Developments
The launch of the FTR in York generated almost saturation coverage in the local media. On 10 May 2006 The Press devoted four full pages to it, including its front page and a double page spread of 12 readers' letters, almost all of them hostile. The next day the paper published a defence of the vehicles' teething problems by First York's commercial director, accompanied by another five hostile letters. Another full-page article appeared two days later, and this was followed by national press coverage. On 17 May 2006, councillor Ann Reid was quoted as saying "The majority seem to have come from those who don't live on the route or certainly don't even catch the bus". The student press criticised the Ftr's. Student anger was particularly directed at the price of tickets on the Ftr, which increased by 20% in 2008 for a single ticket from campus into town. The price problem was resolved when the students' union negotiated a £2 student price for a return ticket from the campus to town.
FirstGroup is presently the only large UK transport company promoting such vehicles, with major operators such as Stagecoach and Lothian Buses preferring to avoid the additional outlay involved in procuring the Streetcar-type bus and instead purchase a larger number of conventional single and double deckers for fleet renewal and upgrading.
Some transport planners believe that the complaints are an expression of general middle class hostility towards public transport. Some industry sources believe that FTR projects may be being used by the government as a cheap alternative to light rail.
Read more about this topic: FTR (bus)
Famous quotes containing the word developments:
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)
“I don’t wanna live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light.
Freedom from labor itself is not new; it once belonged among the most firmly established privileges of the few. In this instance, it seems as though scientific progress and technical developments had been only taken advantage of to achieve something about which all former ages dreamed but which none had been able to realize.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)