Pledge to get young people on public transport

Transport bosses in Greater Manchester have promised to do more to encourage children and teenagers to use public transport.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) has launched a new three-year plan designed to get more young people travelling on buses, trains and trams.

Councillor Keith Whitmore, Chairman of GMPTA’s Policy committee, said: “We want young people to get into the habit of using public transport from a young age so they continue to use it as adults.

“We’ve already provided cheaper travel for children, introduced Yellow School Buses and set up two unique websites targeted at children and teenagers. Over the next three years, we’ll be developing new schemes to encourage young people to travel on public transport.

“We’ll look in detail at success stories in other parts of the country so that we can make services affordable, convenient and easy to use for young people in Greater Manchester.”
A recent survey of more than 200 children and teenagers at 15 Greater Manchester schools found that having cheaper fares was their biggest priority for improvement, followed by safety and security, and the cleanliness of vehicles.

Earlier this year, GMPTA introduced a new £6 weekly ticket on 55 school bus services in Greater Manchester, cutting the cost of school travel by £1 a week.

The ticket is on sale in newsagents, supermarkets and garages with the PayPoint sign, as well as from GMPTE Travelshops. A full list of the shops is available online:

www.paypoint.co.uk/locator

GMPTA also pays for Yellow School Buses to take more than 2,000 pupils to and from 22 schools every day. Children who travel on the buses sit in the same seats every day, have regular drivers, and have to sign up to a code of conduct.

Children can find out more about public transport in Greater Manchester on a specially designed website: 

www.dingding.org.uk
Information for teenagers is also available:

www.goto.org.uk