Please try and boycott stagecoach

If you can please get any other bus company. It seems Stagecoach are now trying to get rid of all competition down the Wilsmlow Road route, if this happens then prices will increase dramatically.

I have seen Stagecoach overtake the 86 and 192 routes and these services have been reduced in quality and increased in price since.

I am currently writing to GMPTE about the matter. Stagecoach may have won the other battles but please don't let a major giant like Stagecoach but smaller firms which have been based in Manchester for 80 odd years out of business.

Reply 1

fishpaste

it's widely acknowledged that they all collude when bidding for routes isn't it?

Reply 2

Trigger

18

amazingtrade

If you can please get any other bus company. It seems Stagecoach are now trying to get rid of all competition down the Wilsmlow Road route, if this happens then prices will increase dramatically.

I have seen Stagecoach overtake the 86 and 192 routes and these services have been reduced in quality and increased in price since.

I am currently writing to GMPTE about the matter. Stagecoach may have won the other battles but please don't let a major giant like Stagecoach but smaller firms which have been based in Manchester for 80 odd years out of business.

i know what you mean hun theyve done the same here too the gits!

Reply 3

pinkegokane

stagecoach are a COMPLETE rip off, i'd say don't get on any of their buses even if they weren't swallowing all these other services. plus the drivers are maniacs; i nearly got killed this morning when a stagecoach bus went through a red light on oxford road :mad:

Reply 4

AT82

OP

Apparantly Stagecoach started of as a scheme where they got losts of backers. They then offered free buses services in a Scottish town and effectivly wiped out all the competition. This still goes on even to this day. I often have to wait 15 minutes for a service that is supposed to be 5 minutes or better, when UK North also ran the service last year there was a Stagecoach bus every minute.

I was looking at a time tabke from 1974 and the bus services were much better back then, this was in the days of de regulation.

Reply 5

AT82

OP

pinkegokane

stagecoach are a COMPLETE rip off, i'd say don't get on any of their buses even if they weren't swallowing all these other services. plus the drivers are maniacs; i nearly got killed this morning when a stagecoach bus went through a red light on oxford road :mad:

They always go through red lights, I remember the days when UK North used to run the 86 with Stagecoach, Stagecoach blocked bus stops, raced at lights to make sure they were in front and they frequenty break speed limits. I have a feeling (but this is just an opinion) that this is encouraged at management level. The 86 is always so over crowded that passangers often have to stand up while the vehicle is in motion.

Reply 6

AT82

OP

fishpaste

it's widely acknowledged that they all collude when bidding for routes isn't it?

I think this article confirms that nicely.

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/63/63792_the_bus_rip_off.html

If this was London bus companies would never be allowed to form a cartel in this way.

Reply 7

calamity jane

7

I'm in. Their buses aren't even a nice colour.....the cheek!

Reply 8

drawmeamonkey

1

i almost always use uk north, theyre cheaper and pretty frequent! and most of the drivers are decent. finglands are alright but not as frequent i find.

im from north manchester, where first have the monopoly pretty much, the services are crap and cost so much-its 2.95 for a day ticket now!!! can get a UK north weekly for £2!!!

are stagecoach trying to get a monopoly on oxford/wilmslow road???

does anyone know when uk north are stopping the £2 weekly and how much it will be afterwards?

Reply 9

pghstochaj

11

At least there's a form of competition in Manchester, in whatever way; most major UK cities these days have one major bus company and one or two for the more rural routes and nothing else.

Reply 10

AT82

OP

jkthorp

i almost always use uk north, theyre cheaper and pretty frequent! and most of the drivers are decent. finglands are alright but not as frequent i find.

im from north manchester, where first have the monopoly pretty much, the services are crap and cost so much-its 2.95 for a day ticket now!!! can get a UK north weekly for £2!!!

are stagecoach trying to get a monopoly on oxford/wilmslow road???

does anyone know when uk north are stopping the £2 weekly and how much it will be afterwards?

UK North used to run services all over South Manchester, the 192, 42, 43 250 and 86 now they just run the 42/43 because Stagecoach have blocked them out with their bus blocking tactics.

