Jozhua
Established Member
- Joined
- 6 Jan 2019
- Messages
- 1,860
Many areas of Greater Manchester rely on their bus connections as one of the only means of public transportation. This shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but the state of buses in Greater Manchester seems to be really quite poor, not only in comparison to other countries, but also other areas of the UK.
(I'm aware that a lot of people probably work buses so my disclaimer is the vast majority of drivers and staff are really good at their jobs, just the system as a whole is poor and disjointed.)
I'll start off with the things that are good, though:
-Good coverage.
-Reasonable frequency of routes.
-Plenty of routes.
However, there are many issues with the network:
I'm a pro free-market kinda guy, but looking at this whole situation, I have to conclude that the free market has failed Manchester on buses. The figures don't lie either, bus use is declining not only in Manchester, but many other areas too. Ultimately, we want something that is efficient and efficiency is something that can only be provided with a degree of planning.
Ultimately, I feel some fairly simple changes could improve bus services drastically:
Oh, and I have a corny name for the new Greater Manchester buses...'Bee Bus'! The colour scheme can be yellow and black, mixing in with the yellow Metrolink branding.
(I'm aware that a lot of people probably work buses so my disclaimer is the vast majority of drivers and staff are really good at their jobs, just the system as a whole is poor and disjointed.)
I'll start off with the things that are good, though:
-Good coverage.
-Reasonable frequency of routes.
-Plenty of routes.
However, there are many issues with the network:
- Pricing - The cost of bus tickets is incredibly high, especially in comparison to Metrolink and heavy rail. For me, someone who lives about 1.5 miles from the city centre, it usually costs £4.00 - 5.40 to make a return trip by bus. Singles are expensive and there appears to be no cost incentive to make a return journey. I'm unsure about transferring between routes run by different operators, but my gut feeling is it would involve paying a full single fare twice. There is no sensible pricing structure and I have no idea what's going on with Get Me There.
- Reliability/Information - The reason I put these together, is that good information can really help when presented with delays, etc. When I go back to suburban Nottingham, I just monitor the TrentBarton live departures page and pop out the door a couple minutes before the bus leaves. Ultimately, unless you BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) the entire country, buses will inevitably encounter some level of delays, however, providing live information can help people better plan their day and minimise how much time they have to stand out in the cold/rain/heat! Bus operators in GM do have this technology, however the number of operators means it's pretty disjointed AND some of the web implementations are incredibly poor/mobile unfriendly.
- Early AM/Late PM running - Buses run a bit later than the trains, but it's still not amazing. The number of services run drops off sharply after 7/8pm. When I worked in Central Manchester for a couple of months, getting back was an absolute pain unless it was in the middle of the day. Waiting at 9pm for a service which runs around every 5-10 minutes in the daytime could involve waiting for around 30 minutes. These services were well utlised too, usually full and standing on a double decker.
I'm a pro free-market kinda guy, but looking at this whole situation, I have to conclude that the free market has failed Manchester on buses. The figures don't lie either, bus use is declining not only in Manchester, but many other areas too. Ultimately, we want something that is efficient and efficiency is something that can only be provided with a degree of planning.
Ultimately, I feel some fairly simple changes could improve bus services drastically:
- Simple fares, with an easy to understand pricing structure. Provision of good smart payment, off bus ticket purchasing options and a simpler ticket buying process could also help to reduce dwell times at stops. Included transfers within a certain time window for any GM route and a discount for returns would be fantastic for bus users.
- Better integration with other routes, more efficient fleet utilisation. Ultimately, a lot of routes step on each other's toes just so one company can get their nose in to another's market. Oxford Road could probably have a decent reduction in services while still having plenty of capacity and frequency. Whilst saving resources, this may actually be a good thing for those living on the route. Less unnecessary bus-induced congestion could speed up journies and not having to wait for a bus run by a specific operator could really reduce wait times for some. This could definitely apply for the A6 up from Chapel Street too.
- Shorter, more reliable routes, convenient transfers - Bus bunching and late running is an issue to some extent that is unsolvable, but that doesn't mean improvements cannot be made. Some routes really don't need to run cross-city, which hurts their overall reliability and often means 3/4 buses bunch together, literally arriving seconds apart. If you split these routes up, they would likely run to time much better and if good transfer points were established, with the fare reform I mentioned, passengers who have previously rode the full journey shouldn't suffer to much. Schedules/routes can also be adjusted to better match other bus services or modes such as heavy rail or Metrolink.
- Overall better, cheaper service - My hope is, the savings in overhead of not having things like three almost identical routes running on top of each other, would allow for cheaper fares and service earlier/later in the day. The network effect is important and a centrally planned system would be able to justify running unprofitable 'shuttles' into bigger routes, or unprofitable night time routes to encourage/facilitate people using the profitable daytime services in the other direction.
Oh, and I have a corny name for the new Greater Manchester buses...'Bee Bus'! The colour scheme can be yellow and black, mixing in with the yellow Metrolink branding.