Bus Week: Don’t Be A BEEP!

Published on 28 October 2011 in Transport, bus deregulation, buses, politics

Rumours that this Bus Week series was just a flimsy excuse to show pictures of old buses dressed up as a study of politics and the way it was applied to public transport are, frankly, unjust and uncalled for.

Mostly. Cos I can’t deny that this final Bus Week post basically is an excuse to show an old bus photograph, taken from flickr. And boy are there a lot of photographs of old buses on flickr. But whilst you’re admiring this picture of a Bee Line Buzz Company bus, in awe at how shabby it looks, take a look at the advert on it.

“Don’t be a BEEP. Get the bus”.

The slogan was briefly used as part of a combined marketing campaign by the various bus companies of Greater Manchester and, as a kid, I used to think it was dead clever. Indeed, and I’ve absolutely no idea how, but I even managed to have a poster of it in my bedroom at one point.

Yes, yes. I was a bit obsessed by buses as a kid. Not very cool I know.

I’ve moved on since. Now I have a large selection of geeky random tube facts lodged in my head instead. And of course, as everyone knows, that is cool. Well geeky cool anyway.

Bus week certainly wasn’t about reliving my childhood though. I don’t have a car so public transport really matters to me, as it does for many people. Deregulation affected public transport in a huge way and that’s a valid topic for exploration.

The fact that it’s also enabled me to go on a huge nostalgia trip of when I used to ride the vehicles of Pennine Blue, Bee Line and Stuarts is, frankly neither here, nor there.