Manchester

An editorial on the Manchester situation in Friday’s Transit journal caught Omnibuses’ eye. You will recall that Manchester has been the subject of a rare traffic commissioner’s traffic regulation order. This follows severe congestion in the city at the inception by UK North (aka GM Buses) of a 12 buses an hour commercial service to Chorlton, a corridor already served by 18 Stagecoaches an hour.

Transit states that the highways authority and GMPTE cannot absolve themselves because they have channelled all buses along certain Manchester streets.

Transit also attributed “some irresponsibility” to upstart UK North for registering over an already very frequent and established Stagecoach service. Fair enough but, for the sake of an argument, isn’t the essence of deregulation that you can compete anywhere, anytime, where you see a market opportunity? To suggest otherwise argues for re-regulation, something Transit in the past seems to have found anathema.

The pre-September 85/86s to Chorlton may already have sufficient buses for those travelling but a competitor at least introduces choice, potentially lowering fares and gives walk-on passengers with System 1 tickets or free travel passes even more frequency.

There would’ve been a time when Stagecoach, itself an "upstart" in its youthful days, could be accused of a predatory attack or two of its own, spoiling for a fight. Now, Stagecoach has well and truly matured into the mainstream. How things change.