Consequent upon an alteration of fares...
At the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester it's easy to focus on the big, shiny buses: but the many thousands of smaller artefacts that we have are just as effective in telling stories.
This particular item - a humble 'window bill' meant to be stuck to the inside of a bus window for just a couple of weeks - tells two stories, just in this one ephemeral piece of paper.
The first is the fares increase. From a high point about 1950, passenger numbers declined - driven by the growth of private motor cars, and fewer journeys for entertainment at cinemas and theatres as television took hold. And this was happening at the same time as full employment put pressure on wages - pressure to raise staff wages that bus operators couldn't meet with revenue declining. So companies were forced to ask the Traffic Commissioners for fare increases; which, every time, drove more people to buy cars; which reduced revenue; which meant another fare increase, starting the downwards cycle again.
In the Greater Manchester area, bus services were provided by an interlocking network of local bus operators, with many joint services. So if one operator raised fares, all operators running joint services with them had to raise some of their fares too. So this poster about fares increases on Lancashire United buses isn't even on a Lancashire United bus - it's on a bus that operated services jointly with that company.
But whose bus was it on? That's the other part of the story. On 1 November 1969, eleven municipal bus operators were merged into a new Passenger Transport Executive - serving South East Lancashire & North East Cheshire, thankfully abbreviated to SELNEC.
Given that the fare increase was from 1 December, it's fair to assume that this poster appeared in early November, literally days after SELNEC was created. Now, this poster was on a bus that SELNEC had inherited from Salford City Transport, and printed by Salford's usual printing contractor, and very much in Salford's preferred graphic style - with 'Salford City Transport' at the top replaced by a rather clumsy rendition of the SELNEC title. Things settled down and eventually SELNEC's graphic design style became much better and part of its strong identity. But it took time, and this poster shows a very hesitant start.
If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.
Consequent upon an alteration of fares...
At the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester it's easy to focus on the big, shiny buses: but the many thousands of smaller artefacts that we have are just as effective in telling stories.
This particular item - a humble 'window bill' meant to be stuck to the inside of a bus window for just a couple of weeks - tells two stories, just in this one ephemeral piece of paper.
The first is the fares increase. From a high point about 1950, passenger numbers declined - driven by the growth of private motor cars, and fewer journeys for entertainment at cinemas and theatres as television took hold. And this was happening at the same time as full employment put pressure on wages - pressure to raise staff wages that bus operators couldn't meet with revenue declining. So companies were forced to ask the Traffic Commissioners for fare increases; which, every time, drove more people to buy cars; which reduced revenue; which meant another fare increase, starting the downwards cycle again.
In the Greater Manchester area, bus services were provided by an interlocking network of local bus operators, with many joint services. So if one operator raised fares, all operators running joint services with them had to raise some of their fares too. So this poster about fares increases on Lancashire United buses isn't even on a Lancashire United bus - it's on a bus that operated services jointly with that company.
But whose bus was it on? That's the other part of the story. On 1 November 1969, eleven municipal bus operators were merged into a new Passenger Transport Executive - serving South East Lancashire & North East Cheshire, thankfully abbreviated to SELNEC.
Given that the fare increase was from 1 December, it's fair to assume that this poster appeared in early November, literally days after SELNEC was created. Now, this poster was on a bus that SELNEC had inherited from Salford City Transport, and printed by Salford's usual printing contractor, and very much in Salford's preferred graphic style - with 'Salford City Transport' at the top replaced by a rather clumsy rendition of the SELNEC title. Things settled down and eventually SELNEC's graphic design style became much better and part of its strong identity. But it took time, and this poster shows a very hesitant start.
If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.