Manchester Transport blog

Speedwellbus becomes latest bus company to fold

James McCollom — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:40:44 +0000

Speedwellbus becomes the latest bus company in Greater Manchester to cease bus operations, following on from Bu-val, The Coachmasters and Haytons, having announced they would cease to trade yesterday on their Facebook page. The company have had their ups and downs in recent years, campaigning to save services in Derbyshire yet being fined for failure to run services. We wish the former staff best wishes and hope that new employment opportunities come along soon.

TfGM are (sadly) well-practiced in finding replacement bus operators at short notice: East of the M60 has details of replacement services, operated by Stagecoach, Stotts, Bluebird and Bowers variously.

[Image credit: "Bus stopping" by hugvok on Flickr]

Arriva regroups as First makes further tender gains

James McCollom — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:50:17 +0000

The first timetable changes of 2012 come into play over the last weekend of January (28/29th) and there are TfGM contracts changing hands. Over in Salford there’s a revised network to take into account; Arriva are losing out, whilst First seem to be gaining.

The Salford network is changing. It’s too complicated to explain for a non-Salfordian such as myself, so if you’d like to see a before and after map, check out the last few pages of this TfGMC report (PDF). In summary, there are two new routes 66 (Clifton Junction to Eccles) and 79 (Swinton to Stretford) which between them replace services 55, 61/62 (some), 64/65, 69 and 70 (daytime). Arriva have won the contracts for these, but lose out on other routes to First: early morning journeys on the 10 (Brookhouse to Manchester) and 19 (Clifton Junction to Trafford Park); Sunday services on the 31 (Manchester to Farnworth); evening and Sunday services on the 63 (Brookhouse to Manchester); and all day service on the 74/75 (Agecroft circulars) and 484 (Salford to Prestwich) – the latter of which is a Bu-val refugee.

First also assumes operation of services run by other operators: from Bluebird comes the 27 (Manchester to Swinton), Sunday 95 journeys (Pendleton to Whitefield), 402 (Oldham to Royton) and 406 (Middleton to Oldham); whilst from JPT comes the 335 (Ashton to Denton) and Sunday 406. One loss is the short-term 575 contract (Bolton to Horwich) which heads to Maytree, who will also run the daytime 31 timetable that was operated by Arriva.

Word on the street is that Arriva will close their Manchester depot at the end of March 2012. What would this mean for their remaining services? We’d expect that services in South Manchester can be operated from the depot in Wythenshawe, especially given the loss of contracts around Altrincham of late – though we wouldn’t be surprised if the 130 to Macclesfield sees more vehicles based from that Cheshire outstation. The services towards Salford we’re not so sure about: Wythenshawe and Bolton are the closest depots, but would require some dead-running or inter-working. We’ll keep monitoring.

Like the proverbial bus, there’ll be another blog along shortly looking at some of the other changes taking place that weekend…

TfGM: Latest Bus Service Changes
TfGM: Bus Times Leaflet Library
First Manchester: Changes from Sunday 29th January 2012

[Image credit: "Arriva Manchester 667 CX57 CYW" by Ingy the Wingy on Flickr]

Ill fortune

James McCollom — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:59:53 +0000

Last week saw some pretty spectacular failures on the area’s public transport system. On the trams, services were bedeviled in the evening rush hour following broken-down trams: on Tuesday shutting down the Altrincham, MediaCityUK/Eccles and South Manchester lines, and then on Wednesday with trams diverted away from Piccadilly station. There wasn’t much luck on the buses either: with buses crashing variously into a pub and (just over the border in Cheshire) a bridge.

Just as well we don’t get many cruise liners up the Ship Canal these days.

Manchester Transport blog says “meh” to High Speed 2

James McCollom — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:59:07 +0000

It’s time to declare: Manchester Transport blog isn’t particularly enthusiastic about high speed rail. We can see the arguments for, and we think additional capacity on the mainline to the south will be needed at some point in the future, but we’d rather the money was spent on transport closer to home. Of course that’s not going to happen given the government has an ideological aversion to ongoing subsidy – despite all the money leaving privatised industries in the form of shareholder dividends. It is however quite happy to “invest”, today announcing the go-ahead for the first-phase of High Speed 2 (HS2) to be constructed between London and Birmingham.

