Transport for Greater Manchester

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating public transport services throughout Greater Manchester, in North West England. The organisation traces its origins to the Transport Act 1968, when the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was established to co-ordinate public transport in and around Manchester. Between 1974 and 2011 this body was known as the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (abbreviated GMPTE), until a reformation of local government arrangements in Greater Manchester granted the body more powers and prompted a corporate rebranding. The strategies and policies of Transport for Greater Manchester are set by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its Transport for Greater Manchester Committee.

Operating with powers comparable to Transport for London, Transport for Greater Manchester is responsible for investments in improving transport services and facilities, and supporting the largest regional economy outside London. It is the executive arm of the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee (the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority between 1974 and 2011) which funds and makes policies for TfGM. The authority is made up of 33 councillors appointed from the ten Greater Manchester districts (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan).

Services
Infrastructure and services owned and/or operated by TfGM include:


 * Manchester Metrolink - tram system operational in 1992. Entirely subsidised by TfGM without a government grant and operated by RATP Group. Carries over 25 million passengers a year. With 105 stations by 2016 it will be the largest local transport network in the United Kingdom after London Underground. Further expansion to Port Salford and Stockport is envisaged.
 * Altrinhcam-Bury Line
 * Altrincham-Piccadilly Line
 * Bury-Ashton Line
 * Didsbury-Rochdale Line
 * Eccles-Piccadilly Line
 * MediaCity-Cornbrook Line


 * Metroshuttle - launched 2002, free bus service around Manchester city centre. New services were provided in Bolton, Oldham and Stockport after success of the service in Manchester.


 * Rail services
 * Subsidised fares on certain local services
 * Funding for station refurbishments on an ad hoc basis


 * Bus services (provided by private operators - First Greater Manchester, Stagecoach Manchester, Arriva North West, Bluebird, JPT, Maytree Travel and Rossendalebus. )
 * Subsidised fares on certain services
 * System One travelcards
 * Maintenance of bus shelters and stations
 * Shudehill Interchange Coach Station


 * Road
 * Greater Manchester Urban Traffic Control Unit (GMUTC) - responsibility for road management transferred to TfGM in 2009. Entails installation, maintenance and management of traffic signals, road safety, incident response and event management via a traffic control centre.

SELNEC PTE


The organisation which later became TfGM was originally created in 1969 by the Transport Act 1968. At the time the conurbation surrounding Manchester was divided between the two administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire and a number of county boroughs (e.g. Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Bolton). Because of this, the executive was originally known as the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive, SELNEC standing for 'South East Lancashire North East Cheshire', a joint authority of the various local councils.

The South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Area was defined as:


 * (a) the county boroughs of the Cities of Manchester and Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport;
 * (b) so much of the administrative county of the County Palatine of Chester as is comprised in the following county districts or parts of such districts, that is to say
 * (i) the boroughs of Altrincham, Dukinfield, Hyde, Sale and Stalybridge;
 * (ii) the urban districts of Alderley Edge, Bowdon, Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hale, Hazel Grove and Bramhall, Longdendale, Marple and Wilmslow;
 * (iii) the rural districts of Disley and Tintwistle;
 * (iv) so much of the rural district of Bucklow as is comprised in the following parishes: Carrington, Partington and Ringway;
 * (v) so much of the rural district of Macclesfield as is comprised in the parish of Poynton-with-Worth;
 * (c) so much of the administrative county of Derby as is comprised in the borough of Glossop;
 * (d) so much of the administrative county of the County Palatine of Lancaster as is comprised in the following county districts, that is to say
 * (i) the boroughs of Ashton-under-Lyne, Eccles, Farnworth, Heywood, Leigh, Middleton, Mossley, Prestwich, Radcliffe, Stretford and Swinton and Pendlebury;
 * (ii) the urban districts of Atherton, Audenshaw, Chadderton, Crompton, Denton, Droylsden, Failsworth, Horwich, Irlam, Kearsley, Lees, Little-borough, Little Lever, Milnrow, Ramsbottom, Royton, Tottington, Turton, Tyldesley, Urmston, Wardle, Westhoughton, Whitefield, Whitworth and Worsley;
 * (e) so much of the administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire as is comprised in the urban district of Saddleworth.

