manchester foe logo

Joining the long queue for Better Buses in Greater Manchester!

event report

On a blustery evening, Manchester Friends of the Earth campaigners joined the Better Buses for Greater Manchester ‘Longest Queue for Better Buses‘ rally outside Andy Burnham’s offices on Oxford Street.

“Bus companies are taking us for a ride “

The event on Monday 1st July, marked the start of Catch the Bus Week, and highlighted that Greater Manchester has seen cuts of 8 million miles of bus routes and that we are in the queue for better, publicly controlled buses that serve our communities.

Friends of the Earth, along with researchers at think-tank Transport for Quality of Life have released new research: Transforming public transport: Regulation, spending and free buses for the under 30s. The findings show that for climate change reasons at least a 20% reduction in car journeys is necessary

Dozens of cities across the world  offer some form of free public transport. It would cost around £3 billion a year but this is a fraction of the money spent on roads. Three times more journeys are by bus than train and they are the main means of transport for the car-less quarter of the population. What we are seeing instead is bus fares rising 75% over the last 15 years, and over 3,300 services reduced or removed since 2010 in England and Wales.”

Manchester Friends of the Earth wants to see a Greater Manchester transport system based around people and increased walking and cycling, not continued spending on cars and roads.  We welcome the steps outlined by Andy Burnham towards regulating the Greater Manchester bus services as well as expanding sustainable and clean public transport services such as Metrolink.

The UK government must provide the funding to enable Greater Manchester and other UK cities to follow the lead of over 100 cities and towns across the world who are reducing air pollution and meeting the challenge of climate change by making bus travel free. It will be necessary to regulate buses to make this work. 

Find out more information on the Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign and sign the petition.

Props R Us !

Manchester Friends of the Earth volunteers created the bus stop sign!… available for bus campaign events near you!

You can see more photographs from the Longest Queue rally on the Manchester Friends of the Earth Flickr album.

Find us on

Facebook

Support Us

Donate or join us using a standing order or PayPal.

Twitter @foemcr