There can be no doubt now about what Greater Manchester’s elected metropolitan mayor, Andy Burnham, expects his city region’s bus service to deliver, even if the means of achieving it have still to be determined, and the cost of achieving it has yet to be revealed.
In a lengthy keynote address in December to the Urban Transport Group — the Passenger Transport Executive Group of old — he spelt out a vision of a transport revolution that provides a genuine alternative to reliance on the private car and tackles the scourge of traffic congestion.
One in which the bus service is at the heart of the revolution. Indeed, a revolution he says cannot be delivered without raising the standard of the bus service.
What he wants is a laudable objective: a quality public transport system that appeals not just to existing users but to those younger Greater Mancunians who have grown up rarely if ever prepared to catch a bus. One that is made easy to use through a fares regime and ticketing technology that are affordable and convenient. One in which there is a seamless connection between modes and operators of each mode.
He tells us that it also will be a system in which all the buses — perhaps the trams and local train…
