First Manchester

[djb]

RE: First Manchester

(01/02/2019 03:46)Brickmill Wrote:  It used to be said that Student fares were so cheap that they could afford both Uniriders and the Finglands/First equivalent. My observations are mostly between the MRI and Piccadilly and I recall catching the bus back to Piccadilly just before Noon on a Sunday (2 Dec possibly) and 3 or 4 buses came together absolutely packed out and I definitely include the First Enviro400 in that. Indeed whilst overall loadings might be lower on First I wonder f they carry a higher proportion of full fare paying Adults.

Back in the early 2000s it wasn’t even limited to students holding more than 1 weekly. I lived in withington for a while whilst working in Manchester and I usually had a finglands or UKN weekly (£2), but would time my commute to the bullocks 42 and pay on that if it was first to avoid the bus standoff in Owens park.

I think there’s a little bit less of that behaviour now due to stagecoach having such a large share of the market now, but I expect that first still gets some good paying loads st times of saturation on stagecoach.

I also can’t recall when stagecoach returned to night bus operation on wilmslow road in earnest, as that was another feature of multiple pass holding prior. (I think it was around the time UKN started moving into daytime ops - 1999/2000)