  Bolton, Oldham and Stockport, for example, could all be in the running.

Other initiatives announced today include new orbital bus routes (something that is also part of the TIF package of improvements that will be put in place should congestion charging be agreed on) and better policing of buses, trams and bus lanes.

[Image credit: Gene Hunt on Flickr]

New GMPTA Chair - a Tory!

With the Congestion Charge debate in full swing the identity of the new Chair of GMPTA was always going to be a huge point of interest.  David Ottewell has just reported via his blog that a Conservative, Trafford councillor Matt Colledge, has been elected to the role.  The Chair of GMPTA is responsible for leading public transport policy in Greater Manchester.

Colledge replaces Labour's Roger Jones who lost his seat in the May council elections.  Jones lost his seat in a direct attack from anti-Congestion Charge campaigners.  Now, the Conservatives are not exactly big fans of the C-Charge, even though it's to be accompanied by billions of pounds of investment in Public Transport.  With Labour's Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, changing his mind and backing a referendum on the matter and now a Tory leading GMPTA, things are getting even more complicated here in Greater Manchester!

First reshuffles routes while JPT prunes theirs

A mammoth load of service changes for the end of July have been announced by GMPTE.  Amid a large number of time changes in north Manchester, Wigan and Stockport (including some previously reported operator changes) there are some bigger changes.  So, let's get stuck in...

First are, for a second time, ditching their 412 (Middleton - Oldham) service.  A few years ago First withdrew it and extended service 80 (Manchester - Middleton) to Oldham to replace it.  Bluebird then got the contract for service 80 and First brought the 412 back.  Now it's going again.  This time service 64 (Manchester - Middleton) is being extended to Oldham to cover the gap.  Evening and Sunday journeys on service 64 continue to run on from Middleton to Heywood and are now numbered 164.  So it doesn't feel left out, complementary service 65 (Manchester - Heaton Park) is renumbered 165.

Passengers in Chadderton wanting to get to Rochdale in the evenings will have a longer journey.  Evening journeys on service 24 are being withdrawn and replaced by a revised arrangement for services 181 and 182.  This means travelling from Chadderton to Rochdale will involve a journey via Shaw and Milnrow, instead of straight down the main road from Royton.  In the evenings there will now be a 181 every hour (operated by First) between Manchester and Rochdale as well as a 182 (operated by Bluebird) between Manchester and Shaw.  Evening journeys on service 182 will run Monday to Saturday evenings only.

Possibly this best news for a lot of passengers is the reintroduction of service X35 (Manchester - Bury).  Lots of people complained when the service was withdrawn a couple of months back.  There are some caveats though - it will only run at peak times and will be extended from Bury to Stubbins.  This sadly means long-running service 90 is finally being put out to pasture after a long decline from a 30 minute frequency down to a peak-only service.

Meanwhile, JPT are scaling back following problems we reported a couple of weeks ago.  Their morning peak journeys on service 77 (Moston - Manchester) are being withdrawn along with service 145 (Manchester - Middleton / Boarshaw).  If reports are to be believed  though, that service has been unreliable at best since JPT took over the running of some of the ex-Vale of Manchester routes.  That said, JPT are reintroducing Monday to Saturday and public holiday journeys on service 118 (Manchester - North Manchester General Hospital) so it's not all bad news.

You can see all the announced changes over at GMPTE's Service Changes page.

[Image Credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

JPT's drunk driver banned from the roads

A JP Travel driver who went on a drunken rampage in one of the company's buses has been banned from driving, The Manchester Evening News reports.  Heading from the JPT depot onto the 294 route to Trafford Park on the 14th of February, David Rutter was quickly causing mayhem.

After smashing into a car (which then proceeded to smash into two others, writing all three off) Rutter reportedly drove on rather than stopping.  A taxi driver noticed the carnage taking place and notified police.  Rutter was pulled over and breathalised, luckily before he'd picked up any passengers.

JPT told the MEN that they had sacked Mr Rutter as soon as they heard about the incident.  He yesterday received a thee year ban from driving, a 12-month community order and was ordered to pay £60 costs.

[Image credit: Ingy The Wingy on Flickr]

Will oil prices scupper the C-Charge?

