News

| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View Comments(10)


advertisement

Bus system shake-up 'on the way'

Ian Craig
17/ 2/2006

A BIG shake-up in the way bus services are run in Greater Manchester will be announced soon.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling was challenged in the Commons over the lack of bus routes for major parts of the city by the Manchester Central Labour MP Tony Lloyd.

And Mr Darling, while not giving a guarantee of a London-style comprehensive bus service, hinted that he was considering big changes "in the not too distant future".

He said: "But services and routes will change from time to time, depending on passenger demand. But the changes I am proposing will make it easier, provided they are implemented with other measures, to reduce congestion to ensure that bus services run where they are needed.

Adequate

"If we want people to use the bus, we must ensure that there is an adequate bus service." Mr Lloyd asked Mr Darling if he would give Greater Manchester the same powers as the capital to control bus routes. Mr Lloyd said: "When people from Manchester travel to London they are often amazed at how comprehensive the bus service is.

"They compare it with the post-deregulation period in Manchester where bus services have been withdrawn from the estates and other areas where people live and they conclude we need re-regulation to ensure we get back to the kind of bus services that London has and other cities expect."

John Leech, Liberal Democrat MP for Withington, said he had been flabbergasted to be told in the Commons that the number of bus services in the northwest had risen.

He said: "That certainly is not the case in South Manchester where we have seen the systematic removal of services over a number of years, including most recently the service to Manchester Royal Infirmary on a Sunday. I believe that tougher regulatory control would allow the passenger transport authority to direct bus services where they are most needed - rather than where the bus companies can make the most profit."

And the Labour MP Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) said that Stagecoach Manchester has told him it wants the PTA to have more powers to run buses and tackle congestion.

Mr Darling said: "If we are to say to people, as in London, do not take your car but get on to public transport, the public transport must be available in the first place. I am not satisfied that the present system of dealing with buses deals with that."

WHAT changes would you make to our bus system? Have your say.


| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View CommentsView Comments(10)


Most recent 2 of 10 user comments

   The reason that public transport is dead is that a) If everybody used it it would be a victim of it's own success. b) the time that you have to wait at stops and interchanges will not decrease unless there are as many busses as there are cars which defeats the object. I thought that the idea of public transport was to help the environment Andy, but you state, as I agree that it is busy at rush hours, the only thing that you neglect to mention is that it is dead at all other times but still continually pumping co2 into the atmosphere (yet another reason why it is doomed to failure). Satellite tracked cars will not bother me because I will simply cut the aerial off or get a box out of a car at the scrap yard to replace the one that is registered to me. Public transport is not about the environment really; it's about more totalitarian government control.
Jake long, Manchester, City Centre
21/02/2006 at 21:46

Offensive or Inappropriate?

   The only thing that is "dead" is the brain of the selfish,arrogant car driving imbecile, who, because of their mentality will have every car controlled and watched by government satelites.

Mass, affordable, quality public transport is the way forward ... trains are always packed in the rush hours , as are the buses.
Andy, Wythenshawe
20/02/2006 at 15:32

Offensive or Inappropriate?

Newsletter Sign Up
 
Have your say Sign up to the weekly news
update

Latest stories
 

 
Credit
 

Do stores make it too easy to get credit?

91%
9%