Are Manchester's bus drivers grumpy?

[tidyman]

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I know Noel, he's a mate.

But I think a few posters on here are unreasonably setting him up to poke fun at over what is the secondary issue here.

It's clear from reading the article that his main complaint about the buses is the complete unreliability of the service and lack of punctuality. All bus services publish timetables and it is incredibly frustrating when they are late or - very often - don't turn up at all.

That is clearly Noel's main complaint, and that issue - an unreliable bus service - is a perfectly reasonable issue for an elected local councillor to be raising.

Unfortunately the issue most people have focused on in his thread is the secondary issue: that when some drivers are asked why their service is so late they are, on occasion, grumpy.

Noel is well known amongst City fans. He used to edit a fanzine and I think there's probably more than a whiff of the fallout from what came to be known as 'The Fanzine Wars' in some of the comments aimed at him on this thread.

The issue here is not grumpy bus drivers.

The issue is the shoddy service being delivered by a private company who are contracted to provide a public service. Personally, I like to see my local councillors challenging poor and unreliable services being delivered by private companies that make huge profits funded by local people.

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

 

[DelToro]

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I know Noel, he's a mate.

But I think a few posters on here are unreasonably setting him up to poke fun at over what is the secondary issue here.

It's clear from reading the article that his main complaint about the buses is the complete unreliability of the service and lack of punctuality. All bus services publish timetables and it is incredibly frustrating when they are late or - very often - don't turn up at all.

That is clearly Noel's main complaint, and that issue - an unreliable bus service - is a perfectly reasonable issue for an elected local councillor to be raising.

Unfortunately the issue most people have focused on in his thread is the secondary issue: that when some drivers are asked why their service is so late they are, on occasion, grumpy.

Noel is well known amongst City fans. He used to edit a fanzine and I think there's probably more than a whiff of the fallout from what came to be known as 'The Fanzine Wars' in some of the comments aimed at him on this thread.

The issue here is not grumpy bus drivers.

The issue is the shoddy service being delivered by a private company who are contracted to provide a public service. Personally, I like to see my local councillors challenging poor and unreliable services being delivered by private companies that make huge profits funded by local people.

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

The Fanzine Wars sound interesting.

I used to work with a guy in Social Services who helped produce Blue Print which I bought regularly

I remember Bert Trautmanns' Helmet which I think was Noels.

Dave Wallace did King of the Kippax.

What else was there and what were these wars?

 

[Malty]

Not just Manchester but all generally in the UK seem like they need a personality transplant.

 

[BigJimLittleJim]

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I know Noel, he's a mate.

But I think a few posters on here are unreasonably setting him up to poke fun at over what is the secondary issue here.

It's clear from reading the article that his main complaint about the buses is the complete unreliability of the service and lack of punctuality. All bus services publish timetables and it is incredibly frustrating when they are late or - very often - don't turn up at all.

That is clearly Noel's main complaint, and that issue - an unreliable bus service - is a perfectly reasonable issue for an elected local councillor to be raising.

Unfortunately the issue most people have focused on in his thread is the secondary issue: that when some drivers are asked why their service is so late they are, on occasion, grumpy.

Noel is well known amongst City fans. He used to edit a fanzine and I think there's probably more than a whiff of the fallout from what came to be known as 'The Fanzine Wars' in some of the comments aimed at him on this thread.

The issue here is not grumpy bus drivers.

The issue is the shoddy service being delivered by a private company who are contracted to provide a public service. Personally, I like to see my local councillors challenging poor and unreliable services being delivered by private companies that make huge profits funded by local people.

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

The Fanzine Wars sound interesting.

I used to work with a guy in Social Services who helped produce Blue Print which I bought regularly

I remember Bert Trautmanns' Helmet which I think was Noels.

Dave Wallace did King of the Kippax.

What else was there and what were these wars?

I produced a Punk fanzine in the eighties called "Mass Debate in Leeds", which had a wanking gnome as a mascot kind of thing - sold a few t-shirts of it as well.

Anyhow, what were these fanzine wars, I don't know the guy or any of the bickering, can't we get some sort of feud going again?

 

[tidyman]

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I know Noel, he's a mate.

But I think a few posters on here are unreasonably setting him up to poke fun at over what is the secondary issue here.

It's clear from reading the article that his main complaint about the buses is the complete unreliability of the service and lack of punctuality. All bus services publish timetables and it is incredibly frustrating when they are late or - very often - don't turn up at all.

That is clearly Noel's main complaint, and that issue - an unreliable bus service - is a perfectly reasonable issue for an elected local councillor to be raising.

Unfortunately the issue most people have focused on in his thread is the secondary issue: that when some drivers are asked why their service is so late they are, on occasion, grumpy.

Noel is well known amongst City fans. He used to edit a fanzine and I think there's probably more than a whiff of the fallout from what came to be known as 'The Fanzine Wars' in some of the comments aimed at him on this thread.

The issue here is not grumpy bus drivers.

The issue is the shoddy service being delivered by a private company who are contracted to provide a public service. Personally, I like to see my local councillors challenging poor and unreliable services being delivered by private companies that make huge profits funded by local people.

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

The Fanzine Wars sound interesting.

I used to work with a guy in Social Services who helped produce Blue Print which I bought regularly

I remember Bert Trautmanns' Helmet which I think was Noels.

Dave Wallace did King of the Kippax.

What else was there and what were these wars?

I think it goes back to the Electric Blue days that was the forerunner for BTH.

No idea how it started but he used to be friendly with the King of the Kippax guy and even go in the same car to away games. But they fell out over something and stuff was printed in KOTK that he thought was a bit personal and out of order.

