Manchester Buses

Fare inspections lead to driver sackings at Stagecoach

There we were thinking our fare inspection on a Finglands bus the other day was a rare occurrence. It turns out that they're more common than you'd think, especially at Stagecoach who have been running 'Revenue and Gateway Checks' in conjunction with Greater Manchester Police for at least the past year.

A Stagecoach Manchester staff member sent us this photo of a poster currently on display at one of the company's depots. It reveals some interesting information about just how huge the problem of lost revenue on buses is. Across the 5,787 buses and 94,221 passengers checked between April 2008 and March 2009 a total of £23,892 in lost revenue was detected. That's an average of 25p per passenger searched. That a huge amount a fare dodging, and far more than we'd thought likely.

74 arrests of members of the public were made during the inspections, although whether they were for ticket forgeries and other fare evasion isn't noted.

The bottom part of the poster seems a little sinister though. It reads: "These checks are focused on deterring antisocial behaviour and ticket fraud by passengers, but it is both disappointing and embarrassing to note that during these operations 61 drivers were relieved from duty for ticket irregularities, most of which have now lost their jobs and some have a criminal record".

This makes us wonder why these drivers lost their jobs. After all, driving a bus, handling money and dealing (sometimes pretty antisocial) members of the public can be a difficult. If someone sneaks on without paying, especially someone who might appear, shall we say, 'dangerous to deal with' can't drivers be forgiven for turning a blind eye occasionally?

Likewise, forged tickets can be a little difficult to spot at first glance. We know - we used to live with someone who made almost perfect Megarider forgeries. We never used one of them, we hasten to add. If we knew we were looking at a forgery and couldn't tell the difference, how difficult would it be for a driver with a big queue of passengers and a timetable to keep to be expected to tell the difference?

An inspector calls - just how many forged and invalid tickets are out there?

Traveling on a Finglands bus through Withington yesterday we were surprised when a full ticket inspection occurred. Two members of Finglands staff boarded on Palatine Road and checked every passenger's ticket. While that might not seem strange to some readers, regular bus users in Greater Manchester will know just how rare this is.

The only inspections that happen with any regularity these days are when GMPTE staff board buses to assess their usage. While they probably would stand up to people with forged or invalid tickets, these inspections are more about making sure the bus network is working effectively than enforcement. Aside from these, in the past decade we've witnessed only two ticket inspections. One a couple of years ago (accompanied by a police officer, no less) on a Stagecoach Manchester bus and yesterday's Finglands inspection.

We can (just about) remember the regular inspections that occurred in West Yorkshire in the pre-deregulation era. These days, as bus operators' profit margins are squeezed ever tighter, the budget just isn't there for having staff out on the roads checking tickets that have already been checked once by the driver.

Drivers can't give tickets more than a cursory glance though, which makes us wonder just how big a problem really is out there.

Follow JimmyMac's nationwide Stagecoach voyage

We previewed this almighty trek across Scotland and England a while back but now it's begun. Manchester Buses reader Jimmymac (AKA James McCollom) is currently at the end of day two of his six day journey in aid of Christie's Appeal.

As he travels from coast to coast by Stagecoach buses he is logging his journey with updates via Twitter, live video streams from his phone via Qik and photographs via Twitpic. His blog handily provides a daily summary of his progress.

James aims to reach his destination, Brighton, on Friday. So, keep up with his journey and don't forget you can donate money via his JustGiving page.  Good luck James!

Monday morning peak promises to be a whole heap of confusion

What do you get when two major changes come to Manchester's bus network on the same day? Mass confusion and delays, most probably. Monday sees changes to routes and fares hit passengers at the same time.

The concessionary fare (mainly paid by school children) increased to 80p on April 5th but that was during the Easter Holidays. Monday will be the first school day of the new price and it's likely that many school children won't know or will have forgotten. The little scamps will board the bus with their 70p in hand and be met by a gruff bus driver asking them for another 10p. Repeat five times at each stop for major delays and annoyance.

At the same time major service changes are introduced across the region, especially to First's network where a number of frequencies are being cut.

It might be a good idea to leave the house a little earlier on Monday. Don't say we didn't warn you.

[Image credit: First's 81, one of the services affected by major changes from Monday - by Ingy the Wingy on Flickr]

New Arriva single deckers in service on Friday? UPDATED

Updated: see below.

This week we've heard two reports that new Arriva Manchester single deckers have been spotted. The Wright Eclipse 2 vehicles have been spotted on driver training duties in Sale and Wythenshawe. The vehicle sighted in Sale was similar to the Transdev Burnley & Pendle example here but with "perhaps a shorter wheelbase".

