Greater Manchester Franchising

[Barney]

RE: Greater Manchester Franchising

(15/05/2021 10:27)EDB325 Wrote:  If you're going to start penalising motorists even further than is already the case, you're looking at massive civil unrest. Free public transport only works when there is a tight-knit operating area with blanket coverage.

I agree. In the early 1980s, a young Ken Livingstone introduced a radical policy in London called Fares Fair. The aim was to provide heavily subsidised public transport within the capital. This policy was successfully challenged in the courts by a Bromley councillor who argued that as that borough did not have a Tube station within it, it was unreasonable that local ratepayers should have to pay for a service that they did not receive.

As we all know, there are certain areas of Greater Manchester that are well served by buses and trams and others - mainly the leafy suburbs - that are not.