Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[Brickmill]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(03/12/2018 09:29)knutstransport Wrote:  Even in urban areas there isn't always a bus duplicating the rail service and even where there is it can start later, finish earlier or not run on Sundays or take 3 times as long as a train.

Again regarding GM, there is virtually nowhere that has a rail service but not a bus service, even if you need to change buses and/or the bus takes a lot longer (at least on paper). Based on where I live, Commercial Sunday buses start a good 2 hours earlier than the sparse rail service - but this is irrelevant as the Strikes are on Saturday. I would still contend that where Rail scores a distinct (time) advantage over buses, it will invariably be in areas where the vast majority of families have cars and trains largely only serve Manchester city centre, rather than the nearest town/retail park. As such, the vast majority of Saturday workers would either not have a relevant rail service anyway, or can call upon parents/friends to give them lifts. I'm not even convinced there are that many Saturday workers in this category anyway; One of the main immediate consequences of De-regulation in GM was the drastic reduction of bus service levels on Saturday mornings/evenings ie. exactly when people needed to/from shop work. In Merseyside, it seems that Saturday service levels were already inferior to Mon-Fri off-peak anyway. And we all know that many shops have closed in recent years, thus reducing the number of shop workers. The remaining shopping centres (city centres apart) offer free or very cheap parking, thus reducing demand for public transport (for both staff and customers) even further.