Manchester Bus Franchising

[gilesbus1]

RE: Manchester Bus Franchising
It was inevitable and is no surprise that Andy Burnham has gone down this route, it was always backed by the 10 councils as well, without exception. Whether it will be smooth remains to be seen as Stagecoach intends challenging them as they did in Tyne & Wear in the courts. That action in Tyne & Wear led to the scheme there being scrapped.

Then there is the tax question, one which Andy Burnham and others are keeping quiet about, it will have to be paid for and won't be free, I guess its a matter of what people are prepared to pay and whether or not in Manchester something else would need to be delivered in order to gain backing from people who are not bus users and don't subscribe to it.

Then there are other issues such as whether an operator could just set up a Dial a Bus system on taxi plates to try to get round it, and in the longer term anyway driver-less cars may mean buses are no longer needed or required, unless we start looked at the fact they also cause pollution and the aim is to share transport solutions in order to reduce it, and also make it easier for people to cross the road.

I think if it still comes in we would be looking at around 5 years at least before anything actually happened. I believe what is expected is tendering in three schemes, presumably on a route by route basis, on three different dates, circa my guess would be in 2024 and 2025 or 2026, presumably on service change dates, almost certainly one scheme would be at the beginning of a school term as that sets out the transport requirement for a particular year in regards to schools. Wigan has the largest requirement for school transport so the scheme involving that area would be around a September start date.

Electric buses will be the other thing that is rolled out across the network, the first electric vehicles on a mass scale for operators are due at the end of the year or early next year, and other electric buses will no doubt follow on a yearly basis prior to franchising in order that buses meet both the clear air legislation in Manchester and also bus franchising, I would also expect that some Hydrogen units might also follow as an alternative on better used routes, depending on available grants as London and Aberdeen already have these, and Liverpool, Dundee and Brighton are to follow so experimentation with these would make sense, despite the fact they are very expensive. If Hydogen was introduced before the buses are brought under control you would be looking at the Vantage services as that is the only route that TfGM has control over at all times at the moment.