Industry claims that £100 charge constitutes a tax on passengers are ‘simply misleading’, says Mayor
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has responded to operators that criticised his plans for a region-wide Clean Air Zone (CAZ), describing their claims that the planned £100 daily charge for a non-Euro 6 coach or bus to enter the zone represents a tax on passengers as “simply misleading”.
Mr Burnham points to a planned £29m Greater Manchester Clean Bus Fund, which will also be open to coaches in need of retrofit to achieve Euro 6 standards. He says that it will allow “all buses on Greater Manchester’s roads [to be] clean.”
Mr Burnham adds that the industry is partly to blame for the high number of PCVs in the region that require upgrading to satisfy the proposed CAZ.
Operators have neglected fleet replacement, he says, although in a statement, no mention is made of the effects on confidence of a plan that advocates bus franchising in Greater Manchester.
“If operators choose to take advantage of this funding, which will help them to upgrade their vehicles faster, they will not need to pay a penalty to travel in Greater Manchester. Any talk of passing on the cost to passengers in simply misleading.”
Mr Burnham adds that he remains committed to investing in and improving Greater Manchester’s bus services so that users there “get the London-style integrated transport network that they deserve.”
Transport for Greater Manchester estimates that of the almost 2,000 buses in Greater Manchester, around 350 have Euro 6 engines. A further approximately 1,260 are Euro 4 and Euro 5 models that may be suitable for retrofit. The remaining 390-odd are older and need to be replaced to satisfy the proposed CAZ.
