M&M Bankruptcy
 

I heard that M&M are facing Bankruptcy and business will end Thursday.

So it's goodbye to considerably cheaper fares :( Thanks M&M. Your buses was crap but the service was impeccable, you got me to work on time unlike Lancashire United of whom I would never rely upon again to get me anywhere on time.

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That is sad.
You are right Rob, the buses were old and rickety, but the drivers were always pleasant and helpful and they were always reliable.

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The buses were a real heap, but the drivers n service were very good,Will be missed by many.

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M and M go off the road at noon on Thursday .

Pilkingtons will operate the service I use mostly (Barnfield/Laneside) from Friday morning .

And they are retaining Geoff the regular driver for this route ......a driver who is a friend to the passengers , courteous and helpful .

Let's hope the same happens with the other M and M routes .

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Lots of older people in Clayton used these buses and the drivers were always friendly.....many of them greeting the passengers by first names.
The blackburn bus company might have swish new buses, but they still have the sour faced miserable drivers. They could do with some lessons in Customer relations from the drivers of the M&M buses.
I hope the Drivers from the M&M services will find jobs with Pilkingtons(whos e drivers are head and shoulders above the BBC(Blackburn Bus Co).

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is that the same Pilkington who had his operators licence revoked a few years ago?
Not being a bus user I wasn't aware Pilkington ran buses anymore.

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My mum & stepdad are regulars on the M & M service from Clayton, the only bus service they have without having to walk quite a distance from where they live & are really upset about this.
Not only at losing the service but as others have said the friendliness, helpfulness & reliability of the drivers.

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Update : Apparently Pilky's are going to be carrying on the Clayton service from Friday, only 1 an hour reduced from the half hourly one they had with M & M but much appreciated news all the same

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Yeah I was told that about the Clayton route. Known the driver since I was a little kid getting ice cream from him :D

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You can't just hit and run with that R,Was this chap also your local ice cream van driver? :D

Does anybody know why this company went bankrupt?
To be honest ,M&M didnt have USB ports,wifi or fancy blue lights lighting up the central isle,they were one step up from a horse and cart.

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Jason they provided a transport service to people who neither want or need USB ports.(I can understand the need for USB ports on some buses - but on short journeys they are not necessary).
Most of the people that used these buses do not need to connected...and I would guess that many of them do not even own a mobile phone/device.
They were friendly, reliable and were customer orientated.
OK, their buses were antiquated, but there are going to be people who will miss the service they provided....and will be poorer and more isolated because of their demise.

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How many goddam bus companies do you have in that town? And whose massive brain fart was it to get rid of Accrington Corporation Transport?

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Would one nationalised bus service not work better or is that no good for those living in rural clayton?

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We had better bus services before de-regulation( or that is my memory of the situation).......and I don't really think that Barnes Square or Sparth Road can be considered rural Jason.

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I agree with you Margaret,
What sort of life do people live if they can't live without a USB port or Wi Fi for a few minutes.
I can understand business people having use for them on train journeys where they have a table and can use the time travelling productively.

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Gremlin, the ladies and gents that used these buses actually talked to one another on the short journeys...they did not spend their time exercising their thumbs, texting or being mesmerised by a small screen.

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Come think of it, hon, "rural" has a nice sound to it. Makes one feel all bucolic. And posh too. Much better folks than those low-lifes that live in a "town.";)

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Talking of "ladies" and "gents", think what a disaster it would be if they ever had wi-fi in the bogs:eek:

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Well I just did an interview for Radio Lancashire. What a garbled mess! But an honest opinion given. :D

Good to hear pilkingtons taking over the route cause my mother stays on the bus from town till it comes back the other way because she doesn't like to cross roads too often

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That is good news, he is a good bloke and many on here will know him

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Thankfully they tactfully edited 3-5 minute interview into a few seconds :hesoff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IVeHWkJtXs

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Thanks Rob.
What you said was spot on.
And the bus driver who said it was a lifeline for many folk...folk who have nop other way of getting out and about.
Very sad, for all concerned.

