Not because I don’t think he’ll be any good as PM, but because he’s already brilliant as Mayor of Manchester. It sounds absurd, but Andy Burnham has made so many improvements to the quality of life for us Manchester folk, I don’t want to entertain the thought of losing him.
The Bee Network is the biggest quality of life improvement for me personally.
In the bad old days, the buses were contracted to a company called First. The service was both unreliable and expensive.
I’m lucky enough to live in a place on the outskirts of Greater Manchester that isn’t too densely populated. Unfortunately that means it was also not profitable for First, so we had one bus an hour - the absolute minimum required to fulfil the contract. Except that wasn’t the reality - frequently the busses would be cancelled (with no way of would-be passengers knowing), so you could be waiting for two hours or more.
The fares were extortionate - it was actually cheaper for me to drive to work.
The buses themselves were antiquated piles of scrap that rattled as the vibrations of the engine violently shook the whole frame.
With the Bee Network, the buses are nice, clean and run on time. They can be tracked by app. The fares are capped at £2. They are more frequent and more reliable.
This probably all sounds stupid to anyone from London or anywhere else with competent people running their transport services, but the change has been like night and day.
I really hope this doesn’t happen.
Not because I don’t think he’ll be any good as PM, but because he’s already brilliant as Mayor of Manchester. It sounds absurd, but Andy Burnham has made so many improvements to the quality of life for us Manchester folk, I don’t want to entertain the thought of losing him.
what’s he done out of interest?
The Bee Network is the biggest quality of life improvement for me personally.
In the bad old days, the buses were contracted to a company called First. The service was both unreliable and expensive.
I’m lucky enough to live in a place on the outskirts of Greater Manchester that isn’t too densely populated. Unfortunately that means it was also not profitable for First, so we had one bus an hour - the absolute minimum required to fulfil the contract. Except that wasn’t the reality - frequently the busses would be cancelled (with no way of would-be passengers knowing), so you could be waiting for two hours or more.
The fares were extortionate - it was actually cheaper for me to drive to work.
The buses themselves were antiquated piles of scrap that rattled as the vibrations of the engine violently shook the whole frame.
With the Bee Network, the buses are nice, clean and run on time. They can be tracked by app. The fares are capped at £2. They are more frequent and more reliable.
This probably all sounds stupid to anyone from London or anywhere else with competent people running their transport services, but the change has been like night and day.
Please share him with the rest of us.