Manchester Buses

On-street ticket machines launched

As we mentioned yesterday, today saw the official launch of Stagecoach and GMPTE's new joint venture - on-street ticket machines.  Transport bigwigs from both organisations posed for our camera on Piccadilly this afternoon. 

The solar-powered machines are now in place in Longsight, Levenshulme and on Piccadilly in Manchester city centre.  Next in line for some on-street payment action are Stockport and Haze Grove. 

This won't mean an end to on-bus payment though, only multi-trip tickets are available from the machines.  At present passengers can buy Stagecoach Dayriders and Megariders along with System One one-day tickets to be used on journeys with other operators.  In addition to cash, payment is accepted by credit and debit cards.

GMPTE's press officer told us that they hoped they would see an increase in the use of System One tickets as a thanks to the machines.  Some passengers, not understanding the deregulated bus system (which, let's face it, has only been in place for twenty two years - people need, er, time to adjust) don't realise all bus tickets aren't interchangeable between different operators.  With the option to buy a multi-operator ticket at the machine, maybe these people will be more likely to buy the right ticket.

If there's one thing that might stop people using these machines, it's the fact that they don't really stand out on the street.  The only reason we spotted them at all was because a Manchester Evening News photographer was stood on a stepladder taking an elevated shot of one when we arrived.  Maybe some sort of brightly-coloured sign above would advertise their existence more effectively?

On a different note, Stagecoach may innovate with on-street ticketing but they apparently haven't embraced blogging culture.  A Stagecoach representative told us she has to use a complicated system of emails to and from their PR department in order to get her fix of Manchester Buses.  The corporate servers apparently block blogs as a matter of course.

With some Hampshire bus operators running their own blogs, it'd be good to see some of our Greater Manchester operators embracing blogging and maybe even running blogs themselves.  Even if the big firms didn't want to get blogging, maybe the bosses at one of the indies could take the initiative?

We reckon the Dunstans over at Bluebird would run an interesting one.  With an increasing number of businesses across many different industries starting corporate blogs it can only be a matter of time before a Manchester operators takes the plunge!

Solar power set to speed up boarding times on the 192

GMPTE and Stagecoach are set to unveil Manchester's first on-street bus ticket machines tomorrow.  The solar-powered machines, situated on Piccadilly, will be officially launched at a press event tomorrow where transport bosses will be trying them out.

On street ticketing, already used on many routes in central London, should speed up boarding times on busy routes such as the 192 (Manchester - Hazel Grove) as drivers won't have to deal with handling as much cash and issuing tickets.  Let's hope use of the machines doesn't become compulsory or the buses will be slowed down just as much by drivers having to tell people to get back off and buy their ticket!

The machines are part of a 12 month trial.  It's good to see experimentation with new ticketing systems and hopefully more operators will take up the idea in the future.  We'll have more for you tomorrow.

[Image credit: Gene Hunt on Flickr]

Shut up and stop showing off: plain-speaking bus shelters speak as they find

It isn't the first time that bus shelters have used to plain speaking to get a message across but a hoarding on one shelter on the Crescent in Salford is certainly turning heads for its direct message.

As these photos by Ian Roberts show, Greater Manchester Police are clearly so sick of students giving robbers a helping hand that they're having to resort to telling them to "Just Stop Showing Off!" and "Just Shut Up!".

With one in three students falling victim to crime while at university, it's a worthwhile campaign.  We think it brightens up a bus stop in a rather dull area of Greater Manchester too.  Good work, GMP, you clearly do direct messages better than you do trying to be cool!

 

More service changes on the way for Autumn

Earlier this week we told you about some upcoming service changes (see here and here).  Now GMPTE have updated their Service Changes page with confirmation of some service withdrawals and addition changes for the weekend of 26th October.

The withdrawal of service 25 (Manchester - Swinton), evening journeys on service 70 (Manchester - Clifton Junction) and evening, Sunday and public holiday journeys on service 484 (Salford Royal Hospital - Swinton), as well as a bunch of changes in the Wigan area, are all confirmed by the update.  Some timetable changes to First Manchester services are also announced.  Times on services 36, 37, 68, 88, 89 and 135 will all be altering.  New timetables aren't available yet so it's unclear whether these changes are minor tweaks or significant frequency revisions.