I have to use First to get to Salford but I find them very frequent, however it is only 1 mile down the road from the city centre so I can get virtualy any bus heading west of the city (Salford).

The privatisation of GM Buses should never had happened and they should never have allowed to big regional bus companies to run most of Manchester's services.

Reply 11

fishpaste

amazingtrade

The privatisation of GM Buses should never had happened and they should never have allowed to big regional bus companies to run most of Manchester's services.

the failure is not privatisation but failure to privatise.

Reply 12

Daveo

16

To be fair, a bus is a bus, whenever I want to get home I just get on the first bus that comes, be it stagecoach, UK North or finglands. I don't care about the politics just as long as I get home. Though I am often annoyed by the overcrowding.

Reply 13

AT82

OP

Daveo

To be fair, a bus is a bus, whenever I want to get home I just get on the first bus that comes, be it stagecoach, UK North or finglands. I don't care about the politics just as long as I get home. Though I am often annoyed by the overcrowding.

But the problem is if Stagecoach do suceed in their mission prices will more than double. I have seen it happen, it costs £1.80 to Chorlton now on the 86, just 3.5 miles away. The fare to Owens Park? 50p which is pretty much the same distance. The problem is the companies set the fares and if there is a monopoly and can and do charge what they like.

Reply 14

naz04

Stagecoach is already damn expensive.i can't why for example you have to pay 1.05 from the uni to picadilly while fingland will take there for 50p.

Reply 15

AT82

OP

naz04

Stagecoach is already damn expensive.i can't why for example you have to pay 1.05 from the uni to picadilly while fingland will take there for 50p.

Exactly, a lot of students seem to enjoy wasting money though and will take the first bus they see. It always amazed me Manchester Met students paying £1 to get from Picciddilly to All Saints, its literly just a 10 minute walk! and it takes a good ten minutes on the bus will all the city centre traffic.

Reply 16

bliptbastard

i agree, i used to get the bus to school everyday along the 42 route and eventually refused to get on stagecoach buses. they rip u off and wouldnt let me on for 40p even tho i was in school uniform and obviously going to school. UK north are by far the best!

Reply 17

Cabby

I'll be getting the 263 to uni when I start in 2005, what I don't get about Arriva is that their adult single fares are 25p less than Stagecoach, but the weekly ticket is about £3 more?!?

And there doesn't appear to be an Arriva Manchester student pass, just Liverpool, Lancashire, Cheshire or North Wales.

Reply 18

Eru Iluvatar

18

here its the brighton and hove buses which are taking away business from stagecoach, and they charge alot more than stagecoach do :frown:

.

Reply 19

AT82

OP

Cabby

I'll be getting the 263 to uni when I start in 2005, what I don't get about Arriva is that their adult single fares are 25p less than Stagecoach, but the weekly ticket is about £3 more?!?

And there doesn't appear to be an Arriva Manchester student pass, just Liverpool, Lancashire, Cheshire or North Wales.

The 263 is also run by Ashall's now as well so you are not limited to Arriva. I think the reason for the prices is the different areas the two companies operate in. Arriva is South West Manchester, i.e Altrincham area which is slightly less busy than the city centre routes Stagecoach tend to operate in.

Weekly passes dramaticaly speed up bus journeys as you odn't get everybody coming on buying tickets, This is the main reason bus companies do it is so they can speed journeys up. Imagine Wilmslow Road if all the scummy students paid on each bus that goes past Fallowfield? The journey would take for ever.

I buy a GMPTE monthy student pass at £35 a month. This allows me to use any bus in Greater Manchester regardless of the bus company. I need this as its Stagecoach where I live and First Bus in Salford. It is also handy being able to get any bus when I am working in Withington or Didsbury.

The buses near me have improved a lot in the last few weeks so now the freshers are setteling in and not as many people are turning up to lectures the exessive amount of 142's have become 86's again.

Illuvator I would not be surprised if Stagecoach try and bus that other bus company out. Walls buses in Manchester were an extremely popular discount bus company, Stagecoach bought them out sold the entire fleet but kept the drivers, they then used the older Stagecoach fleet and stuck Magic Bus all over them. The reason they bought them out was to simply wipe the company out.

Please try and boycott stagecoach

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