Manchester Buses

Traffic Commissioner "cuts 9 from Speedwellbus fleet"

According to a brief note on Glossop.com's front page at present, Tameside operator Speedwellbus has got into a spot of bother with the Traffic Commissioner. The note reads:

The Traffic Commissioners held a public enquiry (sic) into the school bus provision at Glossopdale Community College at Golborne, Warrington on Tuesday (June 30). The Deputy Traffic Commissioner decided against the company (Speedwellbus), and curtailed the fleet to 28 vehicles (from 37). He also issued a formal warning with various undertakings. These will be disclosed by the Deputy Traffic Commissioner "at a later date". The Vehicle Operator Services Agency had conducted an investigation and a vehicle examiner carried out a visit to the service provider in December 2008 and marked his report "unsatisfactory".

If true, this will be a blow to the operator, due to start a new commercial service between Hey Farm and Manchester next month. It will be interesting to see what offenses Speedwellbus are accused of. We'll bring you more when we get it.

[Thanks to Anthony E. McKeown]

Stagecoach launch smartcard ticket machines, summer timetable

If you've boarded a Stagecoach Manchester bus this week, chances are you've noticed the new ticket machines many of their vehicles now sport. The new machines currently spit out tiny tickets as it appears the company's logo is yet to be programmed into them. What's more interesting is that the top of the machines feature a contactless smartcard reader.

While there's no official word of Stagecoach launching a smartcard scheme, the fact that the readers are in place means it's likely we'll be seeing something soon. Indeed, Gradyn Thompson, General Manager of the Greater Manchester Bus Operators Association recently predicted a local operator would have the technology in use within three years, and he should know!

Meanwhile, Stagecoach have announced their summer timetable for Greater Manchester. From the 19th of July many services will have revised times during Monday to Friday peak periods. Most journey times will be shorter thanks to the quieter summer roads. Additionally some permanent changes have been announced.

50 (East Didsbury - Manchester) Evening frequency increased from every 20 minutes to every 15.

191 (Stockport - Manchester) Revised afternoon times

197 (Stockport - Manchester) Revised afternoon times

201 (Manchester- Hattersley) Revised Saturday timetable

203 (Manchester - Stockport) Revised Saturday timetable

231 (Manchester - Ashton-under-Lyne) Revised timetable to improve reliability

330 (Stockport - Ashton-under-Lyne) Revised timetable with extra early morning journeys and an additional Mon-Sat late journey from Stockport to Ashton.

377 (Woodford - Stockport) Now runs schooldays only.

X57 (Woodford - Manchester Limited Stop) Minor changes to improve reliability.

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

Manchester bus operators on Facebook

A post on Omnibuses yesterday discussed First Group's only foray into Social Media, a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page for Bath bus station, closing next week due to spending cuts. After we'd stopped laughing at the idea of closing down one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing and customer service during a recession, it got us wondering about use of Social Media amongst Manchester's bus operators. Was there anyone doing it?

It turns out we didn't have long to wait to find out. In the city centre yesterday we noticed that JPT have started painting a Facebook logo by the door of their buses, with text telling passengers to "Become a fan of Jpt Bus Company".

The JPT Facebook page, currently at 112 fans is quite lively for such a small operator. Only a few people (presumably mainly staff) contribute to the Wall, with photos of new vehicles and company related chat going on. What's more, they're operating a "Become a fan of our Facebook Page and receive a Complimentary £10.00 Weekly Ticket valid on ALL JPT Buses" offer.

JPT are certainly approaching Social Media the right way - open, relaxed, conversational. We'd love to see them on Twitter too. They're not the only Greater Manchester operator with a Facebook presence either. An unofficial Bluebird group, run by one of their drivers can be found by searching Facebook for "BlueBird Buses, Middleton". Similarly there's a semi-official "Jim Stones Coaches" group and an unofficial "South Lancs Travel" group, currently sitting at just 6 members. These can all be found by search ing Facebook.

It would be great to see more operators launch a Social Media presence and open an easy channel of communication with their passengers.

[Thanks to Ian Roberts for help compiling this list]

'Transport geek' councilor gets dream job, pledges to improve bus network

Regular readers of Manchester Buses will recognise Councilor Keith Whitmore. He's been a Councilor for 30 years and has popped up at pretty much every press photocall for GMPTE in recent memory. No matter where it is, Keith will be there grinning for the camera.

There's more to Keith though. He's a Director of Manchester Museum of Transport and Greater Manchester Accessible Transport and is Chair of Heaton Park Tramway Committee too. It's probably fair to say, in the nicest possible way, that Keith is a transport geek.

