Representatives from First Bus will be in attendance at the meeting.
Minutes:
The Township Forum received an update form First Bus (Dave Rutherage) on services for the Whitefield and Unsworth area since the last meeting of the Township Forum. It was reported that he changes promised at the last meeting had been implemented on 25 October. However, it was not possible to introduce a service to the medical centre at Pilsworth at this time.
Mr Rutherage reported that the traffic congestion in Manchester was the worst it had ever been. Services were running on average between 20 minutes and 1hr 20mins. It was not possible to improve this situation because of the highways work taking place on the main roads, which remained closed. Diverting services to avoid road works in order to improve service times was not an option because resulted in diverting congestion to another area. The time taken to provide services was also having an impact on drivers who were required to take a 30 minute break after driving for a period of 5 hours.
97/98 Service – The services had been re-timed to give added flexibility for service users in Radcliffe and Whitefield. This has been reflected in user statistics.
First Bus want to propose changes to the current timetable to improve services but this is not yet possible until approval had been obtained from the Transport Commissioner. Make changes to services on the day was also not possible because passengers require advanced notice and it is not possible to contact them individually.
Reference was made to the terror attacks in Paris and passengers were asked to be vigilant and mindful of anything suspicious and to inform the driver of the vehicle. The bus company was promoting the ‘HOT’ principle (Hidden, Obvious, Typical). There had been no indication of bus vehicles being targeted.
The Chair thanked the representatives from First Bus for their attendance and invited them to a future meeting of the Township Forum for further updates.
The Chair invited questions.
Older residents on Hillock Estate who use the bus were waiting over an hour for a bus to arrive, what can be done to improve the service?
Unfortunately there isn’t a workable solution to help this situation. A suggestion was made that passengers could use the Smart App which is available to download to mobile phones which can advise where the bus is and the time it is likely to arrive at a stop.
Do bus drivers sometimes miss stops intentionally?
Yes a bus driver will sometimes miss a stop in order to make up time on a route. When a stop is missed it will be recorded at the depot.
When will Corporation Street in Manchester reopen to traffic?
The advice given states that the road will reopen in December 2015, however the original date was April 2015.
If First Bus is unable to provide a service is it likely that the company will lose passengers as they look for a alternative transportation?
This has not been the case so far. The First Bus marketing team is currently looking at advertising to attract people to use the bus.
In view of the local councillors who represent the Council on TfGM, why is it that local people, who will be affected by the planned works to the highway and Metrolink, are not consulted in advance?
Operators hold weekly meetings with TfGM and local authorities to discuss bus services. Unfortunately it appears that Manchester Council and Salford Council don’t communicate with each other on a lot of the lower level highways works they have planned that impact on traffic flows across the two city centres and the surrounding authorities.
Councillor Grimshaw reported that an issue was raised at a meeting of the Hollins Village Association regarding a bus driver that had hidden the ticket machine and allowed passengers onto the bus. Why doesn’t First Bus come to speak to passengers about services and what is needed before it makes decisions which sometimes are not good for everyone?
Bus drivers don’t always scan bus passes because not all passes have a chip and won’t register. Drivers can enter a pass manually but this method will not be accepted by TfGM and revenue won’t be passed to First Bus. There is currently a 92% recording rate for bus passes.
It is not acceptable for the driver to hide the ticket machine and this would be investigated, however the ticket app on the ticket machine programme has slowed the machines ability to register passes. Tickets sometimes take up to 15 seconds to register and drivers may be concerned that registering a lot of passes will make the service run late.
First Bus will attend the next Township Forum (5 January 2016) to consult bus users on proposals for Sunny Bank and Hollins Brow.
It was agreed:
1. That the update be noted.
2. That First Bus be invited to the next meeting of the Township Forum to discuss bus service planning for the Sunny Bank and Hollins Brow areas.