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The driver is Harry. Many will remember him from 80-2000's doing the ice cream van around Accrington. Known him for around 30 years. We have a good laugh. He went to pilkingtons and they agreed to take on the forts arms run that he's been doing with m&m for several years and gave him the job so a lot of thanks goes out to them. I hope they do the Burnley run that goes through altham cause tons rely on that as I said in the interview because nobody wants to pay for two buses because the transdev/Lancashire united bus just to hare and hounds is £2.50 !

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I am pleased to hear that the Forts Arms service will keep going...there are a few oldies who rely on that service to get into town...and the walk to the end of Sparth Road would probably see'em off.
Glad that Pilkingtons have taken Harry on......they won't be sorry he is a great chap.

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That's exactly the boat that my mum & stepdad are in Margaret & they are very grateful that Pilky's have stepped in, I believe Harry had a lot to do with the decision to keep the Forts Arms route going so good on him.
My stepdad spoke well on the piece North West Tonight did, he was being asked for his autograph all round town this morning :)

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Yep. As stayed above in my post. Good guy is harry. I brought him a model subway train back from London as a random surprise :D


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Thank you for giving us those facts.
I certainly did not know of those punitive regulations.....and I would guess that most people on here didn't know either.
I certainly valued the service provided by M&M.......and as I have said before the drivers really were the tops. They could teach the transdev driver a thing or three.

Bus man, I am glad that you have found a place with Pilky's.
I hope you will be happy and continue to serve the older folk of our communities, because they do value your services.
Without them they would be very isolated and lonely.

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Bus users talking to each other, or are their heads buried in the social media of bygone times?;)

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/wp-cont...ewspapers1.jpg

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Yes, these are young folk in the main on this bus...Older folk have a tendency to talk to one another a bit more.
I would also hazard a guess that this picture is taken in one of the large cities....probably London(ok, I could be wrong).
When I was nine I spent some time in London...I had been taken down there to visit an aunt.
My grandma(who was from Sheffield) talked to people on the buses down there.....some would engage in conversation, others would look at her like they had manure on their top lip.

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Oh, and it doesn't look like a bus to me..It looks like a train( underground, but at an overground location) The seating arrangements on a bus were different to those in the picture.

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If thats a bus, I'm a dutchman.:D Probably in a southern city, were there pig ignorant anyway. lol

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I used the bus yesterday to travel into Accrington bus station.

I work for four hours in the Arndale and parking is only free for three hours.
So easy to walk straight across to the Arndale from the bus.

The big blue bus was clean and smooth. An electronic sign told us which was the next stop and a pre recorded voice announced when we arrived at the bus station and thanked us for using the bus. I even liked the layout of the bus station.
I was pleasantly surprised and now I've finally got a bus pass, 17 years after I could have, I shall use the bus whenever I have a Saturday four hour shift in the Arndale.
But I remembered previous comments on this thread when I looked around and saw five passengers prodding iPhones.
I was told by a customer that the old bus station was now a car park and was very busy so hopefully business's on that side of town won't suffer too much since the bus station closed.

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I have not used the bus station at all.
Yes the old bus station has been turned into a car park but I don't think it has benefitted the shops at that side of town very much.....and when we used the buses from the old station on Peel St. We used to browse the market while we saw the bus coming in(I am pretty sure other folk did the same)..so all that trade is no longer there.
In fact the market on Peel St is almost non existent, except for flea market days.

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That car park i have been informed is for Blue Badge Holders only, also 1 hr is the allowed time? thing is i was not aware and have parked twice and luckily got away with it.

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Not all of it is for blue badge holders and I think it's 2 hours. Did you not check the signs when you parked?

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no neil i was only gonna be around 40 mins max so just assumed i could park ok. dumb ok but thats it.