What's the dream job for a transport geek? Why, Chair of GMITA of course! This is the top job in Greater Manchester transport and today Keith stepped into the role. He replaces Trafford councilor Matt Colledge.

It's an exciting time to take the top post at GMITA. With Metrolink expansion currently underway and big plans for improving the region's transport network on the table, there's a lot to think about. Right now, Keith says, he's going to concentrate on dealing with overcrowding on the region's trains and, more importantly for us here at Manchester Buses, developing "a new way of working with bus operators – based on binding partnerships and a quality charter". 

These type of agreements have a rocky history. Similar agreements between First and SYPTE in South Yorkshire fell apart due to the transport equivalent of the 'musical differences' that break up rock bands. Keith is, however, upbeat. "We hope (this) will deliver significantly improved services across the county".

The future of Manchester's buses - the operators' view

We often hear about what the local authorities want for the future of the region's public transport but what about the bus operators? Gradyn Thompson, General Manager of the Greater Manchester Bus Operators Association (GMBOA) has been speaking to Bus & Coach about their ideas for improving our bus network.

Among the nuggets he imparted were:

• GMBOA is keen to improve the bus service for passengers but is realistic about the plans currently on the table. "Politicians want to see improvements... They want tangible evidence that things are moving forward on routes and frequencies. If these improvements focus on delivering tangible and affordable passenger benefits then the bus operators will be very supportive, but there isn’t a blank cheque from either the government or the operators to fund unrealistic political aspirations.”

• An Oyster-style single all-operator smartcard isn't likely in the near future due the number of differnet companies collecting revenue in deregulated bus market - a problem that doesn't affect London. Thompson does, however, predict that at least one operator will have their own smartcard system within the next three years. Seeing as First's Bradford operation has been using smartcards for payment for a decade there's no reason why this couldn't be realistic.

• GMBOA welcomes the idea of cross-city bus routes but Thompson points out that work may have to be done to ensure buses can get through the city centre quickly and easily.

• Despite the TIF bid failing, it improved relations between operators and policy makers. "“There's now a better spirit of partnership than there has ever been", he says.

You can read the full interview here.

[Thanks to James McCollom]

Bus punctuality down to 69%

Okay, we admit it - we used to look at things like bus punctuality figures in search of a story but they always stayed roughly the same so we gave up. Good job someone else has kept looking. The Manchester Evening News' David Ottewell has perused GMITA documents and found that in the first three months of this year bus punctuality fell by 15% to just 69%.

What's gone wrong? Nothing springs to mind from the start of the year that would have led to such a drop. The current water mains works that are causing big diversions in Manchester city centre must be affecting the current Quarter's punctuality but there was nothing of that scale earlier in the year.

Have you noticed buses being less punctual this year? In our experience punctuality feels to be better this year than last. It will be interesting to see how Q2's figures are affected by the water mains works.

Stunning Transpeak fire images

When a Trent Barton vehicle set off for its duties on the TP (Nottingham - Manchester) service on Friday afternoon there could have been no way way of knowing that it would never return. At 2pm, in the Derbyshire village of Ashford-in-the-Water it caught fire in spectacular fashion. Thankfully, no-one was hurt.

A Transport of Delight and the Matlock Mercury both have photos that are well worth a look.

Competition returns to Ashton New Road

Ashton New Road used to be a highly competitive corridor for bus operators in Manchester. Just a few years ago Stagecoach, Dennis's and Mayne all offered frequent services between Manchester, Droylsden and Ashton-under-Lyne. Now Stagecoach have absorbed the competition and aside from a handful of tendered evening and Sunday journeys, the big Scottish operator is now king in that part of the region.

That's not the case for much longer though. Speedwell Bus are due to launch new service S50 on the 3rd of August, running between Manchester and Hey Farm via Droylsden, Audenshaw, Ashton-under-Lyne, Mossley Brookbottom and Micklehurst. With a frequency of every 20 minutes, this is a pretty audacious new service lunch from the small operator during a time when most operators are cutting back. It offers a more direct link between Mossley and Manchester than Stagecoach's 217/218 circular services. We expect Stagecoach will launch  retaliation sooner rather than later.

The new service is listed in the notes for last Friday's meeting of the GMITA Transport Network Committee.  While the Authority's website still doesn't list the meeting notes at the time of writing, Manchester Buses reader Rob did some digging and found that the notes are on their servers anyway.

Speedwell's expansion is an oasis of good news in an ocean of cutbacks. JP Travel are withdrawing service 12 (Middleton - Moorclose). This service was recently cut in half, with new service 13 (Middleton - Boarshaw) covering the other half of the route. It appears the Boarshaw part was more successful than the Moorclose part.

