First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester

(14/02/2019 09:15)Brickmill Wrote:  Can I make a suggestion; Go away and learn the basic difference between who has/had "control" of buses and who carries out the resulting policies; then research how many actual disputes both before and after D-reg; then learn about the Global Economic crises of the 70s with particular emphasis on the Arab wars and ensuing Oil crises and resulting hyper inflation - and make sure you take Gary Nolan on that lesson. Oh and as for refusing the taxpayer and bus users a say because you've decided adecision has already been made that just sums up British shamacrocy.

Yes thats just the problem isn't it TfGM have already made the decision two or three years ago, and will decide through committees of left wing bus passengers like yourself what goes through, me things re-reg happens, i've nothing against that but I don't see it increasing bus usership I see it continuing to slide.

I will admit though not every decision TfGM have made was bad the successful Vantage Busway we now have is one example from a TfGM manager also giving it, its own livery all made sense so I will give you that ground, but to make that happen on a wider scale is a tall ask which I doubt TfGM will be able to do.

There is a need to attract potential growth beyond existing passengers if its to have any success chance but you seen not to believe that, you seem to thing the growth will come from within existing passengers when they are actually on the decline, how to TfGM intend to advertise a new system and whats available? What extra routes will there be? What will survive, and what will get scrapped? I appreciate you might no have the answer yourself as your just one individual in it, but with seemingly no expertise on skills such as marketing I can't see how TfGM can expect the market to grow, lets not forget bus stations can be antisocial places at times in certain places and also the fact bus station offices have already closed at the time the vast majority leave work, timetables need to be available more widely as does service information, and a bus station isn't a place for cycle maps that seem to use all the colour you claim TfGM can't afford, that are useless, how can a fold up cycle map be used on a cycle, effectively they are a useless product that has had money wasted on them and then displayed in the wrong place.

Has the money for those come from some sort of grant???? as it is irritating a lot of people that we've had to wait nearly five years without a bus map but yet a cycle map seems to be updated every year, and no one seems to take them from bus stations???? Its just a shame that money wasn't put to better use on bus maps or bus guides.

I will give some more positives now of recent TfGM activity, bus stations build recently in places like Bolton, Rochdale and Wigan are a major improvement on there predecessors and hopefully that program can be roled through to improve others similarly, and as i've said before I don't condone the behaviour of operators like First it leaves a lot to be desired, but things could be better still. TfGM can attract car drivers in the case of Vantage but that idea needs to be rolled out more wide spread and yes I am giving you some ground here.

But to assume buses are just for the poorest 10% is exactly what some people's reason is for not using them, things can't continue like that there needs to be a reversal of the situation as it stands or might stand without a move away from that ideology to a wider ideology the one Shillibear used Omnibus means "for all"
e.g available for everybody. TfL isn't a shining example of success its an example of waste of the public purse, dictated by each politician that has been there having their own political agenda's and money has been wasted on vehicles that didn't need to be on two occasions within that period. Yes I scorned Boris for the waste of money on New Routemasters and the chucking out of the Bendy-buses. Manchester will not get the London budget so its more important that things are right. We don't want a carbon copy of what was there in the 1970's as it was far from perfect.

There is a major need to invest in further bus lanes and a need to decide exactly what network design is wanted and how to market it. Just leaving leaflets in a bus station doesn't work unfortunately, I know modern technology has its part to play in terms of the Internet and the Telephone but not everyone has access to those.

There is also the need to develop routes to serve people's modern life styles, town centres are no longer what they were, people may not use the bus for that any longer but yet routes always terminate in the town centres of towns, the need is to serve places were people work on large business parks and industrial parks, to have cross town routes so people can connect without needing to change buses. Also some loss making routes might be saved by linking them to Metrolink Stations or terminals so people can change to the much faster Metro with through fares, and yes I will give you the fact private companies can't do that and TfGM can, so do it????