First Manchester

[james]

RE: First Manchester
Firstly this is nothing new.
In Ashton most of the drivers at Pioneer depot insist on dumping passengers outside the bus station on the main road (a very busy main road with 2 lanes of very busy traffic!), and even worse still some lazy drivers insist on dumping passengers in the layover bay, despite the fact there's big red signs there saying No Alighting.
I've complained several times to First about the issue and normally after a 3-4 week wait they write back saying it shouldn't be happening and that my comments have been passed onto depot manager at Dukinfield. A year on, and 4 complaints later and it's still happening daily.

Today in the space of 5 mins I witnessed a 168 dropping in the layover bay and also a very busy 409 - yes a 409 with all the new fancy branding!

I must add, this happened once on a Stagecoach service I was travelling on. I complained to them regarding the issue and the very next day got a personal email back from the depot manager apologising and telling me it shouldn't have happened and that it wont happen again, and to be fair, I've never seen a Stagecoach bus alight anywhere other than in the bus station at the relavent stands.

Rant over
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to be fair what you get told by first c.serv. and what the depot mgr sees are 2 diff things as i know him.
plus stagecoach drivers dont risk it because there is a inspector (that all staff know and talk to ) there all day from 7am til 5pm most days and they get caught they get done .
first however have one female inspector who not many of the drivers like and just ignore her the drivers never get done for this unless pte staff report them or the mangers are in the bus station themselves. the only thing first mainly get done for is spending more than the 5 minutes allowed sat on pte stands so drivers find it easier to alight outside the bus station because years ago there was a stand t for alighting only and school buses.

plus on a sunday you never see anyone from first (inspector/manager wise)and the duki drivers keep the same bus all day start to finish so will just pull up on the layover and park up for dinner