You remember we wrote about the forthcoming withdrawal of Stagecoach's 200 (Shudehill - Piccadilly) late-night shuttle? The Committee's notes reveal just how poorly used the service was. Just 62 passengers used it between the end of January and the start of April. Elsewhere, Speedwell Bus are rerouting service 343 (Hyde - Oldham) in the Mossley area from the end of June.

You might well think that GMPTE-supported bus service would be safe from cutbacks but that's not the case. Monday to Saturday evening journeys between Eccles and Manchester on service 10 (Brookhouse - Manchester) are to be cut to hourly, with the 1900 journey on Sunday evenings withdrawn too.

Monday - Saturday evening journeys on the 16 (Altrincham - Manchester) are being reduced from hourly to operate every 2 hours. This follows Arriva's recent curtailing of Saturday daytime journeys to run between Sale and Manchester only. These new cuts mean Ashton-upon-Mersey and Withington Road in Whalley Range will have a virtually useless connection to Manchester during the evenings. However, given low usage figures the cuts are no surprise

There is some good news though, evening and Sunday journeys on the 52 (Pendleton - Failsworth) and Sunday journeys on the 53 (Pendleton - Cheetham) will continue.

While the future of the 95 (Pendleton - Bolton) is still hanging in the balance, it looks likely that it will continue to operate between Pendleton and Whitefield, with service 513 rerouted to maintain the service in Stand.

Sunday journeys on the 167 (Manchester - Norden) look likely to be withdrawn due to low usage, although the contract for Monday - Saturday daytime journeys has been subject to a flurry of bidding from operators so there's no danger of them disappearing.

Service 173 (Manchester - Stepping Hill Hospital) is having its temporary re-routing via Manchester Royal Infirmary (instead of Ancoats) being made permanent after GMPTE received no complaints about the change. In fact, passengers reportedly found the new route useful.

The future of evening journeys on service 182 (Manchester - Shaw) was hanging in the balance at Friday's meeting. Committee members were asked to decide whether to keep it running (maintaining a 30 minute frequency along Broadway) or to withdraw it (meaning only one bus per hour along Broadway). Withdrawing the 182 would also mean a lost link to the Royal Oldham Hospital during the evenings. Let's hope the members of the Committee made the right choice.

Other changes being discussed were: cutting the Saturday daytime journeys on service 245 (Altrincham - Flixton) to run between Sale and Flixton only, with the frequency halved to hourly. Two morning journeys during school holidays on service 377 (Stockport - Woodford) were set for the chop, as were two Monday to Friday journeys on service 438 (Rochdale - Lane Head) and a Saturday morning journey on service 584 (Leigh - Crankwood). The Standish and Shevington Local Link service was set to lose its Sunday journeys, but see journeys through the rest of the week extended to cover Trevore Drive and Alden Close.

You can read the full notes from Friday's meeting here (PDF link).

[Image credit: a bus stop that's only going to get busier with Speedwell Bus' new service S50, by Ingy the Wingy on Flickr]

Cross-city nightbus link axed

Well, at least they tried. When Stagecoach launched nightbus services from Shudehill Interchange to destinations in south Manchester last year it was hailed as a boon to Northern Quarter and Printworks revellers. Then recently Stagecoach axed these routes and replaced them with a shuttle bus, numbered 200, linking Shudehill with Piccadilly Gardens where buses to the south of the city traditionally start their journeys.

Now the GMPTE website reveals that as of the 12th of June the 200 is axed and late-night travellers will have to walk to Piccadilly instead. It's no real surprise. In the time you'd have waited for a bus and then made the slow journey through several sets of traffic lights you could have walked.

In our experience the true culprit here is quite simply taxis - if you've been paying close to £4 per pint in bars like Bluu, you're probably perfectly happy to pay for a taxi rather than trek off through the rain-and-vomit-soaked streets to catch a bus.

If you had been drinking all night, the bus would probably look something like this one, by Zawtowers on Flickr.

Making a Bee Line for history

From time to time we like to share posts from other blogs that you may be interested in, and here's a real gem. Actually, it's more the opposite of a Gem* as it's a profile of late 80s/early 90s Manchester bus operator The Bee Line Buzz Company.

Stuart Vallantine has done his usual thorough job of covering the history of the operator and even includes a list of the routes they were operating back in 1987. You can read the post over at his East of the M60 blog here.

As a side note, does anyone have a list of the services Bee Line ran later in their life? Ian's photo here shows them operating the 197 (Manchester - Stockport) in 1992. They operated an 82 (Chorlton - Manchester - Oldham _ Rushcroft) around the same time. Does anyone have a full list?

(* Bad 80s bus pun - if you don't get it you will after you read Stuart's article).

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]