Transport rep raps ‘north-south divide’ on buses
ACOUNCILLOR has slammed a ‘northsouth divide’ in the quality of bus services in Greater Manchester claiming passengers who live above the city centre are facing rising fares for a ‘shoddy’ return.
Coun Phil Burke described buses serving Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and Bury as ‘dire’, adding: “The services are good in south [Greater] Manchester, but it takes up to an hour to get into the city centre from the north.”
Speaking at a public transport meeting and amid fare rises from Stagecoach and First, he said this was in part due to cash-strapped councils’ inability to install cameras on bus lanes meaning cars weren’t deterred from using them.
The member for West Middleton also slammed the curtailing, slashing and rerouting of services in the north - most of which are run by operator First - which he said was affecting the ‘most vulnerable residents’.
After the meeting, he added: “It’s time for Andy Burnham to bring the operators to task and provide a proper service for people in north [Greater] Manchester.
“We’ve got shabby services being cut, reduced, prices being hiked up because of low patronage.
“People aren’t using the buses because they are so unreliable.
“Many times I’ve taken buses from Middleton to Manchester and they turn back part-route because the driver is running late blaming congestion.
“Buses turn up late in the morning, people can’t get to work early in Middleton because there are no buses before 6am.”
Coun Burke said there were not enough operators in north Manchester, adding: “Over the years since de-regulation we have suffered massively. South Manchester has got trains, trams and buses.
“You only need to look down the Oxford Road corridor to see hem queuing up to go into the city centre. On our side it’s a free for all.
“It’s affecting deprived areas where elderly people can’t get out and about and they are putting the prices up too.
“Poor innocent people trying to get to work are being penalised because of losing First Bus services left, right and centre. They’re paying for shoddy bus services that don’t turn up.”
Calling on Andy Burnham for financial support, Coun Burke said councils were also struggling to ease congestion due to the cost of installing cameras on bus lanes, adding: “The lanes are white elephants.
“We aren’t going to get people back on public transport until we improve the bus services and roads.
“It takes up to an hour to get into town, people are just using bus lanes willy nilly because there is no deterrent.”
He said cameras had been installed at Queens Road where services cross into Manchester, adding: “But smaller authorities like Rochdale haven’t got the money. People aren’t getting buses because they are so unreliable.”
Coun Burke spoke at a Transport for Greater Manchester Committee meeting attended by mayor Mr Burnham.
Describing the bus market in the north as ‘different’ to the south, Mr Burnham said more bus, cycling and walking routes were a must in north Manchester.
He also said bus reform was needed to change a profit-led system ‘trapped in a vicious circle’, adding: “Services are going down, routes are going down, patronage is falling.
“In London there is a quality product that’s easy to use and there’s much higher number of people using the buses. “It’s got to change here.” Options on the table for bus reform - one element of a major plan for the future of transport in Greater Manchester include franchising or partnership.
Franchising would transfer to local authorities decision-making power over routes, frequencies, standardised fares and quality of service.
An alternative partnership model, favoured by operators like Stagecoach and First, would leave bus firms with more power over factors including pricing.
A revolution in the way bus services are handled has long been advocated by many transport and council leaders as a way of standardising fares, better-integrating journeys and controlling routes, as well as halting diminishing patronage.
But operators are battling against franchising.
The bus firms have also been vocal about congestion and the impact it’s having on their profits.
However, figures show that shareholders of the region’s three top bus firms have raked in an average of £18.4m a year over the last decade - with Stagecoach’s yearly average coming in at £10.4m.
The majority of services in north Manchester are run by operator First.
A First Manchester spokeswoman said: “The distribution of population in the North of Greater Manchester is different to that in the south.
“The bus network and the frequency of services has always reflected these differences and continues to do so.”
Stagecoach, meanwhile, runs 32 of it total 657 buses in north Manchester. spokesman said 22 of these, based at the Middleton depot, were replaced by new double deckers at a cost of £4.6m.
In Greater Manchester as a whole, he said, they had invested £25.8m since January 2015.
“People are paying for shoddy bus services that don’t turn up”