Greater Manchester Franchising

[knutstransport]

RE: Greater Manchester Franchising

(14/05/2021 11:34)Mayneway Wrote:  As a bus driver working in Manchester let me tell you how it is. The vast majority of bus users don’t care or have any interest in the colour, type or age of the bus they are travelling on.

I've been at bus interchanges waiting for a service which is supposed to have a high spec modern bus when it's not turned up by it's scheduled time and I've seen older lower spec buses arriving and thought while I'd prefer the advertised high spec modern bus, that older bus would be preferable to no bus at all or a very late service.

I also traveled on the D&G Streetlites when they were around 6 years old and didn't rate them then as they were rattly, didn't ride as well as the Solos and had uncomfortable seats. I think if they had non-standard registration plates most passengers would have thought they were much older.

I suppose the advantage of different liveries is you know certain buses aren't yours just from the colour but then many operators have special liveries and the vehicles in special liveries stray on to the wrong routes.