Overheard an 80 year old lady extolling the wonders of the new bus pass by recounting the detail of a trip she had made with a friend: And then we had to get on the tram to go to ….
Oh, said her friend, but isn’t yours a Derbyshire pass?
Our passes are valid only for buses in Manchester; we do not share the added benefit of free travel on trams & local trains which local residents get
The couple on the bus ended up by deciding that since the name of the local authority is writ quite small on the pass, “It must be difficult to see, so best not to point it out”
Actually it is a bit more complicated than that. Our passes used to be Derbyshire passes, but now they carry just the name of the district council (something to do with the new funding arrangements). Manchester passes are issued to residents of the whole of Greater Manchester (the Metropolitan County as was, before Mrs Thatcher abolished it along with the GLC); I have not examined one closely, but if they are labelled only with the name of the district, then tram & train operators who need to inspect them would need to be not only keen-sighted but also to have a very secure knowledge of the names of all the districts which make up Greater Manchester
