Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[Brickmill]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

(27/10/2018 23:49)Mrboo Wrote:  Trends change head over to Trent Barton they have 1 route with a number. Branding is a tool that can get people to change to buses. wth the new network with new numbers it comes across as a Great new bus network for Wigan we know it just as it was but for car users they dont know this and it Great having buses with numbers on the side but as I know when your a bus short you endup with a branded bus off route and people don't put there hand out. Everyone here is a bus user But there a world out there that people never used a bus or not since they was a child. it does make sense to number as simple as you can. can anyone here think telling a new user to get the 1 or 2 is as simple as you can get. when it was the old days there would of been more mix up with having a 1 and 2 at every depot in the group of depots we are now in a world that 7 in Stockport/Ashton is not going to get mix up with a 7 in Wigan or 7 in Rochdale but when it eas GMPTE or before there would of been paperwork at same office for routes in all areas. So there was a system made to help them.

This is an indication of just how obsessed with image rather than reality we have become. Do you honestly think existing motorists are going to switch to buses in this day and age? If I had spent a fortune on acquiring and insuring a car, I wouldn't touch public transport with a barge pole; Buses are FAR too expensive (10 times the cost of diesel for round trips to the Supermarket/town centre) and FAR too slow (average 7 mph in the peak, barely 10 mph off-peak). It is also pot luck as to whether you get a comfortable bus that is supposed to be allocated to your route or a bus that hasn't been re-furbished since it was delivered a decade ago. Oh! and if your bus is a MagicBus, you should be charged MagicBus fares.

The main reason that the patronage decline is accelerating in GM especially, is that the Operators are "betraying" their loyal, car-less customer base, by slashing services and hiking fares 2.8 times inflation every year.