Manchester Airport.

As from March the greedy fuckers are going to charge passengers £1 ( non-refundable ) to use a trolley to carry their luggage.

The greedy twats have used the excuse that it has cost them £1 million to buy new trolleys and it will cost the airport £600,000 per annum to maintain the service. They claim that it will not disrupt the vast majority of passengers because they carried out a survey and discovered that only 5% of passengers travelling through the airport actually use a trolley, the rest all have modern suitcases with wheels on.

Who the fcuk are they trying to kid ? The reason only 5% use trolleys is because they don't have enough fcuking trolleys to start with. Once the 5% have got their trolleys there are fuck all left for the remaining 95% of us.

Next time I go to the airport I will handcuff myself to a trolley in protest to teach the greedy arrogant bastards a lesson.

To be fair why would anyone need a trolly at Manchester Airport nowadays as after being dropped off , as soon as you walk through the door you are at the check-in desks - not as if you can go any further, either, nowadays as all shops etc are now beyond Passport Control - now sealed off from non-travelling public. The same goes for arrivals as soon as you pick luggage up and out the doors you are being picked up.

Dropped off/picked up means either bus for the Long Stay Car Parks, taxis or family members. Even if using the train to/from teh airport there are travelators between Terminals 1 and 2.

The only pathetic system is having to walk on the outside to get to Terminal 3 (and possibly the only reason to use a trolley at the airport)from Terminal 1, when using the train or bus.

Oh and btw, I do actually get a 1st class ticket from the airport to Bolton - not bad for just over 7 quid, with a free scone and drink! Plus hate sitting with the riff-raff element going through some dodgy stations on that route!

Its just another way of them making money. Belfast International Airport charge £1 to pickup/drop off so unless you walk out of the airport ground you pay. My stepdad picked me up the last time I arrived home and threw the quid into the money catcher thingy, he missed and had to get out of the car to pick it up. Lying on the ground was about 6quid, people obviously are too lazy to get out of the car if they miss. The same airport has recently opened a smoking area and charge you a quid to let you access it.

Spudulika wrote:Its just another way of them making money. Belfast International Airport charge £1 to pickup/drop off so unless you walk out of the airport ground you pay. My stepdad picked me up the last time I arrived home and threw the quid into the money catcher thingy, he missed and had to get out of the car to pick it up. Lying on the ground was about 6quid, people obviously are too lazy to get out of the car if they miss. The same airport has recently opened a smoking area and charge you a quid to let you access it.

I would imagine the smoking area will turn over a tidy profit.

71, I didn't know you could fly from Manchester to Bolton, and for just 7 quid ! Tell me the name of the Bolton airport, and I'll see if I can fly up from Gloucester airport

It's clearly Bolton Central Airport.

gloswhite wrote:71, I didn't know you could fly from Manchester to Bolton, and for just 7 quid ! Tell me the name of the Bolton airport, and I'll see if I can fly up from Gloucester airport

By train, of course, from Manny Airport to Bolton Trinity Street. My usual flight price between Schipol and Manny is normally around EUR100 with KLM.

Ah ! Thats some trip. How often do you make that?

At moment , with current job, I fly over once a week (as having to visit both London and Manchester offices, as well as the A-dam office). But family visits I try to fly over about 2 or 3 times a year - or when there is a big birthday (you know the ones with a 0 at the end ;-) ).

Surprised you get time to squeeze a match in on that ! Although the important factor is the travelling at each end of the flight, and as you say, its pretty good at this end. A true fan indeed !

Actually the travelling from my home to Schipol is far better than from Manchestr Airport to Bolton.. Where I live I have 4 trains an hour (basically every 15 minutes) going through the airport whereas from Manchester Airport yo Bolton there are 3 trains an hour (on the hour, 10 past the hour and 25 past the hour!!!) But saying that in general public transport in Holland is far far far superior to what can be classed as public transport back in the UK (excluding London as they have different laws to the rest of the UK for public transport).

Having lived in Germany, on the Dutch/German border for 3 years (in the Army), and having just come back from a week in Germany, (German/French border), I find just about all services are better in Europe, but having said that, I think the governments subsidise them more than ours, and of course the public don't abuse and damage the people or equipment as much as we seem to.

In fact, here in Holland, they seemed to have followed the "London" route of privatisation of the public transport network as its all franchised out.

Such as both inter-city bus routes and the town bus routes in Almere are franchised to Connexxion, whereas in Lelystad the inter-city bus routes are Connexxion whereas the town routes are Arriva. Same in Amsterdam where the city routes are GVB, inter-city routes that travel into the city via south and east roads are Connexxion, and North and west roads are operated by Arriva.

The rail franchise is more simpler than the UK in that there is one company for the trains, rail infrastructure and station upkeeps (or building of new stations and new lines) - unlike in the UK where there is railtrack for the infrastructure, 3 train leasing companies and then various other companies for the upkeep of theinfrastructure - and only 3 companies operating the trains (NS, Arriva and another one) and the tenders last 20 years and not between 8 and 12 like in UK and the numerous companies involved in operating the trains (Virgin, Midland, NS-Northern Rail, Arriva, East Coast etc... Even Bolton has more train operating companies going through it than anywhere in Europe - being NS Northern Rail, First Transpennine and Central trains )

in that case I haven't a clue why their services should run better than ours, although the fragmentation of ours does mean that the governance of them should be strict, and obviously isn't.

BWFC71, Have you ever come across this geezer while travelling on trams in Amsterdam ?

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Nope, but I have seen him on sky sports and RTL7! Must admit, I just normally get on the tram, flash my OV-Chipkaart (to Londoners think Oyster card) at the machine and sit down, don't really look at anyone.

Cornelius ( Co ) Stompe was an Amsterdam tram driver before he turned professional and Raymond van Baarneveld was a postman.