Back in August, publicly funded service 196 was revised to replace withdrawn service 172, running between Withington Hospital and East Didsbury via Heald Green.  That left a bit of confusion for passengers as peak time journeys continued to run via the 196's old route (East Didsbury - Wythenshawe Hospital).  That bug in the system is to be fixed at the end of the month as those peak time journeys will be renumbered 194.

Up in Bury some journeys on JPT's 486 (Bury - Radcliffe) service are withdrawn, while over in Oldham Bluebird's Oldham - Royton 402 service is retimed to run 2 minutes later.  In Rochdale, First Halifax's 589 (Rochdale - Burnley) and 590 (Rochdale - Halifax) services have some timetable changes too.

As always, you can get all the details on these changes from GMPTE's Service Changes page.

[Image credit: Gene Hunt on Flickr]

First raise fares from tomorrow

First Manchester's fares are set to follow Stagecoach Manchester's recent example and go up from tomorrow (5th October).  Unlike Stagecoach, where some fares remained unchanged or actually went down, all First's single fares are heading up by between 10p and 40p.

The changes are as follows:
£1.10 to £1.20
£1.50 to £1.70
£1.80 to £2.00
£2.30 to £2.50
£2.90 to £3.20
£4.10 to £4.50

Is it just us, or does the prospect of a single fare on a local bus service costing a fiver within a year's time seem rather crazy?  That's inflation though, no doubt we'll see other operators raising ticket prices over the winter as the poor economic climate filters down through the transport industry.

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

Shortlisted in the Manchester Blog Awards

Just a quick note to let you know that Manchester Buses has been shortlisted in the Best Neighbourhood Blog category of this year's Manchester Blog Awards.

The winner will be decided by a panel of judges and our competition in the category consists of:

Hyde Daily Photo offers a photo of Hyde... daily!

Mancubist writes about Mancunian culture... but not necessarily cubism.

Lady Levenshulme writes about goings on in... Levenshulme!

Good luck to one and all!

Cutbacks planned for tendered routes

At GMPTA's Transport Network Committee meeting on Friday, members were presented with the case for withdrawing journeys from several lightly-used publicly subsidised services.

Facing the chop are:

All journeys on service 25 (Manchester - Swinton)

Late Sunday evening journeys on service 313 (Stockport - Grove Lane)

All evening and Sunday journeys on Service 484 (Swinton - Salford Royal Hospital)

Some Sunday evening journeys on Service 610 (Wigan - Hawkley Hall circular)

All journeys on Service 614 (Wigan - New Springs circular)

Short Sunday journeys between Wigan and Robin Park on service 622 (Wigan - Kitt Green)

All journeys on service 631 (Wigan - Highfield Grange circular)

Meanwhile, Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services in Hulme in Manchester and Milkstone/Deeplish in Rochdale are set to continue while a new DRT service for Kingsway in Rochdale is launched today.

Service 70 (Manchester - Clifton), which has had its head on the chopping block for several months now, was granted another reprieve as GMPTE look into a possible DRT solution for the Clifton area.

Although GMPTA will have made decisions on the future of these routes on Friday, the minutes from the meeting are not online yet.  That means we'll have to wait to find out whether these cutbacks have been approved or not.

While it's always sad to see bus services cut back, these services have incredibly low usage levels and GMPTE has to protect public money from wastage.

Stagecoach plan Tameside route simplifications

It's now over nine months since Stagecoach inherited the former Maynes network of routes between Manchester and Tameside.  Some of those old Mayne route numbers are now to disappear in a reshuffle of Stagecoach's routes in the area.  The GMPTA Transport Network Committee met on Friday and the notes from their meeting reveal the following changes:

- Service 216 (Manchester - Ashton-under-Lyne) sees a Monday - Saturday frequency increase from every 30 minutes to every 15.  Sunday eveing journeys are introduced, operating every 30 minutes, to replace services 236 and 237 on this section of the route.

- Services 217 and 218 (Manchester - Tameside Hospital) are extended from Stalybridge and Ashton-under-Lyne to provide a circular loop around Mossley.

- Service 230 (Manchester - Ashton-under-Lyne) is withdrawn and replaced by an improved service 231.

