‘After what happened in Edinburgh on the same issue we were not surprised by the outcome of the vote on congestion charging for Manchester’, said chairman Gavin Booth. ‘We know car drivers see voting for congestion charging as being like turkeys voting for Christmas. Instead they’ve voted to go on seeing congestion rising and against the means to combat it.’

BUS USERS UK represents bus passengers outside the London area, and has looked on enviously at policies in London which have boosted public transport and curbed the growth of the motorcar. ‘Everyone’s been a winner in London’, says Gavin Booth. ‘Public transport has been transformed and those who really do need to have a car in central London have been able to use it more effectively’.

BUS USERS UK was hopeful of a similar effect in Greater Manchester, where public transport needs a major shot in the arm to become the world-class system that the region deserves — and needs. Now bus users will continue to be delayed by ever-growing traffic congestion — which will delay motorists too — and the much-needed boost to the region’s bus and other public transport services will not now happen.

‘We hoped that for once we would see really far-sighted transport improvements in a great British provincial city that could act as a beacon for the rest of the country’, said Gavin Booth. ‘Instead the struggle for mobility will get harder for all sections of society, and that includes people in cars as well as those of us using buses, trams and trains.’