First Manchester

[Brickmill]

RE: First Manchester

(13/02/2019 23:09)gilesbus1 Wrote:  I disagree Route Branding brings growth. Look again were services are growing, and yes route descriptions are placed on vehicles, not a map, but a route description, no it snot for bus passengers its to attract people who know nothing about bus services who are in there cars who are potential growth market that if you don't you are missing, leaflets also are poor in the TfGM area little black and white fleets you need to go to an office for that don't sell the service printed by TfGm while places outside PTE areas, and thats not just Manchester, try Liverpool and West Yorkshire as well have colour ones, and thats if they can be bothered to print upto date information in the first place when was a bus map last published in Greater Manchester?. Noted First have had to print them in some area's because TfGM can't be bothered, Yet they seem very capable of publishing a totally useless cycling map on a yearly basis and placing it in bus stations were its useless information. Merseytravel cant even be bothered to print anything for St Helens so PTE's have fat chance of attracting anyone to public transport. If they were really serious local bus information it would be posted through every house letterbox for the relevant buses and it would look professional not like its been printed cheaply or not persons forced to go to the internet to get it. The problem is with buses is no information is widely available and thats down to the PTE and peaople like Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham who frankly don't care about bus usage, especially as they use cars.

Route branding can be done well, think of the advantages to branding the 582 in Traditional Lancashire United Livery with branding along the roof lines above the window and branding on the rear to most windows to say every 7 minutes.

Potential growth market? Who in their right mind is going to spend a fortune on buying, taxing and insurance a car and then spend ING £4.80 bus fare instead of as little as 84p petrol and free parking (in most suburbs). Or if they are committing, taking twice the time or more to get to/from work?
And then you say an individual doesn't care about buses because he travels by car... Notwithstanding his recent piece in the MEN emphasising the importance of buses. Due to the sheer numbers of people depending on them, at worst Mr Burnham is nowhere near the users biggest political enemy. As for TFGM bus timetables, they run on a strictly impartial system to stop Operators giving the impression that they are the only Operator on a route. Their blandness is based on budget concerns and who knows if Operators didn't change nearly every service at least twice a year, because they are incapable of analysing a whole route at once, the extra staff time created combined with the positive effects of a stable network would create an opportunity to make.