Take a look at the scene in this photo.  It's a Finglands bus on the 740 school service from Woodhouse Park to Loreto College on Wednesday morning.  The driver accidentally drove onto the slip road for junction 5 of the M60.  Luckily, a Goodwins minibus, on another school run, was behind and blocked traffic from the sliproad while the Finglands bus reversed just enough to get back on route.  Embarrasing for the Finglands driver?  Perhaps a little, but just a few weeks ago that would most likely have been an impossible maneuvre.

Yes, a strange thing is happening to Manchester's roads at peak time.  They're getting quieter.  It looks like rising fuel prices are forcing just enough drivers off the road to make the morning commute a lot more enjoyable.  The strange thing is that the buses aren't noticably busier (certainly on the Princess Road corridor).  So where are all these drivers going?  It's a mystery for sure.

As good as this news may seem for those who still brave rush-hour it may turn out to be bad news for supporters of the congestion charge.  If our roads are no longer as congested the problem has gone and the congestion charge becomes less important (oh and we missout on all those transport improvements too). 

Of course, this could be a temporary blip.  Fuel prices could reduce in a couple of months and we'll be back where we were.  Traffic is often quieter during the summer months anyway.  However, this strange phemomenon has come at a bad time for the congestion charge supporters.  With a 10-week public consultation due to start soon, if there isn't as much congestion on the roads the public are a lot less likely to support anti-congestion measures.

We live in interesting times...

Lack of information and faith: the main TIF obstacles

As expected, more details on how the Transport Innovation Fund money will be spent if the Congestion Charge is approved have started to tickle in.  And we do mean trickle.  While we'd love to see more details of improvements to buses trams and trains than those we already knew it looks like we'll have to carry on waiting.

What we do have though, is the start of the publicity campaign to raise awareness of the improvements and the debate around congestion charging.  A TV ad is currently running which features former Coronation Street actor Chris Bisson standing in the middle of a traffic jam, talking about the leaflet that will soon be delivered to every address in Greater Manchester.

Meanwhile the gmfuturetransport website has been updated and now features a little more clarity about plans for improved transport.  The one thing we really want (more details about the improvements to bus services) is, however, missing.  The one detail we do get that we didn't before relates to new radial routes that had only been given a brief mention before.  It appears that the 'almost-a-circular' 53 route would become a full circular service.  At the moment the missing section (between Pendleton and Cheetham) is filled by service 52, requiring a change of bus.

While the official PR machine grinds into action, grass roots debate on both sides of the congestion charging debate is also heating up.  Our observations, through talking to people and looking at the various pro and anti-congestion charge groups that are appearing in places like Facebook is that while the 'anti' group appears to be larger at present, that seems to be mainly down to down to two factors:

1. Lack of knowledge about how the scheme would work.

No-one we've spoken to knew exactly how the scheme would work (even the well-publicised details that have been available for months).  They simply oppose the charge because they don't want to pay.  The fact is, many of them simply wouldn't have to pay at all as their journeys wouldn't take them through charge barriers during charging periods.

Then there are people spreading half-truths, lies and conjecture-displayed-as-fact like the owner of this Facebook group.  The group description says:

"They say they interviewed 6000 people around manchester. Mainly old lady's that they found WALKING down the street or PEOPLE ON BUSES...."

Your evidence for this?  It continues:

"...and asked questions like ; would you like the government to invest so many more millions in public transport every year, improve the services available and give the public more influence over what goes on?
of course they're gonna say yes!  PUBLIC TRANSPORT? YOU MEAN STAGECOACH?  I'M POSITIVE THEY ARE NOT FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT...  THAT IS WHAT BUSINESS IS FOR."

Well that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Transport Innovation Fund.  Then we get:

"THE METROLINK GOT CANCELLED AND WONT 'GET BACK ON TRACK'"

Well that's totally false.  Read the information on the improvements!  For a start, the 'Little Bang' is already underway.

2. A lack of faith in local and national government to get anything done.

While the first factor can be solved by education (hopefully the forthcoming leaflet can solve the problem to an extent), people's complete lack of faith in local and national government is a much greater obstacle.  "They'll never do half the things they say they will and then they'll expect us to pay the charge anyway" is a common view we've heard.

People have been hurt by too many broken promises in the past.  The Supercasino being snatched from us and the previous Metrolink plans being cancelled are just two recent examples of why the people of Manchester don't trust those in power.

Can that obstacle be overcome?  We'll have to wait and see...

