What's wrong with public transport in Greater Manchester?

 

The bus service in Greater Manchester is atrocious. It must be sub-standard even by Lincolnshire standards.

Waiting for a Stagecoach bus can be like waiting for Godot. Many buses don't turn up or don't run on time. Sometimes two buses turn up at the same time. In the evening, some services are one an hour. I've met bus users who have told me that they've been waiting an hour in a freezing bus shelter to get a bus.

They haven't been able to run an efficient and punctual bus service in Greater Manchester for donkeys' years. In the early 1970s, the buses were as regular as clockwork and the driver didn't have to ask the passengers to direct him along his bus route because he knew where he was going.

I support Andy Burnham's bus reforms but the launch of the Bee Network has been fraught with problems. Bus users have complained of late and missing buses and apps that don't work. There have also been complaints about cancellations due to a shortage of bus drivers. Burnham says these are teething problems which will sort themselves out in the long run. I hope he's right, because at the moment it looks like business as usual.