Is Rebranding a Good Idea for Manchester's Guided Busway Services? 

Fair enough, I do really like the old GM buses orange livery actually

Fair point, well I suppose that's just first's corporate colours

They've now put "guided busway" more prominently on the display as well, which is a nice touch. Ironically, the V prefix now stands for nothing as the Vantage branding has been retired. Not saying that it's a problem though.

That'll be a good compromise 👍🏻

Maybe a yellow-purple design with the V logo? That would a decent touch.

lu muluk busuk

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Yes it's the same sort of system, and thank you 😁

Aarhus is quite simular. But I think Aarhus can get away with non specific branding as the A buses really are not that different to normal buses. Just the frequency!

Fair enough, that's a good point

Something like the London superloop I guess

That's fair, I suppose when everything is "special", nothing really is

Thanks for your thoughts and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I can definitely see both points of the argument there and I believe there's no right or wrong answer. I do agree that people don't care what the bus looks like as long as it actually turns up. Perhaps the quote was referring to the introduction of the service to potential passengers, which might increase the more people move to the area. Again, I see both sides here 👍

Similar yes. And thank you!

Yeah I believe they stripped off the words though so it's just a base purple. Should be repainted to yellow eventually

A new route would definitely be interesting

Yes the 1 day ticket is accepted on these high spec buses. I hope you enjoy your visit.

@@glitchFan2428 Many thanks. Yes, we are looking forward to our trip .. 2 nights in Manchester followed by 2 in Liverpool.

I see. It seems to appear during the morning and evening peak timings

Indeed, I suppose if people did notice the names of the destinations it could potentially convince them to use the bus.

Hmmm it seems GM is going down that route, just like a couple of decades ago when everything was orange

Because of course in areas where buses were privatised, service levels have been on the incline, prices on the decrease and bus ridership through the roof... oh wait.... See, the truth is, there is no perfect system. A franchised i.e. publicly regulated system is only as good as public transport planners (and politicians) in the region/council allow it to be. And there you can either go the Swiss or Dutch route of carefully and cleverly integrated planning or muck it up like in parts of Greater London. Doesn't mean that publicly regulating a vital public service like public transport doesn't work. What your analysis also glosses over is that, like with many things, privatisation of buses did *initially* lead to certain successes, much in the same way that privatisation of the railways did (not regarding safety or ease of use, but in terms of service levels, investment etc.). However, once the rules of the market slowly set in (which takes more than just over a decade), healthy competition decreased, innovative start-ups died out and what Britain's public was left with was an unaccountable, patchy, messy, outdated, overpriced and underserved network of bus services, provided by just a small handful of cartelistic bus companies. Thing is, the rules of the free market do not apply to natural monopolies and public services such as public transport. My claim is the same would have happened in London in the long-term, I mean, why should it be any different to the rest of the UK? So within this, context franchising *is* the way forward and I predict that it *will* lead to an increase in ridership. Primarily, because more people will start using the buses IN CONJUCTION with other modes of transport. I'm not entirely knocking privatisation, it can have benefits, but there were some areas in the UK, South Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear being two prime examples, that through good planning and cleverly designed public policy had just prior to privatisation created a public transport system that was very popular and rather well used. Privatisation wrecked these systems and did not contribute in any way. In the case of South Yorkshire it was the high level of service (frequencies) coupled with very low ticket prices (subsidised), in Tyne and Wear it was the clever integration of metro services and buses. The latter is probably what Greater Manchester is trying to achieve in the long-term, through the full integration of trams, trains and buses by 2030 and they *could* succeed. Of course, the price cap for tickets is a good move too and acts as another incentive for a growth in bus ridership. As complex as regional public transport planning can seem sometimes, the basics are rather simple: 1) affordable ticket prices 2) ease of use through ticket & timetable integration and coherent network structure 3) high frequencies 4) high reliability and punctuality. Privatisation has, in the long-run, failed completely in all 4 aspects, though particularly regarding points 2 and 3. Bus services all across the UK have continually been cut leading to a decline in demand which then led to further cuts. A deadly spiral. In Glasgow they're about to get rid of nightbuses, madness! In Zurich, Switzerland, there are over 20 night bus lines running in 15-30 minute intervals all through the night and in Copenhagen some night bus lines even run as frequently as every 5-10 minutes. Bus franchising is the way forward.

@@psgistheworstclubineurope and there's an internet truism, sadly or fortunately, depending on how you look at it - here's another one - life is meaningless and we're all going to die :)

​@@psgistheworstclubineuropeI read it. Thought he made some excellent points too.

Vantage is a sub-brand of the First Bus group. The Bee Network is the new catch-all name that will ultimately identify the whole public transport network for Greater Manchester. The Bee part is because the bee is one of the city’s symbols

I already know, but thanks for replying@@leopold7562

Well it's just started so we'll see what happens in due time. I'm pretty neutral about it all

Since 2015

I suppose only time will tell

Not neccesarily. There is competition to win contracts so therefore the companies will need to give their best if they want to continue earning their money.

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2nd

3rd