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Prestwich Roadworks May 2022
‘Real Time Information’ at Bus Stops – why not in Greater Manchester?
by prestwichfocus on 20 November, 2014
At the last full meeting of Bury Council I asked a question of Bury’s representatives to Transport for Greater Manchester about their plans for ‘Real-Time’ bus information at bus stops.
People might be familiar with the signs that we now have on Metrolink Platorms which show (after many years of them being unused) show what time the next trams are coming. People might also have seen the same thing at bus stops in other towns in this country, and also abroad.
The answer seems to be that Greater Manchester has NO plans for real-time bus information displays at bus stops. It does have plans for a ‘smart phone’ app which would enable people to look on their phone when the next buses were coming to their stop. This is great, but obviously no use at all for people who do not have smart phones, which is probably includes quite a few people who use buses.
What people have found in other places is that bus stop information increases people’s confidence in the bus system, and is one of the ways that people can be encouraged to use public transport more.
So why not Greater Manchester? We invested the computer here, surely we can manage some automated signs on key bus stops (I don’t think anyone is suggesting every single bus stop, but at important/busy stops this could be very useful.)
The answer we were given is: “I take your point but we’ve got many thousands of bus stops in Greater Manchester so for example we might be able to have them in somewhere like Bournemouth but Greater Manchester is just too big.”
We asked friends from around the country and here are just some of the places – big and small – that already have real-time bus information at their bus stops.
Birmingham
Sheffield
Leeds
Edinburgh
Norwich
Southampton
Maidenhead
London (all over, not just central London)
Milton Keynes
Reading
Guildford
Reigate
Redhill
Woking
Nottingham
Bedford
Bristol
Oxford
Brighton
Halifax
Huddersfield
Cambridge
Huntingdon
Maidstone
Cardiff
Gwynnedd
York
Abbots Langley
Aberdeen
Horsham
Crawley
Worthing
Chelmsford
Guildford
Poole
Hull
Newhaven
Aylesbury
Peterborough
Eastleigh
Sandwell
Colchester
Harrogate
Greater Manchester needs to do better!
Hi Tim,
I agree with what you are saying here, real time information does promote public transport use. I would however like to point out that at Heaton Park tram station we do not have real time information on when the next tram is due at the moment, so we could do with this being prioritised by TfGM
Cheers, Rob
Good point Rob
I will find out what the plan is at Heaton Park.
Tim
Every time a mobile phone is pickpocket ed or stolen from someone in Manchester, the police blame the victim by saying that phones should not be used in public, and should be put away.
We risk violent robberies, assault, and even death by checking bus statuses from our phones at bus stops.
The GMPTE were having Real Time which can be seen by the early infrastructure of displays at bus stops throughout greater Manchester – however – the bottom line was that drivers of the bus companies weren’t happy being monitored under Real Time – the buses would have been fitted with tracking devices to ensure that the driver arrived at the correct time – failing that the info displayed at bus stops remained in place until that bus arrived so it would feed back to the depot that the driver in question failed to meet the due time – (you can possibly see where I’m going with this) so it became a non starter and nothing to do with too many bus stops and if they wanted they could of started with Central Manchester first – however it was the bus companies failing and the round the table talks that led to the demise of the system
The app for the ‘next bus’ is a good idea. At the moment though, it just tells you what bus is timetabled to come next and doesn’t come as real time. As this information is generally available at the stop, it’s not really helpful – although it is a step in the right direction. I look forward to real time information available both at the stop and on the app.
Tracey – my understand is that they need some sort of monitoring of buses – e.g. using sat-nav or something – which is entirely possible nowadays and is in use in loads of other towns and cities – with either/both bus stop signs or smart phone apps
Tim
Could really do with RTI at the moment. I live on the East Lancs Road (ELR) and due to the roadworks because of the guided busway, passengers can often be waiting for times in excess of 40 minutes. Not what’s needed when the temperature drops.
Returning home from the City Centre never used to be too much of an issue, due to the services starting in Piccadilly. However due to the severe delays coming in, it’s extremely rare for any bus to arrive on time. In reality it’s a case of turn up and hope for the best.
Stagecoach (who run the majority of the ELR services) employ people who monitor punctuality both in person and with GPS style devices. I’m amazed they don’t open it up to the public. There’s a bit of bus wars between them and First at the moment and provision of RTI would be a huge advantage over their competitors.
Is it drivers that’s stopping RTI, or the bus companies that don’t want to be shame by awful timekeeping on some routes?
Come on tfgm get RTI in now, are you letting the dog wag the tail?
I endorse most of the comments above. I visit the manchester area frequently and am astonished that there are still no real time bus displays. In West Yorkshire where I live this has been a valuable service throughout the area. I definitely increases customer confidence in the service knowing that, although a bus may be delayed, we know appx how long we will be waiting rather than speculating if it has been cancelled. I remember my first experience of Oldham bus station and, despite the station being modern and serviceable in other respects, being astonished that this main bus hub had no real time information. In other respects I have always thought that Manchester is a forward looking city particularly with the impressive tram network. Perhaps its time that buses, the poor relation, are given the investment it sorely needs.
What about the 52 and why do they just change the names ie diamond,orbit,etc they think name changes means they’d improve but they’re still shite