Typical MCC answer to a bus problem "Make money out of tickets" Why dont they just get in touch with the bus companys direct and tell them unless they sort the problem out that they will loose their operators licence on thoses routes? Why cant the council think for themselves rather than just think about making money out of a problem?? Neil swannick is a great councillor and person but things should be sorted out properly ..

I have mentioned on this site many times before the nuiscance too many busses cause to Manchester they pollute, they damage the roads, there are too many of them operating and they cause major congestion problems to evryone who has to come in and out of the city. I now cycle to work every day i have a 4 mile journey from my house to work crossing straight through the city centre. My journey time has been reduced by 25 minutes and its keeping me fit. If more people did this the bus companies would eventually put less busses out as it would not be cost effective to run so many services.

So, amid all this chaos the Council come up with the idea of issueing parking tickets, brilliant, the problem is sorted. The City centre will once again be free for all traffic.!
I don't suppose that for one minute that there has been any thought that this problem can be solved with strong leadership and commonsense, that would be asking far too much from a council FULL of no hopers and jouney men/ women. Through my work I come in to contact with a lot of councillors, some are considered to be high up, some consider that they should be high up, but not ONE of them has decent leadership skills, they are only concerned with matters that effect them or their attempts to improve their position. I have NEVER met one who has the problems of this city at heart.

Irts time to shut piccadilly bus station down for good , its caused nothing but problem ever since the picadilly area redesigned, its way too small bus station and too many buses, especially nos 42, 142, on that route clogging up at station..its time for picadilly bus station to be dismatled and move to new location - BIGGER bus station to cope with it or split into several location...

What about steveson sqaure?? this area is badly need to be redesign to BUS station...

why do they call it public transport? It has nothing to do with a service to the public. The bus companies are fighting over the most profitable routes, ignoring less popular routes. I suffered for years waiting at bus stops, in all weathers. I have been left stranded at bus stops because stagecoach have missed out scheduled buses on hourly services. Instead they re-routed their buses to the areas with the most profit. Many times, I had to rely on taxis to get home from work. When I realised that I was paying out as much in taxi fares as it would cost to run a car, I decided enough was enough. I have now been a car owner for over 6 years, and would never go back to the nightmare of so called public transport. There were times I was put in fear of my life, waiting around at lonely bus stops in the dark. I say, reverse the privatisation, and do not allow public transport to be used by these companies, who are making huge profits for an abysmal service.

I'm sure this was an Ealing comedy.

An unscrupulous company drafted in to get one-up on an even more unsrupulous company?

Joy of joys. Who said two wrongs don't make a right?

Please will the wardens put tickets on buses that have to block the main road in Reddish because of the deliberate obstacles recently put there? No, I didn't think so. The authorities want everything their own way, even if it means having glaring and hypocritical inconsistencies in their policies. I know we're talking about trying to fix a snarled-up city-centre, but congestion is a bad thing wherever it is. But when it's deliberately made......

Good old Manchester City Council, never pass up an opportunity to make easy money from someone! The problem is that GMPTE who are supposed to regulate so called public transport are allowing anyone and everyone to start taking passenegers on routes that are already over serviced. There are people from each of the said bus companies walking round Piccadilly Gardens bus station with walkie-talkies and uniforms and doing absolutely nothing to shift any of the offending vehicles out of the station at all, so what exactly are they there to do?? This has been a problem coming for many years and now the payload has finally broke the Camels back (so to speak!) the various transport companies/regulators are surprised by this. Are these people so stupid that they would continue to fill their baths when they are already over the brim...No, so why keep cramming busses into the city when there is clearly no room for them. Privatisation, thanks Maggie!

I work at the university and get the tram to work. It's already bad enough along the 42 route down Oxford Road and now things are getting worse in this so called "bus wars".

GMPTE and/or the council need to address this problem as the bus station at Piccadilly Gardens couldn't cope anyway before UK North's stupid decision to compete on the 85/86 routes.

Manchester is a great city but its transport infrastructure stinks.

Dear Editor, I am a resident in Partington, i read the paper last night on my way home from work and was outraged that soo many routes have soo many buses like the 85-86, 256 etc every 5-10 minutes where as we (the residents of partington get 2 buses an hour from manchester to Partington and vice versa. Stage couch have decided to take 252 off of our route and this bus no longer exists which means if you want to go to sale in the morning u have to find alternate means in partington but we dont have trains trams etc anywhere within 5 miles. This is causing alot of anger in our community maybe you could help??

To Al Capone:

You're right - it was the very beginning of the Titfield Thunderbolt.

However, I'm pretty sure that most people needing to use these roads to get into and out of Manchester will find these shenannigins anything but funny!

Simple answer to the problem - buy a bike! Traffic in and around the town centre moves slowly enough to make cycling a relatively pleasant experience. You can pick up a good quality folding bike on ebay for around ¿¿80 these days so it needn't take up loads of space at home.

Brilliant issue parking tickets, that will solve the problem, Fantastic, about as effective as burying your head in the sand. The problem is the volume of busses coming into the city centre at peak times not that they may be stopping for more than 2 mins at a bus stop. Only when the volume of busses coming into the city centre is controlled will the problem go away.

