As Greater Manchester and the Liverpool city region appear ready to embrace a London-style franchising model, ERNEST NORTH argues that this alone will achieve little and that society and political leaders need to make much more radical changes to favour the bus
In the past few months, several developments in north-west England have caused me to reflect on the role of the bus and how its services are delivered.
First off, Manchester Community Transport announced that it was closing down in April (Buses last month). It had grown to be a significant operator, carrying 1.1million passengers per year, with over 100 drivers and around 50 tendered routes covering Stockport, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Manchester, Salford and Trafford.
It provided many of these routes only in the evenings or on Sundays, as other operators provided the commercial daytime service. A Cheshire East contract won from Selwyns extended its operating area to Macclesfield last year.
MCT became part of the much larger London-based HCT Group in 2017. It cited mounting losses and difficult trading conditions as reasons for closure. HCT Group explained that it could no longer sustain MCT’s losses and had no alternative but to withdraw support.