- Service 231 (Manchester - Droylsden Littlemoss Road) Now runs every 15 minutes between Manchester and Droysden (Littlemoss Road) with alternate journeys extending to Ashton-under-Lyne via Hartshead and Hurst.  All journeys will start from/run to Piccadilly in Manchester, with Shudehill Interchange no longer served.

- Services 232/233/234/235 (Manchester - Mossley circulars) are withdrawn.  The Mossley circular section of route is replaced by services 217 and 218, while Droylsden, Littlemoss, Hartshead and Hurst are now linked by service 231.

- Service 236/237 (Manchester - Glossop) are finally completely banished from Manchester in the evenings.  Over the years these services have had many of their journeys curtailed to run between Ashton-under-Lyne and Glossop.  Now only Monday to Friday peak journeys and the Friday and Saturday night nightbuses run the full length of the route.

All these changes take place on the 26th of October.  Co-incidentally First Pioneer are withdrawing their 387 (Ashton-under-Lyne - Hyde) service on the same day.

[Image credit: Ingy The Wingy on Flickr]

Manchester Operators in the running for Bus Awards

The UK Bus Awards take place in November.  While nominations for operators and industry figures based in Greater Manchester are thin on the ground, a number of operators who run services into the region are in the running to win prizes. 

Top of the awards pile is The Optare Shire Operator of the Year.  Although not based in the area, Lancashire's Transdev Lancashire United and Cheshire's Warrington Borough Transport both operate into the area.  Blackpool Transport (who run the Manchester Sightseeing Tour) are also nominated here.  Transdev Lancashire United and WBT are also head-to-head in the CBS Outdoor Bus Marketing Campaign of the Year award.

Transdev Lancashire United are also in the running for their Pilates-tastic X40/X41 Blackburn - Manchester service in the Volvo Express Service of the Year award.  Transdev have done well overall this year; their Keighley & District and Harrogate & District are also up for awards.

Stagecoach North West, who operate into the northern part of the region (as well as some journeys on the 22 Bolton-Stockport service) are nominated in the BAA Heathrow Award for Integration for their Network Chorley initiative.

When it comes to awards for people in the industry, Michael Watson of Arriva North West & Wales and Rob Jones of Stagecoach North West are nominated in the Centrebus Young Manager of the Year Award.  First Manchester bus driver Kieron Atikson is meanwhile in the running for the Chris Moyes Memorial for Customer Service.  This award sees the top 10 drivers from the UK Bus Driver of the Year up for a further prize.  Kieron should watch out though - "mystery customers" will be used as part of the assesment process.  Look out for a man with a fake moustache and glasses boarding a First Manchester bus near you soon!

You can see all the nominations over on the UK Bus Awards website.  Thanks to James McCollom for suggesting this story.

Metroshuttle bolts on to Bolton

GMPTA announced back in June that free Metroshuttle bus services would be extending outside Manchester city centre to other areas of Greater Manchester.  Today GMPTE have announced that Bolton will be the first town to gain a service.

The service is planned to serve Bolton Interchange, Bradshawgate, Deansgate, Bridge Street, St George's Road, Knowsley Street, Deansgate, Black Horse Street and Newport Street.  It will run every ten minutes during Monday to Saturday daytimes and be free to travel on.  If it is successful, the service should eventually be expanded to cover St Peter's Way to the east, Topp Way to the north, Marsden Way to the west and Trinity Street to the south.

Neighbouring region West Yorkshire launched its first 'Free City Bus' in Leeds later than Manchester's first Metroshuttle (originally branded Centreline).  However West Yorkshire's Passenger Transport Executive, Metro, has been quicker to expand the service to other towns such as Huddersfield.  A new service in Bradford launches at the end of the month.

GMPTE's Bolton service will start as soon as the 'i's have been dotted, the 't's crossed and a suitable operator has been arranged.  Let's face it - First or Arriva, with their huge resources and local presence, are the most likely candidate to win the contract but we'll have to wait and see if it turns out that way.  Stagecoach North West could be in the running too.  Maybe a smaller operator may clinch the deal.

As we reported in July, a Stockport service is likely to be announced at some point in the near future.

[Image credit: Gene Hunt on Flickr]