Stagecoach has revealed a plan for Greater Manchester that is designed to act as a trailblazer for other regions in the country. The company stated that a package of proposed partnership measures will help accelerate bus use post-pandemic and provide a blueprint for use nationwide .
According to Stagecoach, one double-decker can take 75 cars off the road and just a 1% switch from cars would increase bus use by more than 12%. The company’s figures showed that, in Greater Manchester, around 1.2 billion car trips were completed by residents pre-Covid and that the 1% switch would result in 12 million fewer car trips per year.
Lee Wasnidge, Stagecoach Manchester managing director, said: “There is a huge opportunity for the bus to drive a re-energised country coming out of the pandemic. As the UK Government looks to finalise its National Bus Strategy, we believe an innovative package of partnership initiatives in Greater Manchester, one of the most important regions in the country, can show the way to boost bus use across the country.
“More electric buses, mobility credits incentives, and new innovative on-demand services to meet people’s changing lifestyles, combined with better infrastructure and more bus priority, can deliver greener and more connected towns and cities.”
The programme proposed by Stagecoach includes: formation of a public and private sector ‘Partnership Board’; traffic light and road junction improvements; an accelerated roll-out of electric buses and depot infrastructure; offering green mobility credits to city centre car users to incentivise bus use and reduce unnecessary car journeys; expanding flexible ticket options and improving clarity of customer information; and improving end-to-end journeys, including the trialling of e-bike and e-scooters for first and last-mile extensions.
