I COULDN'T agree more with your headline on Mrs B. Briggs' letter: "Buses: still a lot to do" (Yours Truly, Dec 13).
Greater Manchester Passenger Authority is aiming to achieve a fully integrated, accessible, reliable and comfortable public transport system, but I am under no illusion that this can be achieved overnight. The only way we will achieve it, in fact, is by addressing all areas of the passenger journey such as information, the waiting environment, bus priority and the bus services themselves. That is why I cannot agree with Mrs Briggs' statement: "It is not maps that we need".
The Authority is working in partnership with all the organisations in Greater Manchester who are involved in delivering public transport services, to improve all aspects of the passenger journey. A key part of this work is making information better, easier to understand and more widely available and the new network maps are just one of the many ways in which we are doing this. While I fully agree that we need more accessible vehicles, this does not mean that other aspects of the bus journey are not important.
Mrs Briggs also implies that the number of accessible services in the Bury area is decreasing, which is far from being the case.
Prior to 1994, when the Authority started offering grants to operators to buy low-floor buses, the only access available to wheelchair-users was via a lift on a very limited number of services. Now, more than 30 per cent of the buses in Greater Manchester are low-floor and all new buses coming into operation are required to be accessible to wheelchair users.
There is still a long way to go, but Mrs Briggs asks: "Will we ever achieve a service which is acceptable to all?" I believe the answer is yes, Mrs Briggs, we will.
COUNCILLOR
WINSTON RAMSEY,
Bury spokesman,
Greater Manchester PTA.
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