 

[BigJimLittleJim]

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

The Fanzine Wars sound interesting.

I used to work with a guy in Social Services who helped produce Blue Print which I bought regularly

I remember Bert Trautmanns' Helmet which I think was Noels.

Dave Wallace did King of the Kippax.

What else was there and what were these wars?

I think it goes back to the Electric Blue days that was the forerunner for BTH.

No idea how it started but he used to be friendly with the King of the Kippax guy and even go in the same car to away games. But they fell out over something and stuff was printed in KOTK that he thought was a bit personal and out of order.

Nobody's bird got their back doors bashed in then by their bessie mate?

Oh well, back to the UKIP thread then.

 

[andy h]

It doesn't just happen in Gtr. Manchester. Drivers tend to have shit customer care attitudes everywhere.
I work for a shire county in the east midlands managing public transport and the biggest bugbear with the bus carrying public is poor attitudes from bus drivers.
I do find it amazing that given that driving a bus involves a high degree of dealing with the public that so many grumpy gits do it for a living. In my neck of the woods, getting public confidence and driving patronage numbers upwards is something that the bus companies really need to get a grip with..........and yet the drivers continually undermine confidence in services with their lousy attitudes. There seems to be so little emphasis on customer care training too!
Yes you can argue that the pay is crap but at the rate they are on, they could get a job doing something else which would generate less hassle, or much less interaction with the public.

 

[mackenzie]

I wouldn't be too offended on his behalf mate. I doubt anyone gives a shit about petty fanzine arguments from 20 years ago anymore. Or anything else personal.

I suspect most people who've commented know him. ( Apart from the guy who said he isn't grumpy. )

It's just a bit of mild, harmless, piss taking.

The Fanzine Wars sound interesting.

I used to work with a guy in Social Services who helped produce Blue Print which I bought regularly

I remember Bert Trautmanns' Helmet which I think was Noels.

Dave Wallace did King of the Kippax.

What else was there and what were these wars?

I produced a Punk fanzine in the eighties called "Mass Debate in Leeds", which had a wanking gnome as a mascot kind of thing - sold a few t-shirts of it as well.

Anyhow, what were these fanzine wars, I don't know the guy or any of the bickering, can't we get some sort of feud going again?

There was a thread on it a while back. All got a bit petty and vindictive so it might have been deleted/moved

 

[hilts]

Firstly, let me declare an interest. I know Noel, he's a mate.

But I think a few posters on here are unreasonably setting him up to poke fun at over what is the secondary issue here.

It's clear from reading the article that his main complaint about the buses is the complete unreliability of the service and lack of punctuality. All bus services publish timetables and it is incredibly frustrating when they are late or - very often - don't turn up at all.

That is clearly Noel's main complaint, and that issue - an unreliable bus service - is a perfectly reasonable issue for an elected local councillor to be raising.

Unfortunately the issue most people have focused on in his thread is the secondary issue: that when some drivers are asked why their service is so late they are, on occasion, grumpy.

Noel is well known amongst City fans. He used to edit a fanzine and I think there's probably more than a whiff of the fallout from what came to be known as 'The Fanzine Wars' in some of the comments aimed at him on this thread.

The issue here is not grumpy bus drivers.

The issue is the shoddy service being delivered by a private company who are contracted to provide a public service. Personally, I like to see my local councillors challenging poor and unreliable services being delivered by private companies that make huge profits funded by local people.

Unfortunately he kind of dies on his arse with this as well, gtr manchester figures for 2013 for bus services are

reliability 98%
punctuality 89%
regularity 97%

I cant commute in a car and do a journey in the exact same time everyday. throw passengers into the equation and i would imagine the above figures aren't too shoddy, i think a dose of common sense is required

 

[BTH]

Far from the madding crowd and just to put things into perspective, the genesis of this article came from figures that were presented to TfGMC members which showed there were more complaints about "driver attitude" at one bus local company than all complaints at another, similar-sized bus company.

I asked the boss of the former company during a meeting what he thought were his passengers' two main issues. His opinion chimed with mine and those of constituents i.e. punctuality/reliability and customer service. Ask around if you think we're wrong. There doesn't seem to be much point in being a representative on any committee if you don't know what the issues are IMO. Anyway, he detailed how the company plans to address these issues, which, to be fair, are improving.

A MEN journalist in attendance rang me for further info. I urged her to get the figures I had referred to from TfGM officers (as I wasn't sure whether they were in the public domain or not) and to speak to the bus company for balance. I also stressed that "some" bus drivers were grumpy on occasion and probably shouldn't be when asked, for example, a perfectly legitimate question by a fare-paying passenger anxious to get to work or education on time. I also made it clear that a good deal of drivers were extremely good and I know quite a few of them, but who wants to read good news?

I recently commended one to Paul Turner (who's named in the article) and he told me that be would ensure this particular driver's actions were recognised. The bus company do have an employee recognition scheme and I was pleased to present a certificate and a fortnight's holiday for two in Honolulu to a driver at Bury depot not so long ago - okay, I made the bit about Honolulu up, but the point is that it swings both ways as far as I'm concerned.

What the MEN prints is up to them, typos included (theirs not mine, I hasten to add!); I told them about the managers making tea and toast for employees, for example, but they decided not to put that point in speech marks.

For the record, regarding casework, I have received more work about the bus services than everything else combined. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the privatisation of public services.

Penultimately, I'm pleased to see that Philll's still trolling me after all these years!

And finally: all the best for New Year. Saturday service and early finish tomorrow, mind...