The initial section of HS2 will be built between London and Birmingham because that’s the busiest section of the West Coast Main Line: there are already four lines between Rugby and Watford, with six lines between there and Euston. It’s not possible to squeeze a few extra trains in here and there during the peak hour, and existing trains are already being lengthened towards 11 and 12 coaches long. What happens after those are full?

The West Coast modernisation of the late 1990s/early 2000s cost a lot of money and caused a lot of disruption: building extra tracks along this route would follow a similar pattern. So building a totally new railway would offer better value for money – and if you’re doing that, you may as well make it high speed, like the French did with their Train à Grande Vitesse in the 1970s.

Phase 2 would be to extend from Birmingham to Manchester, probably with a stop somewhere near Stoke-on-Trent. (There’s another branch to East Midlands and Leeds but not our area.) Plans beyond that are vague: consultation on the route will begin in 2014 but the line would not be fully operational until 2033. By moving the fastest trains between Manchester and the capital onto HS2, that would free up more space on the existing network for regional passenger services and freight trains.

There’s been much talk of the economic benefits (up to £47 billion once complete) and also of the north-south divide. We remain to be convinced on whether HS2 will bring more economic activity to the regions through decentralisation, or whether the south east will consolidate its position as economic powerhouse only one hour eight minutes commuting distance each way from Manchester via HS2. Probably a bit of both, but the construction industry will certainly be pleased.

Of much more interest to us are projects that will impact directly on commuters in the north-west such as electrification, increased frequencies and additional carriages on the region’s short/busy trains. We’ll return to high speed rail once more details are available on the proposed route into Manchester city centre, but until then – “meh”.

High Speed Two Ltd – http://www.hs2.org.uk/

[Image credit: "Whhhhhiiiiiieeeeeeehhh..." by Stig Nygaard on Flickr]

Happy New Year (Fares Are Rising)

James McCollom — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:24 +0000

The annual rail fare revisions (read: increases) come into effect today, Tuesday 2nd January 2011, and naturally they’ve had a high profile in the national media. The Association of Train Operating Companies claims the average fare rise will be 5.9%, which tallies with the 5.26% rise to my own monthly County Card (was £95, now £100). It could have been worse, as the proposed RPI+3 rise (aka 8%) was scaled back to RPI+1 in a recent government U-turn, but this is small comfort when wages are failing to keep pace. There are similar fare rises on other modes too.

Over on the trams, TfGM has introduced a similar RPI+1 (6%) rise, although the MEN reports a rise of 9.37% on adult return fares to Media City, from £3.20 to £3.50. It’s not too surprising that MediaCity fares are rising so much, as historically fares on the Eccles line have been cheaper than similar fares on the other lines: indeed, a Day Saver ticket used to cost less if you bought it from an Eccles line station than any other stop on the system! Is this still the case? Not sure, as the ticket section on the Metrolink website will only show you the fares from one stop to another. Seemingly no such thing as a day ticket, and no such thing as an any-tram season ticket. One good change however is the introduction of cheaper “next-stop” tickets.

Meanwhile on the buses, First Manchester have also announced fare rises coming into effect today. With Bus Service Operators Grant (aka the former rebate towards duty on fuel) being reduced by 20% from April this year, it’s unsurprising that bus operators will be looking to recoup the money through increased fares. FirstDay tickets rise 7.1% from £4.20 to £4.50, FirstWeek tickets rise 5.9% from £17 to £18, whilst monthly and annual tickets are up 5.5% to £58 and £580 respectively. A small number of single tickets have been reduced in price, as well as some child season tickets, but the £2.20 adult single fare is increased by 13.6% to £2.50! We suspect most people will buy day tickets and weekly seasons which increase by a lesser amount (whilst senior citizens travel for free) so the biggest impact will be to occasional travellers – but we fear that these kind of price increases do little to convert them into regulars.

We don’t want to single out First for special treatment, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for other fare increases from other bus operators as we approach 1st April 2012.

Despite the gloom over fares, Manchester Transport blog wishes our readers all the best for 2012!

[Image credit: "Manchester Flickr Christmas Meet 2009 - Tram Tracks" by purplemattfish on Flickr]

Speedwellbus fined over suspension of S50

James McCollom — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:20:49 +0000

Remember Speedwellbus withdrawing service S50 between Ashton and Mossley in April this year? So did the North West Deputy Traffic Commissioner, and she wasn’t impressed. The current issue of Route One trade magazine (414) reports that the company has been given a penalty of £5,600 for not operating a registered service after having been refused a “short notice cancellation”. She was not satisfied that Speedwell had shown a reasonable excuse for the cancellation; that to find “reasonable excuse” would be unfair to bus operators who operated within the rules; and that she did not want to risk setting a precedent which would allow any operator who had lost money to cancel services at short notice without appropriate arrangements being made.

