Amidst all the hullabaloo related to bus fares taking place at the moment, we kinda lost sight of Transport for Greater Manchester – the new name for Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, which came into effect today. No: it’s not an April Fool and we really do say goodbye to GMPTE and hello to TfGM.
Like its London counterpart, there’ll be some new responsibilities for road safety, managing traffic lights and signals, and coordinating roadworks. There’s a new-but-familiar logo as well: the old “M-blem” which has served the PTE for over 35 years is retained in a revised format (above), monochrome with rounded edges. TfGM say they’ll only replace the old GMPTE logos on stops and stations as and when they need replacing, which is just as well given that there are around 12,300 bus stops in Greater Manchester alone.
Other than that it’s very much business as usual, though we may have to start a “GMPTE box” to deposit 50p every time we forget to use the new acronym in favour of the old one.
Manchester Transport blog 
hehe. Not sure I’ll be able to get over calling it Gumpty. TfGM doesn’t have the same ring to it. It isn’t even as easy as TfL to say.
Phew, relieved to see that I’m not the only one that reads “GMPTE” as “gumpty”! 😛
Lets face it
the mass public still think its all
”GM Buses”……………….!”
At least we still have Jim Eater in overall charge…
…….*sigh*
This strikes me as a bad idea on several levels.
1) Having one logo and name on most bus stops and stations then calling yourself something different on websites, travel shops et. al is confusing.
2) The new logo is awful. It looks like someone just faxed through the old one and they went with it.
3) It’s a bit of a mouthful.
Really don’t see why the logo needed to change at all, just the name, because it looked a lot sleeker. I can’t get over how amateur this new logo is.
Danny, I think that cost has something to do with this. The old logo was always in the reddish-maroon(?) colour on all their signs, documentation and correspondance and the idea is to keep all these in black from now on, as and when replacements are needed.
Logo change is for legal reasons – due to the new responsibilities, a completely new identity was needed – so new name and new logo.
Speak for yourself Danny, I think the new logo looks pretty nice. The old double-M looks a bit tatty and 1970s if you ask me. It hasn’t aged half as well as the much older roundel.
Another case of “keeping up with the Jones’s”.
Someone realised “Transport for London” looked catchy and thought “we’d like a piece of that…..we’ll all be as trendy as Boris’s lot”!!!!!!
I’ve started referring to TfGM as “Tee-Gem”.
I love the 1970s M-blem, it still stands up well today and stood the test of time better than the SELNEC lazy S before then.
This new name is already causing a modicum of confusion. There are two similarly named bodies:-
(1) Transport for Greater Manchester……………………..TfGM
(2) Transport for Greater Manchester Committee…..TfGMC
Has anyone any further instancies?
GMPTE = TfGM
GMITA=TfGMC
Pingback: The Number 1 bus stop in Greater Manchester | Manchester Transport
Saw that old Mancunian on George St. last Saturday. (Telford bus Group one) Had hard time convincing my Thai wife it was an old manchester bus.!!!!
The TFGM “buses update” shows that the GO1 run from Sale to Altrincham by Go Goodwins will be withdrawn on 26th June. The TfGM had printed 2000 copies of this timetable dated 4 April and it had the new TfGM logo at the foot of the leaflet.
I have had the computer engineer in to service my HP Tower system and it appears that some of my links have vanished.
My e-mail address in paulsidorczuk@btinternet.com.
Can you e-mail me to see if I am still on the WORDPRESS site for Manchester Transport, On trains and buses, East of the M60, etc.