Click here to download the complete Moving Greater Manchester Forward document (pdf 4.75mb).

The local councils and passenger transport authorities of Greater Manchester have adopted an ambitious transport strategy in support of their bid for Transport Innovation Funding (TIF), and a practical deliverable plan for major improvements in bus services is essential.

The Greater Manchester Bus Operators' Association (GMBOA) is anxious to make a major contribution to such a plan, and has proposed a package of measures which may be summarised as follows:

• the provision of a stable network of primary and secondary bus routes throughout Greater Manchester, to meet future needs and better integrate with Metrolink and rail
• improved punctuality and reliability of bus services
• a commitment to minimum vehicle quality standards, including emissions and the provision of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
• enhanced driver training standards consistently delivered across all operators, concentrating on continual improvements in the areas of safety and customer service, and incorporating the requirements of the new driver CPC
• use of technology for real-time passenger information, automatic vehicle location (AVL), better operational service management, and trialling and introduction of smart cards and simplified fares systems
• less frequent fares revisions, and linking furture fares increases to an appropriate industry cost inflation index
• operators' cost savings to be ploughed back into service improvment.

In return , GMBOA looks to the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA), the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) and local authorities to provide and maintain:

• effective packages of bus priority measures
• improved roadside facilities for passengers
• effective enforcement of bus priorities and parking
• cooperative working on investment in technology applications.

GMBOA believes that this can be delivered through a strategic partnership with GMPTA, GMPTE and local authorities, by way of voluntary legally binding Quality Partnership Agreements, and Statutory Qulaity Partnerships.

Bus operators are confident that a partnership approach that is based on trust and cooperation is an effective mechanism for delivering GMPTA's Bus Strategy and is capable of underpinning Greater Manchester's TIF bid to government in summer 2007.

Click here to download the complete Moving Greater Manchester Forward document (pdf 4.75mb).