I agree with most of the comments made the buses 85/86 is absoulutely ridiculous with only the odd few going further than Chorlton bus station which is the 84, to cater for the residents who live on nell lane and merseybank the service is crap from being regular to unregular, ask the parents taking the children to and from school it's pathetic. The other company they do loiter at the bus station becuase they are trying to collect as much passengers as possible and then move on. I don' think they have a set timetable to be honest. I had to say to the driver when are we leaving almost 15mins later to be told he has to wait for one of those men with the walkie talkies to tell them to move on. The city centre is gridlocked and needs addressing passing on fines is as greedy and ridiculous as it sounds. Shame on the council lets hope they put that money to good uses and clean up our streets and maybe we might not have so much rat infestation in Manchester, which is increasing.

PULL EVERY BUS OUT OF MANCHESTER THIS WEB SITE WOULD

uk north / gm buses are just after just after a quick buck going onto rotes that other companyes have spent years building up like the 42/43 192 and now the 86 route they have know intrest in porviding a service they are just after cherrypicking all the busy routes if they were providing a service they would run buses on a sunday morning not just untill 4am on a saterday night

At one time we had a bus service to be proud of. The rot started to set in at de-regulation and now the whole thing is so rotten, it has finally reached the point where it would be cheaper to demolish the lot and start again from the ground up.

Re-regulate the busses, get proper bus/tram interchanges, park and ride schemes and busses that run from north to south and vice versa

I take it PW's comments about Reddish are meant to be sarcastic! The reason why build out bus stops exist in Reddish, Chorlton and elsewhere is because of the epidemic of deliberately and unnecessarily parking on bus stops throughout Gtr. Manchester - something local authorities have REFUSED to tackle for decades. When this "bus war" dies down, I guarantee the Parking Wardens will do NOTHING to stop illegal obstruction of bus stops in the city centre or anywhere else in the county. But then again, they wouldn't - given that a high proportion of bus stop blockers and bus lane bandits are Council employees, or even Councillors! The ONLY vehicles to ever get ticketed for parking on bus stops in Gtr. Manchester are BUSES!
As a non-motorist if I suffered a physical Disability, I would take GM's local authorities to the EU Court of Human Rights for impeding my freedom of movement.
As for bus users in general - what mugs we have been to pay for the investment in low floor buses rendered useless in many parts of the county.

If the buses were to be Reregulated - and I believe they should - it should be part of a complete overhaul of local Transport, with power at strategic level, London-style. Services like Parking enforcement should be taken away from local councils, and given to PTE-style Boards.
That way, spiteful road users who deliberately and persistently block bus stops when there plenty of free alternatives very close by, will be penalised, instead of those who have over-run their stay on a meter or in a car park by the odd minute!

I am a big bus user of First Buses. They set an example, good buses, good routes, reliable etc. yet GMPTE let's some bus company like UK North even set eyes on our network. Most of their drivers can't speak english, you tell me how they're supposed to serve the public, what if they get lost? I think that First and Stagecoach aren't the problem, it's UK North. I was stuck in this stupidity for 30 minutes the other day. It should be addressed by banning UK North from operating in Manchester. Their buses are held together with cellotape!

GMPTE can't stop UK North causing this chaos. Deregulation means anyone can run a bus anywhere. Big cities like Manchester and Birmingham need powers to regulate buses and stop wasteful competition and recreate co-ordinated bus networks. Ask your MPs to legislate for this and boycott UK North.

well done to uk north bad about traffic problems but stagecoach want everything i worked on the buses for 5 and a half years they run us off the road just they hate competion so go on uk north u got as much right to be there as any other operator

can you please tell me when this all is going to get sorted. my first bus to work takes me into piccadilly to the bus stand just in front of the 85/86 bus stand & then i would just get onto the 85/86, now i've got to take my life in my own hands trying to cross chorlton street with traffic coming in all directions to get the 85/86 at portland towers but it's worse on the journey back as the buses now stop at bloom street & as have only a few minutes between my connecting buses i am missing my second bus that gets me home.

also alot of school kids get the 85/86 & it's not safe for them having to cross busy roads etc.

please note i refuse to get a uk north bus on principle as since they started on monday they have caused all this chaos, also their buses don't look roadworthy, they all look like they should be on the scrap heap not on the road.

please, please sort this out asap.

kathy

One problem not addressed is the issue of city centre pollution. I can guarantee that every bus stopped on Portland Street and London Road sits there with its engine running, wasting fuel and harming thier customers and the rest of us. It started with the queues of night buses waiting for enough people to justify the running costs and it was inevitable that the number of day time buses would eventually catch up with this.

Until the tram network is expanded to Chorlton then buses should only drop off at Piccadilly Gardens and should have to park elsewhere until they are needed back again to pick up.

On the subject of trams and oxford road, the buses should have been replaced by trams long ago... but that's another story. GMPTE needs to take control and issue fines directly - if neccessary a compulsory purchase of Piccadilly Gardens perhaps?

Bet they wouldn`t allow this in London, mind you although they are responsible for all the laws down there, inc Bus Deregulation and all that, they have their own rules. They even stipulate what you can and what you cant put on the destination boxes on the buses!
Stagecoach have a nasty habit of `flooding` a route if any competion comes along so they are getting some of there own medicine, but this situation should never be allowed to happen. Competition is one thing but what is happening now is effectively holding the passengers and the authorities to ransom.
It seems obvious that `Emergency Service Vehicles` would be unable to get through, so I would have thought that this would be a Police matter and that they could force the bus companies to remove their vehicles immediately irrespective as to wether or not they have only waited 2 minutes.