First Manchester

[rod_259]

RE: First Manchester

(13/02/2019 22:21)Brickmill Wrote:  A bit of hyperbole creeping in now, both in terms of "billions" and the need to nationalise. It is long held view (even amongst former Conservative Cabinet ministers) that alongside maybe South Yorkshire, Deregulation has failed in Greater Manchester more than any other low car ownership conurbation in the country). The point about South Yorkshire (and I believe this is largely due to Stagecoach themselves), is that whilst South Yorkshire have started to finally see improvements in the last five years or so, the deterioration in GM has accelerated.
And nowhere is this more obvious to those outside the bus than in branding. Which bit of "76" tells you this bus is going down Wilmslow Road and then diving off towards Flixton? Which bit of "MagicBus" tells you this bus will take you through Reddish to Stockport, or down Wilmslow Road to Withington Village? These are not isolated examples in the peak. These are typical of regular, off-peak examples. As for the idea of introducing a "direct" bus from part of Hyde Road corridor to the Trafford Centre and then having X50 branded MMCs outnumbering the few examples actually bought for 201/203 (under Head Office's own Investment rules!) is just utterly bizarre.
I also suggest your underlying inference of wasting public money contrasts with not only the concept of branding (even when the Operator is capable of using it, which post-2014 Stagecoach Manchester demonstrably aren't) is at odds with your suggestion of having the staff the same. You cannot have the same drivers on the same route all the time. Apart from route interworking (itself a GMT efficiency innovation)*, do passengers on a route requiring say, 50 different drivers (based on PVR of mid teens) really value seeing the same face every time they travel. I don't. I just want a driver who observes the rules of the road (which automatically puts them above every other "professional driver" in GM), can adhere to a timetable and is polite to the passenger. And, despite all the deterioration around them the vast majority of drivers I encounter pass on all three counts. I do agree as regards clean and tidy interiors, but with my "compromised" spine, I would be more concerned (as would my doctors) about lack of seat cushions.

I’ve never understood route branding, separate liveries (e.g. gold, magic, platinum, Safire etc.). When I was a kid a Ribble bus would come along with a display on the front with service number and destination. It might seem strange to people that we could work out which bus was going where just by looking at the destination on the front. Simple but effective and far less confusing than the Magic bus on the 150 which I saw at Trafford today along with the hybrid on the 50! It costs more to keep repainting them and to change branding than leaving them in the corporate colours of the particular operator. They would be better spending the money on improving services, cleaning buses etc. I think that people are quite clever enough to read the destination board as people did years ago.