Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[knutstransport]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan
Have you seen who uses buses in Knutsford? Ignoring over 60s and under 19s most live on council estates (including Longridge which was built as an overspill estate for Wythenshawe) so I imagine on average they have less money than your average Trafford bus user.

You're making an inconsistent argument about day tickets. If you live outside a PTE area in the North West and Arriva run the bus then you usually pay £5.30 for a return journey. Yet you're saying that ticket is good value because of how many routes it covers but £4.30 is poor value for a Stagecoach Manchester one because most people only use it for one return journey. Also it sounds like you don't want a small increase to the ticket price so would you prefer it being frozen this year and going up to £4.50 next year?

A difference between Cheshire and GM is more parking spaces (usually work places offer free parking for all employees) and, on average, less congestion so unless you make the bus fares cheaper and the buses more frequent the car users won't switch to using the bus. They might use buses to get to the pub in the evening if they didn't stop at 7pm!

From my experience buses in GM are more reliable than Metrolink on the Altrincham line, even when everything seems to be running fine they randomly turn trams around at Timperley (without advance warning) to get them back to Manchester quicker when the service is being disrupted on other routes. Very annoying for those who then miss their connection to Northern services at Altrincham as a result.