Following on from the news that Bu Val has been unable to operate bus services this week, Transport for Greater Manchester has arranged for other bus operators to run their contracted services. The full list of stage carriage services looks like this:
| Operator | Service | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Arriva | 484 Prestwich – Salford Royal Hospital | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly |
| Bluebird | 27 Manchester – Swinton | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly |
| 403/404 Shaw circulars | Mon-Sat daytime, each hourly | |
| 406 Oldham – Chadderton/Mills Hill | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly | |
| First | 455 Rochdale – Littleborough | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly |
| 456 Rochdale – Hollingworth Lake | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly | |
| 458 Rochdale – Littleborough | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly | |
| 462 Rochdale – Ladyhouse | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly | |
| Maytree | 95 Whitefield – Pendleton | Mon-Sat daytime, hourly |
| Rossendalebus | 433/434 Rochdale – Castleton | Mon-Sat daytime, half-hourly; Sunday daytime, hourly |
| 436 Rochdale – Cutgate | Mon-Sat daytime, half-hourly (provided commercially) | |
| 444 Rochdale – Norden | Mon-Sat evening and Sunday daytime, hourly | |
| 447 Rochdale – Wallbank | Sunday daytime, hourly | |
| 451 Rochdale – Peppermint Bridge | Mon-Sat evening and Sunday daytime, hourly | |
| 458 Rochdale – Wardle | Sunday daytime, hourly |
First begin operating their contracts by next Tuesday, but Pioneer Travel are running a temporary 456 in the interim. Rossendalebus operated a temporary off-peak 436 service on Wednesday, but will run a full service from Thursday. All services should be up and running by Tuesday next week if not sooner. As almost predicted by our readers, Rossendalebus have taken back much of the Rochdale local work they lost in May, First have taken routes towards Littleborough, whilst the more geographically diverse routes have gone to Arriva, Bluebird and Maytree. Service 432 doesn’t get a replacement service due to the commercial 431 service operated by The Coachmasters.
Several school contracts also have new operators: Bluebird will operate the 831 and 837; Coachmasters will operate the 872; First will operate the 456 and 791; Rossendalebus will operate the 441, 784 and 852.
Actually, there’s a bit of confusion on the 458 front – it may be Rossendalebus doing Sunday journeys? I’ll update as soon as it’s confirmed.
Rossendalebus will be operating the Sunday daytime journeys but we haven’t posted the timetable on our website yet as we aren’t sure what the status is with the Monday to Saturday daytime journeys. Why try to show the full timetable, including other operators’ journeys whenever possible, hopefully TfGM will be able to confirm this soon.
Surely that should read “formerly”
Presumably the 458 Monday-Saturday daytime service will be given to First, as it interworks with the 455 at Littleborough, unless the 455 is retimed by First, which would allow the 458 to turn around at Littleborough and return as a 458 and then could be run by Rossendalebus Monday-Saturday daytime.
On the TfGM Bus Times Leaflet Library, the timetables aren’t updated yet (too soon obviously), but they do have notes saying that the services have been or will be taken over, although for the 458, it says all Bu-Val journeys taken over by First.
Shouldn’t expect anything announced on the First website, as they had no mention of taking over the 410/411 service from Bluebird and running the Saturday journeys on the 624, 634, 665 and 675, so TfGM and Rossendalebus will be your best bet.
All will become clearer by Tuesday….hopefully.
Also, coverage of Bu-Val’s end in the MEN, although a bit slow on the news.
TfGM have updated their list of who-will-run-what to make clear that First will run 458 Monday to Saturday and Rossendalebus will take over 458 Sunday, so I’ve updated accordingly.
blame the tfgm for is
Can you clarify what you said, please.
I think Joe means blame TfGM for this, as indeed we should – along with the DfT. The massive cuts which have been imposed on a supposedly “no better, no worse” reimbursement system are going to finish off a lot of smaller operators.
I have seem SIMILAR announcement today on the Lancashire County Council web site dated 17/5/2011 that states as from 29/5/2011, they will withdraw or renegotiate subsidies on a total of 14 bus services in their area. Two of these services enter Greater Manchester:-
Service 464….Rochdale to Accrington
Service 573….Bolton to Rawtenstall
Thanks to Shaun for posting the update below: we did cover the 464 subsidy cut in April but managed to overlook the 573! A two-hourly Sunday daytime service continues between Bolton and Rawtenstall on service 273.
573 has gone as of today (29th May) but the 464 has had a late reprieve with some additional evening journeys on Mondays to Saturdays starting Tuesday. There aren’t any extra journeys into Rochdale from Lancashire but there are a couple of extra journeys out of Rochdale. The 8.35pm to Rawtenstall is extended to Accrington, while extra journeys run at 9.40pm to Accrington and 10.40pm to Haslingden. Sunday service changes continue as planned.
Also, with regards to Fairway Travel’s Greater Manchester journeys, the news is that a company called Nuttalls (who may be connected with Warrington Coachways) are taking over their journeys on the 156 and 157 in Ashton-in-Makerfield from Tuesday.
Interesting news on the JPT Facebook page regarding the collapse of Bu-Val. A question was asked about whether JPT had bought Bu-Val, to which they replied:
“We have not bought Bu Val, however it was not for the want of trying….we proposed to have all services operating by the following morning however a certain body was blocking it presenting a legal document that could have had dramatic consequences……..a legal team were instructed on our behalf to question the decision and we await the outcome…….Bu Val could have and should have still been in operation….but hey who needs independants when ya got the majors…”
So, by the sounds of it, JPT wanted to take over the company and then run them as Bu-Val (as opposed to JPT or Eurobus), but TfGM blocked the move.
Blimey! Interesting story.
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