Regarding last week’s story about the £11.5m set aside to progress plans to introduce bus franchising across Greater Manchester (GM) [routeone/News/7 March] – franchising is not the way forward.
The London system is every bit as bad as Greater Manchester's. We think bus congestion on Oxford Road is a consequence of our (relatively) free market, but it is nothing compared with congestion on (franchised) Oxford Street London.
Our bus speeds are too low, but London's are even lower. I regularly use London buses, and, on many routes, it is almost as fast to walk as to use the bus. GM services are far more effective than that.
On average, London transport receives around £100 in subsidy per head of population. GM may well need an even bigger subsidy because its population density is lower. That is likely to mean more than £200 per house on the Council Tax bill. I might consider that good value, but very few voters would agree with me.
GM’s Mayor needs to encourage co-operation between operators to improve network frequencies and better-balanced timetables, and to provide more bus lanes and better traffic flows.
The sooner politicians realise that the bus industry is even more committed than they are to improving customer service, the sooner we might jointly begin to address the real problems of public transport in our conurbations.
Peter Sawbridge