Arriva take on ex-LA Coaches work

If you're willing to scour the dry documents that make up the VOSA website, you can find interesting information.  Like the fact that following the termination of LA Coaches' Operator License on Sunday night Arriva Manchester will be taking on their GMPTE contract work.

So, from Monday look out Arriva on the 177 (one evening journey each way between Altrincham and Gatley), the 178 (an daily, hourly daytime service between Wythenshawe Hospital and Reddish) and late evening journeys on the 109 (between Wythenshawe Hospital and Piccadilly).

Thanks to James Frisby for the tip-off.

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

Videoshow part 6: "Pick you up tomorrow as usual"

Many thanks to regular reader and commenter Jimmymac, who has found this classic advert.  It dates from 1986's 'D-Day', when deregulation saw Greater Manchester Transport become GM Buses.  Jimmymac, from Warrington originally, comments that: "I was six years old when I first saw it on Granada TV, and the jist of the theme tune has stuck in my head ever since!

"We had a leaflet through the post as well, explaining all the changes and the great things that GM Buses were going to do. Twenty years later and the only remnant of them in Warrington is the hourly (slow) daytime service to Manchester provided by First".

Here at Manchester Buses we were living across the Pennines at the time and we're pretty sure Metro never ran a 'We're changing our name to Yorkshire Rider' ad.  Anyway, if you were in Granada country back in '86, enjoy this trip down memory lane.

More trouble for Manchester independents?

Reader James Frisby has been back in touch with some interesting gossip:
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Just thought I would update you again about the wonders of JP Travel! The 276 appears to be back to normal, although there is only ever one low floor vehicle on the route at a time - if you are lucky! However, other parts of JP's 'empire' is suffering as a result of taking on this work. Service 118 is still seeing on average an hourly frequency (usually half hourly in the peaks) against its advertised 20 minutes, whilst appallingly over three weeks since this fiasco started service 145 (Manchester - Middleton & Boarshaw) has yet to see a bus operate on it!
 
Talking to a friend who knows a driver who works for JP, apparently GMPTE are looking for an explanation (and possible financial reimbursement) as to why JP have been happily taking the tender money for the 276, yet they have only been operating half a service for over two weeks. However, having read the article about Vales financial position being made clear to the PTE, I'm not sure who is to blame.
 
On a seperate note, LA Coaches have had their license revoked as of 16/06/08, most probably due to defective vehicles (although the reason is not officially confirmed). That leaves south Manchester services 109/177/178 to a new operator on Monday, although I haven't had any word as to who it is.
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We're not sure how accurate all the above is, however it's all quite plausible in the current climate in which independent operators are struggling against rising fuel costs.  When cashflow becomes a problem in business it's easy for other problems, such as bus journeys not running and vehicles not being serviced, to creep in.

When we get a clearer picture on what's occurred at JP and LA we'll let you know.

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

Finglands - rude and ignorant?

So, you've had a bad experience on the bus and you want to complain.  Maybe the bus never turned up, maybe you were sat upstairs when it went under a low bridge.  Or, like a friend of ours on Sunday, you arrived at the bus stop one minute before it was due to leave and the driver closed the doors in your face before waving and driving off!

This friend decided to she wanted to complain to the operator concerned, Finglands.  Heading to the company's website and heading to the 'Contact Us' page she tried emailing the listed address: enquires@finglands.co.uk (or that's 'enquires', not 'enquiries').  The email bounced.  Trying spelling 'enquiries' correctly she tried again.  Once more it bounced.

Having a look further down the page she found another email address for Customer Comments & Lost Property Enquiries.  So, on Sunday evening she sent an email to them (which didn't bounce).  Three days later she's yet to receive a reply.

That's shocking handling for a complaint.  Not everyone wants to phone up and get angry.  They should be able to send an email to an address advertised as being for customer comments and expect a reply within a reasonable amount of time.  Three working days is way beyond reasonable.

Let's hope Finglands sort out their website.  They've invested in snazzy new buses (four new low-floor double deckers went into service last week) but their website looks like something from about eight years ago and they don't reply to emails.  Manchester's smaller operators are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet in the current economic climate.  Replying to an email costs nothing and might stop a disgruntled passenger thinking of Finglands as a rude and ignorant company avoiding their services altogether.

[Image credit: demian_ on Flickr]