Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[Bevan Price]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

(18/03/2017 23:01)urmstonian Wrote:  My local bus to work is the 256. Timetabled from Davyhulme Circle (08:05) to Lostock Circle (08:14), a journey of 4 stops (0.9 miles). The timetable gives the morning peak bus 9 minutes - it should only take 5 minutes at the very max. The road is rarely busy, and you only queue at the motorway junction for a minute or two.

A couple of weeks ago, a drive actually apologised saying she wouldn't be going anywhere soon, because of the timetable.

With such a slow timetable where it is arguably not required, and slow journeys stuck in traffic, coupled with inflation busting fare rises, it's no wonder more and more people are cycling to work or getting in their cars. I thought smart cards, mobile ticketing and contactless were supposed to speed up the boarding process, but we're yet to see the improvements in journey times.

Part of the problem is due to the Traffic Commissioner's punctuality rules which can penalise operators for both early running & late running (buses should not be more than 1 minute early or 5 minutes late at all timing points.). This leads operators to time buses for "bad traffic" conditions, which means they gain time when traffic is not so busy - but then have to waste time - waiting for the scheduled departure at timing points. In my opinion, buses should always be timed for "quiet traffic" conditions, and everyone (including Traffic Commissioners) should accept that buses will never be early, but may sometimes be late during "busy" conditions. Passengers would benefit by getting faster journeys on many days, and it would eliminate that annoying "waiting for time" that helps make bus journeys unnecessarily slow.