Does blogging bring fame? BBC Radio Solent's never asked me to contribute on air to news or debate on bus services. Probably as well, really.
Relative newcomer Martin of the Manchester Buses blog became a minor celeb yesterday, however, owing to his 15 minutes of Warhollian fame on BBC Radio Manchester’s peak news/current affairs programme. The power of the internet and RealPlayer meant that up to 0600 this morning, he had a world-wide audience.
The BBC’s introduction was somewhat stereotypical. One Eamonn O’Neal, presenting, actual called buses ‘unpleasant’ along with (I paraphrase) expensive, over-crowded, dirty, subject to cuts and congestion-bound.
Is this really life in the Manchester bus lane? Of course, you have to be there to know. Much of Manchester does have choice and reasonable to excellent headways. Competition focuses on fares. But, we’ll say it again as we’ve said it before, perception is the most important aspect of service provision. And certainly in Eamonn’s eyes, perception seemed poor.
But what do the punters think? The BBC microphone went to Bury to find out. A vox pop was somewhat more positive and indicated that most people were actually favourable towards their buses. Phew.
Yet, phrases such as ‘OK’, ‘all right’ and ‘not too bad’ were hardly ringing endorsements. One man with his free bus pass could only bring himself to say that buses were ‘quite cheap’! It’s as if we as a nation are no longer prepared to approve our bus services in public, lest we look odd or out-of-place. It’s fashionable to slag ’em off. Like Eamonn, we suspect that listeners within BBC Manchester’s catchment were all nodding their heads in agreement.
Ever lovers of the sound bite, co-presenter Dianne asked the $64,000 question. What did Martin feel was the number one concern for the bus service? The answer wasn’t likely to be EU driving hours. He could’ve chosen congestion charging or other means of freeing roadspace; the forthcoming related TIF bid; the emerging operator partnership across the city region; sorting out free travel and rising fuel costs; or hybrid and other emerging technology.
Instead, he picked re-regulation and central planning of services. Here again, we suspect that there would’ve been a great many people in Greater Manchester nodding their heads in agreement with Martin.
Wednesday
15 Minutes of Fame
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2 comments:
Interesting take on the result of the radio presenter's cant and bias. You had somewhat the same reaction as have I when opinionated but illogical people find out to their dismay I'm a Yank, or a "Republican", or a Christian. Being only one of the three is probably cause to place those like me in the "bin", as it were, but when all three combine it must be almost "unthinkable".
So what further does it say that I'm deeply involved in providing bus transportation services? Ever heard of a four-time loser before?
To be fair, I would have given more than a soundbite on the re-regulation argument had I not been told we had only a few seconds to finish the item after the voxpops package. I didn't think a discussion on Quality Contracts would have fitted in the timeslot!
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