Rumour has it they'll be going into service on Wythenshawe depot services from this Friday (10th April). If this is true, these vehicles will join the recently introduced Enviro300s and Optare Solos in updating a fleet that had been becoming horribly outdated. If anyone has any more solid information let us know.

Hopefully this is another nail in the coffin of Arriva's horrible old Dennis Darts which offer a rough ride quality and virtually no legroom.

Update: Thanks to everyone who emailed in to let us know that the new vehicles are due to go into service on the 19 (Altrincham - Manchester Airport) from Easter Sunday, not Good Friday. A source at Arriva's Wythenshawe depot additionally tells us that the vehicles are full-length, not short wheelbase examples.

Thanks to David Rich & 'Just Call Me Chief'

[Image Credit: A1personage (Wikimedia Commons)]

Mosely Street closed... and all is surprisingly calm

You'd think that the closure of one of the of the main roads for buses in Manchester city centre would cause havoc but as Metrolink track replacement work resumed today the city centre was an oasis of surprising calm.

All buses that normally approach Piccadilly Gardens via Mosely Street are rerouted via Portland Street and city centre Metrolink stops are closed for the duration of the works. However, as rush hour began everything was running smoothly, as our video below shows (click the 'HD' button in the player to view it in HD). We reckon the Easter school holidays had something to do with that.

You can find out more about the Metrolink work here.

Bus-mad pensioners do it again

61 year-old Manju Gosh of Bolton made the news last year when she traveled with her friend Christine Jackson across England using the new right for pensioners to travel by bus for free. Using only local bus services she traversed England from Berwick-on-Tweed to Land's End.

Manju and Christine must have enjoyed their journey because this year they're at it again! This year they're doing it for charity, donating the money they save through not having to pay for each bus trip to a worthy cause.

This is all very well but don't forget that Manchester Buses reader James McCollom is making his own journey later this month. He'll be making the far more audacious journey from the north of Scotland all the way to Brighton via Stagecoach buses to raise money for Christies Appeal. You can read his excellent Britain By Bus blog here and follow him on Twitter here.

Image: Christine, Manju and Councillor Keith Whitmore, who is contractually obliged to appear at every GMITA photocall ever, it seems.

Videoshow part 7: Early 90s bus wars at Piccadilly Gardens

It's been a whole ten months since we last did a 'Videoshow' post so what better way to revive an old series than with some vintage home movie footage posted to Youtube just this week? A Youtube user with the catchy name of '1000791549' has posted a reel of film from (presumably) his personal home video collection.

Following a couple of minutes of some kind of party on a hired bus and what looks like some London bus footage we're on to a few minutes of footage of early 90s bus wars at Piccadilly Gardens. MyBus, BeeLine and Dennis's are among the operators featured.

It's amazing how what is basically just some footage of buses picking up passengers actually stands up as an interesting historical document of a period of transition in the city centre. If the date that appears briefly on the film (5th June 1992) is correct Metrolink services had already been introduced between Victoria and Bury and between G-Mex and Altrincham.

Just ten days after this footage was shot trams began running through the city centre. In the footage you can see buses queuing past Debenhams on Market Street, driving over the as-yet non-operational tram tracks there.

Spot the rather un-PC 'people watching' too!

Who you gonna call? The GMPTE Response Team!

Okay we've heard of the GMPTE Patrol & Response Team, who board buses and respond to incidents at bus stations around Greater Manchester, but we never realised they had a cool car to take them where the action is. It's got lights on the top and everything! This blurry cameraphone shot was taken in Fallowfield from the top deck of the bus we were on yesterday.

It's not exactly the Ghostbusters' 'ECTO1' converted ambulance, but it's good to see that GMPTE's team get to feel like 'proper cops' when they head out to deal with some antisocial louts causing trouble on a bus.

UPDATE: As one commenter has noticed, the car is illegally parked! Naughty!

Council blames bus drivers for bollard dramas

The notorious bollards that automatically lower to let Metroshuttle buses pass in Manchester city centre have been involved in a fair few accidents over the past couple of years. We covered the most recent one just a couple of weeks ago.

This week Manchester City Council gave the Manchester Evening News the inside story on these infamous on-street obstacles. Councillor Richard Cowell claims that every incident so far has been caused by driver error and that the bollards are in perfect working order.

On the most recent incident, he said ""It appears that the Metroshuttle driver may have set off too soon and caught one of the bollards with his front bumper before it had fully lowered."

You can read the full story on the Manchester Evening News site here.

Thanks to Shaun.
[Image credit: Minnie81 on Flickr]