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That is what the customer told me.

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Fairly sure only a couple of spaces near the church are allocated for Blue Badge holders, the rest is standard parking and is for 2 hours

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Cheers Dave, someone told me a pile of crap it seems, takes a Dingle to put me right.:D

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The parking certainly hasn't done the market any good - its like a ghost town there.

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well its the way thing are with anything to day

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Have a look at Bury Market...and Chorley market seems to be thriving too.
Much of what has happened in Accrington has been because of council (local and county) apathy and neglect....and lack of ideas and action to improve things.
All top dressing, like the costly surface of Broadway.

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aye but those that never move there asses,cant comment on that fact.:rolleyes:

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Now I'm no economist ( my bank statement proves this once a month), however having to keep an amount of money in your accounts against each of your buses surely makes that dead money?
If say I had 3 buses and assuming the figure 3k per bus 9k is tied to the account, you can't use it, so, if one bus blows it's engine and the cost of the replacement is say 5k, that means you can't run 2 of your buses legally because you have to pay for the repair but aren't allowed to because you no longer have 6k in your account even to keep the other two buses even though they may well be roadworthy?
So instead of using perfectly good money that you have, you would be forced to borrow just to keep two thirds of your fleet running.

It seems wrong, perhaps I'm reading it wrong?
[emoji32]

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<b><font color="Blue">Thank you all that have supported M&M on this thread. The company HAS cut corners simply to survive :cool: running the risk of being immediately being taken off the road by the all-powerful Ministry of Transport.<br />
<br />
Did you know that at ANY time, they could check business accounts and if the owner didn't have £3,000? (Not totally sure of the amount but I'm close) in the bank for <b><u>EACH</u></b> bus, they could be fined or have their Operators licenses rescinded?<br />
<br />
That EVERY bus HAS to have the equivalent of an MoT every 6 weeks by an independent mechanic? One day late and points are deducted on their "Traffic light system" GREEN for the good'uns, AMBER for those that need watching and RED for the cowboys. (or those that can't keep up with the costs)<br />
<br />
Up until recently, the council encouraged companies to serve communities that were "non-profitable" by paying them for the service by giving subsidies. A company I worked for 8 years back had a local run which had an average of 50 passes a day plus around £4-00 in cash. This would have generated around £25-00 per day. Deduct wages, maintenance costs and the cost of the vehicle which was bought especially - - - and what have you left without subsidies? DEBT!! Small private commercial companies just cannot absorb these costs.<br />
<br />
M&M were a "local" company that tried it's best but ultimately was beaten by the system! (Did you know that the "skilled" drivers of M&M were on the minimum wage of £7.20???) <br />
<br />
Like Harry, I have been employed by Pilkingtons. :D I had my doubts, Pilkies had a reputation for slapdash maintenance due to action from the Ministry of Transport - - - but I have found that they are very conscious of public safety and have found that happy medium of serving the community and making a small profit.<br />
<br />
Support the local companies, as Tesco's say: Every little helps :D <br />
<br />
</font></b>

Don't know what went wrong was copying this post when I answered above.
Never mind, I'll get the hang of it one day.
😂

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I was trying to figure out what that had to do with buying bus drivers model trains. Long day

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Couldn't agree more, the drivers are really nice and reliable

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Was this the straw that helped to brake the camels back?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.acc...?client=safari

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I hope the insurance company carries out a better investigation than the police.

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I think I read Iqbal, the owner, comments on the police Facebook site and he said he wasn't insured.

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The police site I mentioned above also showed a long video clip from CCTV of the kids crashing the buses.

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Even if he was insured,I don't think they'd pay out due to negligence of leaving the keys to one of the buses accessible.
I hope they find and punish the offenders as soon as,I won't hold my breath though.

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Apprantly,Two lads have handed themselves into police.

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Might sound like a daft question but how is the driver of a bus like that supposed to make his bus safe when he needs to make a toilet visit?

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