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Manchester on service 10 (Brookhouse - Manchester) are to be cut to hourly, with the 1900 journey on Sunday evenings withdrawn too.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]

Comments

[Simon, Riverside.]

I would hazard a guess they will stop going to mossley on the 217/218. Concentrate on the North Road/Clayton business which is a huge part of the revenue on there. First will be more worried about the Ashton to Mossley.

[IAR]

I wish somebody run new services in Chorlton. There has been some pretty big cut backs there lately (they no longer run Magicbuses). I am finding myself using the Metrolink more and more often and only use the bus at weekends now.

Before I bought my car I used the bus a lot to visit different garages and I shocked to see how baldy the services down Ashton New Road have declined.

[Rob]

Don't think Stagecoach will worry about competition on the 217/8 - they're mostly tendered journeys (which Mayne's used to operate commercially) - the journeys don't really overlap too much as the 217/8s serve different purposes. Expect the 217/8 buses to go completely tendered before late!

[Simon, Riverside.]

I cannot understand why speedwell didn't and why noone else goes for the Manchester - Ashton - Stalybridge - Carrbrook - Mossley route. It would make more sense and with them little buses it could be made a damn quick service too. The link between Stalybridge - Mossley is very poor at the moment.

[Shaun]

Interesting that Speedwellbus are going after two markets, the 216 and 350 routes. Won't be the first time that Speedwellbus have competed on Stagecoach routes, as they ran their S36/S37 routes against Stagecoach's 236/237 routes between Ashton and Glossop.

Have to give Speedwellbus credit for giving it a try but I get the feeling that they may struggle. 20 minutes frequency on the S50 against 7/8 mins on the 216 and 10 mins on the 350 may make it hard, given that a lot of passengers will probably have FirstWeek/MegaRider tickets. While I hope they do well, I think it will end up similar to Rossendale's 16/X46 route, competing against First's 17.

It does look like the 95 will be withdrawn between Bolton and Whitefield. There's a new registration from First Manchester on VOSA's website for a 536 service between Bolton and Bradley Road via Breightmet.

[Charley]

Tried to use the link (Bus service changes), but it didn't work! However, managed to find the list of 22 May 2009 reports here: http://www.gmita.gov.uk/gmita/site/scripts/downloads.php?categoryID=118

[Shaun]

Another change is posted on VOSA, which sees Arriva running the evening journeys on the 138 between Bury (or as they said on their registration 'Burley') and Manchester via Pilsworth.

[Shaun]

Timetable for the S50 is now available for view on the North West Journey Planner. Service starts at 7am (7.40am Saturdays) from Hey Farm with a couple of extra ones from Droylsden before and runs until 5.20pm (4.40pm Saturdays) with a journey time of 58 minutes.

From Manchester, the service starts at 7.20am (8am Saturdays) and runs until 5.20pm (4.40pm Saturdays) with the following three journeys running to Ashton only with a journey time of 55 minutes. Looking at the map, it does look like the route is a combination of the 216 and 350 except that it doesn't serve Tameside General Hospital.

The 95 is going to change during the day Monday-Saturday, according to VOSA, to an hourly service between Pendleton and Whitefield tram stop and will be run by Bu-Val. No mention yet of the evening and Sunday service.

[Will Figg]

I went on the S50 from Mossley to Ashton today. It is a lot more special than anyone thinks because:

- £1 single (Adults) from anywhere to anywhere
- 50p single (child) from anywhere to anywhere
- £8 for weekly ticket

It had also ran on time, which I can't say the same for the 216 because I waited 30 minutes on saturday at ashton and then three turn up at once ¬_¬.

They used Low floor buses aswell, which I havent seen before from speedwell.