From 1 November 1969 the PTE took over the bus fleets of 11 municipalities, and operationally, the organisation was split into 3 divisional areas, Northern, Central, and Southern
 * Manchester Corporation (1,250 vehicles) 
 * Salford Corporation (271 vehicles) 
 * Bolton Corporation (249 vehicles) 
 * Oldham Corporation (180 vehicles) 
 * Stockport Corporation (145 vehicles) 
 * Rochdale Corporation (130 vehicles) 
 * Bury Corporation (96 vehicles) 
 * Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield Transport & Electricity Board 
 * Ashton-under-Lyne Corporation (60 vehicles)
 * Leigh Corporation (57 vehicles) 
 * Ramsbottom Urban District Council (12 vehicles) 

SELNEC branded its fleet with its corporate orange and white livery and the 'S' logo. The 'S' logo was coloured differently in each division, blue for Central, magenta for Northern, and green for Southern. For corporate operations, the parcel operations (inherited from Manchester), and the coaching fleet, the 'S' logo was in orange



In the early 1970s, SELNEC began to promote a project to construct an underground railway beneath central Manchester, the Picc-Vic tunnel. The scheme aimed to link the two main railway stations, Piccadilly and Victoria with a tunnel. The project was eventually cancelled on grounds of cost.

On 1 January 1972, SELNEC PTE acquired from the National Bus Company subsidiary North Western Road Car buses, services and depots in Altrincham, Glossop, Oldham, Stockport and Urmston. The corporate orange and white livery was applied, with the 'S' logo in brown and the name "Cheshire". (Most of the NWRCC operations bought by Selnec were in the old county of Cheshire).

Greater Manchester PTE
When the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 the executive was renamed to GMPTE, with the county council replacing the joint transport authority. The public branding applied to buses and signage used the shorter name Greater Manchester Transport, displayed in upper and lower case helvetica letters next to a distinctive orange double 'M' logo. The logo, first seen around 1974, is still in use today on bus stops and transport information literature, but is being gradually replaced on the former across Greater Manchester by rebranded bus stop flags displaying the new TfGM logo. The PTE also acquired the bus operations of Wigan Corporation with 130 vehicles. Further expansion saw the acquisition of Warburton's Coaches in November 1975 and Lancashire United Transport and Godfrey Abbot in January 1976.

Following the abolition of the Greater Manchester County Council in 1986, a new Passenger Transport Authority was created to administer the GMPTE, made up of councillors from the Greater Manchester district councils.

In February 2011, the Daily Telegraph reported that David Leather, chief executive of the Passenger Transport Executive, was being paid £45,000 a month, and Bob Morris, interim chief operating officer, was getting a six-figure salary. Because they were seconded staff, rather than being employees, they were supposedly not covered by the government demand that the pay of any public-sector employee earning more than the Prime Minister should be disclosed.

Branding
To add to printed material and logos etched in glass on the side of bus shelters, GMPTE began a programme of adding their 'double M' logo to 101 railway station nameboards, train rolling stock livery, bus sides and some 'totem' pole signs outside rail stations in the area during the 1990s. This idea was later extended to a full re-design of the bus stop flag in 2000, (used first on primary bus routes, now extended to the entire GMPTE area) resulting in a unified corporate appearance containing the 'double M' logo on bus, train and tram stops. With more bus stops, railway stations, bus stations and tram stops than any other PTE in the UK outside the capital, the 'double-M' logo is arguably the third most used UK transport logo after the London Transport 'roundel' and the British Railways double arrow.

Transport Innovation Fund
GMPTE and the GMPTA worked with the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to produce a bid for monies from the Transport Innovation Fund. Within the bid were proposals to introduce Congestion charging in Greater Manchester. They claimed the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund would have significantly improve public transport in the area funded by charging motorists entering the city at peak times. A consultation document was sent out to residents during July 2008. In December 2008, a local referendum voted no to the proposals.

TfGM is developing an ITSO compliant smartcard known as Get me there.

Deregulation and privatisation of bus services
In order to prepare for bus deregulation, the PTE's bus operations passed to Greater Manchester Buses Limited (trading as GM Buses) in October 1986. The company was owned at "arm's length" by the PTE, and had to compete in the deregulated market. In preparation for privatisation, the company was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South on 31 December 1993. Both companies were sold to their managements on 31 March 1994, and sold on to major groups in 1996: GM Buses South to Stagecoach in February, GM Buses North to First Group in March.

Transport for Greater Manchester
On 1 April 2011 the GMPTE became Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), a new regional transport body for Greater Manchester{{Cite web | title=Draft LTP3 Consultation Proposals | url=http://www.gmita.gov.uk/download/3152/item_