Thanks to Rob for the pointer.

[Image credit: "Money Money Money" by Images of Money on Flickr]

Haytons Coaches sold to Selwyns

James McCollom — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:29:35 +0000

We noted last month how Bluebird was taking over the majority of Hayton’s tendered bus services in Greater Manchester from 21st November 2011. The Business section of the Manchester Evening News completed the story earlier this week, with its item about how the remaining coach and private hire business is being taken over by Selwyns, the Runcorn-based coach operator who has an operating base at Manchester Airport, as well as running coach services on behalf of National Express. Haytons was founded in 1984 but ran into serious cash-flow difficulties earlier this year. The MEN reports that Selwyns will retain the Haytons brand, saving 60 jobs with the acquisition.

New coach service to Liverpool and Manchester airports

James McCollom — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:46:01 +0000

We don’t really cover coach services, but this one warrants a mention. It’s been two years since the demise of the X2 coach service between Manchester and Liverpool, a brave attempt at an hourly 24-hour service linking the two cities and their respective airports (along with Warrington and Widnes) which itself replaced Arriva’s express service 700 between Liverpool Airport and Manchester city centre.

With air passenger numbers beginning to pick up, it’s National Express’ turn to have a go, with the introduction this month of new service 280 linking the two and also calling at Leeds, Bradford, Oldham, Manchester, Liverpool and Birkenhead. There are up to ten journeys per day (two-hourly according to the caption on this photo) but only half of all departures call at Oldham. Alternative coach services are operated direct between Manchester and Liverpool Airport by Terravision.

[Image credit: "National Express, FJ60EGD" by Steven's Transport Photos on Flickr]

TfGM joins Twitter!

James McCollom — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:44:27 +0000

It’s taken some time, but TfGM are now on Twitter tweeting as @OfficialTfGM! Just in time for the wintry weather, as the sprinkling of snow and frost this morning highlights how useful live travel updates can be. As their website explains, they’ll post updates about the Metrolink, and passing on information from operators of buses and trains, as well as posting links to issues, campaigns and announcements.

Here’s Manchester Transport blog’s rundown of tweeting bus and train operators in the area:

Bus operators

Two major omissions from that list are Arriva and Stagecoach – we hope they’ll start tweeting sooner rather than later as each has useful accounts in other regions.

Train operators

Other useful Tweeters

You can also follow Manchester Transport blog on Twitter at @McrTransport! Any other accounts we should be following? Leave us a comment below!

A trip on “The Stalybridge Flyer”

James McCollom — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:16:35 +0000

With Friday off and a vague plan to go hiking in the Pennines, what better way to travel than by Parliamentary train? A rail service that only exists because it’s cheaper to run an occasional service than it is to go through an expensive closure procedure? Thankfully there’s just such a departure: the once-a-week Fridays-only 0922 service from Stockport to Stalybridge, providing the only passenger train that calls at Reddish South and Denton stations.

Come the allotted hour at Stockport platform 3, and the train arrives on time from the south. Two 2-car diesel “Pacer” units, though only the front two coaches are in use. With only three passengers on board today, we can spread out a bit.

Leaving the mainline at Heaton Norris Junction at the slug-like speed of around 10mph, we speed up again until the first stop, Reddish South. Nice new Northern Rail signs, but no lighting.

Reddish South may not get many trains but it has Friends with a capital “F”. Campaigners would like to see regular services to Manchester Victoria. A woman walks her dog on the embankment of a reservoir.

Two regulars board at Denton, but presumably don’t go to the expense of a return ticket. After a wrong-platform call at Guide Bridge, we arrive at Stalybridge. The famous buffet bar opens at 10am, although if you want a beer you’ll have to wait until 11am.

The Flyer used to run in the opposite direction, from Stalybridge to Stockport, on a Saturday morning. Now it departs Stockport and Reddish South a few minutes too early to be of use to the twirlies – the Greater Manchester pensioners who are allowed free travel on local trains, but not before 0930 on a weekday, hence “are we too early?” The empty coaches head off back to base: it’s a clever way of running trains back to the depot after the morning rush-hour, but hardly a useful service for locals.