Bus passengers losing 100 services A DAY
VICTIMS LEFT ‘SCARED’ BY SERIES OF INCIDENTS
PASSENGERS in Greater Manchester are still losing more than 100 bus services a day as an operator continues cutbacks amid a staffing crisis.
Rosso, which runs routes mainly in the north of the region, had already cut nearly 200 journeys by 4pm on Wednesday – and the evening was expected to bring more cancellations.
The M.E.N. reported on Tuesday how Rosso had cut more than 800 journeys last week. The operator, a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield, said it expected the issue to have ‘severely diminished’ by next week. But bosses were yet to overcome their recruitment challenges at the mid-point of this week.
Many of the services scrapped are those subsidised by the taxpayer, meaning they make less of a profit but are seen as vital community routes.
By Wednesday afternoon, there had been 193 cancellations in total, while throughout Tuesday there were 133.
The M.E.N. has repeatedly asked Rosso for guidance on which services are likely to be cancelled in the days ahead to give passengers a heads-up – but they were yet to respond on this. Among a raft of cancellations on Wednesday evening, nine services of the Trax 468 between Rochdale and Bury were due to be dropped; 14 journeys on the Tottington Line 469 were facing the cut, and eight scheduled trips on the B2 Bury to Mount Pleasant route had also been scrapped.
It comes as mayor Andy Burnham and other Greater Manchester leaders prepare to take control of the buses following a legal ruling in March.
Meanwhile, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is looking to subcontract affected Rosso services to other operators, while prioritising keeping school buses running.
Stephen Rhodes, customer director and interim head of bus services at TfGM, described Rosso’s ‘significant operational difficulties,’ adding: “This has included many subsidised services, which run in areas and at times where there is a lack of alternatives, meaning the impact is being most keenly felt on those most reliant on them. We are working with the operator to prioritise these routes as well as school bus services to minimise the impact on the local community as best as possible. The situation is changing on a daily basis, and I’d encourage passengers to check with the operator to ensure they have the latest information before travelling.” A Rosso spokesperson said earlier this week: “We expect the problem will have severely diminished by next week with a target back to 100pc coverage and are working alongside our sister companies, TfGM and other operators to overcome this very short-term issue over the space of a 10 day period. We are updating customers in real time with live departure tracking and disruptions published on the Transdev Go app and at rossobus.co.uk.”
FRIGHTENED women say a man travelling on the bus and tram network has been watching porn and ‘getting off’ on their reactions.
The M.E.N. has spoken to six women who say they have been targeted by the man between November last year and last week.
All gave consistent accounts of how the man would sit in front of them, positioning his phone so they could not help but see the pornographic content that became increasingly more explicit, while either looking behind him or viewing their reactions in the reflection of his phone screen – potentially even recording them.
Two of the women reported that he either appeared to be, or was actively, touching himself.
“It was funny when it started, at first we were like, surely this is not happening,” two students who saw the man on the 143 bus last Tuesday, said.
“We were laughing because we were sort of in shock, we just wanted to make a joke out of it. And then as it just kept going, we got really uncomfortable. We thought, he’s looking at us weird – what if he gets off at the same stop as us? It’s late at night.”
Another woman who they found on Facebook said: “I thought it was just a one-off thing. When I realised it wasn’t, I started getting scared.”
They reported the incidents to police, who confirmed they are investigating in conjunction with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Stagecoach.
One of the women on the 143 bus said: “I didn’t feel scared until he sat closer to me.
“What made me more scared is that so many people have seen it. So many people have been impacted by this. Obviously nobody on the bus consented to that [watching porn]. He was definitely looking around to see how people were reacting. He was getting off on the public element of it.”
Chief Inspector Stephen Griffin, from GMP’s Transport Unit, encouraged anybody who has seen this kind of behaviour to come forward.
He said if any encounter has left you feeling ‘harassed, alarmed, or distressed,’ it should be reported to the police – no matter how small.
He highlighted that any incident causing these feelings can be treated as public order offences, giving police the ability to make arrests.
Kate Green, of the Travel Safe Partnership, stressed that reports should be made on the basis of how you ‘feel,’ rather than how ‘serious’ you think the incident is.
She said: “There is very much a zero tolerance approach from our perspective, but we do need to know about it.”
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Manchester said: “The safety of our customers is our absolute priority. We are absolutely appalled at the behaviour which has been reported and we are currently supporting the police in any way that we can with their inquiries.
“We would advise anyone who has been subjected to unacceptable behaviour to report the details to our drivers as soon as possible. All incidents raised with us are reported to TravelSafe.
“We appreciate that some customers may not feel comfortable doing this at the time of an incident, but we would encourage them to report it to both ourselves and the police as soon as possible afterwards. This allows us to access on-bus CCTV to support the police with their investigations.”