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]

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]

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.

Newsbites: Our readers know their stuff

When it comes to interesting tidbits of news, our readers certainly know their onions (if by onions you mean buses, anyway).  In case you don't make a habit of reading the comments left on our posts, here's some of what you've missed.

Stuart Vallantine has spotted that there's been an unpublicised change on the 345 (Denton - Ashton-under-Lyne) route.  Early morning journeys previously run by First Manchester have begun beng run by Checkmate Coaches of Mossley.  Does anyone know the story behind this?

Meanwhile, 'DLC' has been in touch to let us know that he's heard there's been a resolution to the problem of forthcoming Stagecoach changes leaving two different services numbered 147 on the Wilmslow Road corridor.  It seems Stagecoach have decided to leave the soon-to-be-Magic-Bus-ified Southern Cemetery circulars as the 46 and 47 rather than renumbering them 146 and 147.  Good to know that an amicable solution was found in time!

Stagecoach fares change from today

If you're a regular Stagecoach Manchester passenger, don't forget that from today many of their fares have changed.

While most single fares are rising by between 10p and 30p, some are actually falling. Who'd have thought it? Additionally, the weekly Magic Rider is up to £6 and the Smart Rider rises to £7.

Perhaps reflecting reduced competition on the corridor, the Wilmslow Road night bus ticket is up to £2. If you get a Stagecoach night bus elsewhere there's no change at £2.50.

Of course, because Stagecoach split their fare changes over two points in the year, they get to proudly proclaim that the Dayrider and Megarider tickets haven't gone up in price. Just wait 'til early next year if you're a fan of paying more for those tickets. We're sure you can't wait.

Stagecoach newsbites: Fares change and Magic Bus goes low-floor

You may be sick of our Stagecoach Manchester news recently, but the fact is that's where most of the news is!

From the 24th of August a bunch of fare changes come into effect.  Many fares are increasing by between 10p and 30p, while a few are decreasing (yes, decreasing - can you believe it?!) by 10p.  The Magic Rider weekly ticket increases to £6 while the Smart Rider is up to £7.

Meanwhile, when we read on Stagecoach's website that the revised 146/147 Southern Cemetery circular Magic Bus services would be low-floor we thought there must be some sort of mistake.  After all, when was the last time you saw a low-floor Magic Bus?  Stagecoach have been throwing the aging junk of their fleet onto the Magic Bus services for years.

That's about to change now though.  Stagecoach Manchester have begun repainting some of their MAN low-floor single deckers in Magic Bus livery.  The picture accompanying this post shows 22113 on the 143 (Manchester - West Didsbury) route this afternoon.

Bored of Stageoach Manchester news?  Want something different?  Well, tell us what's going on elesewhere that we don't know about!  Email us: manchesterbus@googlemail.com

Oxford Road Link to stay with Bullocks

Within the last hour we've heard from two sources (an email from Bullocks themselves and a commenter to yesterday's post) that the Oxford Road Link will stay with Bullocks Coaches and is not transferring to Stagecoach with their other bus services.  In fact, Bullocks have won the contract to run the service for another three years.  It's excellent news that this service, which links the Oxford Road universities and hospitals with with Piccadilly Station, will continue.

The only problem now will be when Stagecoach renumbers their service 47 to 147. That'll mean two 147s running to different places on the same corridor.  We predict some confused passengers on Oxford Road from the end of the month.

[Image credit: Stuart R Brown on Flickr]

R. Bullock's transition to Stagecoach begins tomorrow

Stagecoach Manchester announced yesterday that they have exchanged contracts with Bullocks over the sale of the R. Bullock bus business.  The process for transferring services begins from tomorrow (Sunday 10th August).

Similarly to how the transition of Mayne's services to Stagecoach took place in two stages earlier this year, R. Bullock services will initially continue to be run separately from Stagecoach Manchester's main operation. Bullock's tickets will still be priced differently from Stagecoach and tickets and passes will not be interchangeable between both companies.

Although Bullock's own vehicles will continue to be used on their services, Stagecoach buses may sometimes be used instead.  Therefore, the only service change for now is that Bullock's 42 service will be renumbered 42B so passengers get confused know they will be paying Bullock's prices, not Stagecoach's.

Stagecoach's statement on the transfer can be read here.  Interestingly, there's no mention of R. Bullock-operated service 147 (Piccadilly Station -Oxford Road Link) which is funded by Oxford Road-based universities and hospitals.  Presumably this will continue running, using the special vehicles it currently uses.  However, there may be a problem here, as Stagecoach plans to renumber their Albert Square - Southern Cemetery circular 46/47 service as 146/147 upon its conversion to a Magic Bus service later this month (more on the upcoming service changes tomorrow here on Manchester Buses).  These services use Oxford Road.  We hope to get clarification on this next week.

R. Bullock services will make the full transfer to Stagecoach as soon as full regulatory clearance has been given.  There is currently no indication when that will be.

[Image credit: Ingy the Wingy on Flickr]

We're back - have our questions been answered?

Yes, we're back from our two-week holiday and normal service is resumed.  Over the next few days we'll be catching up with all the stories we've missed while we've been away, including a huge batch of upcoming service changes.

Before we went on our holiday we left you with some questions we hoped would be answered by the time we came back.  Let's take a look at the results:

Will there definitely be a Congestion Charge referendum, if so when?
The answer to this one came within 24 hours of us leaving Manchester.  A Greater Manchester-wide referendum will definitely take place.  It'll be a postal vote, most likely taking place in December this year. Campaigners on both sides are now gearing up to win the hearts, minds and votes of the region.  Incidentally, the TIF bid document, which has been shrouded in secrecy for many months, has now been published on the GMPTA website.  We're going to take a look for the bus-related detail and report on it with the next few days.

Will Stagecoach definitely buy R. Bullock?
Again, the answer here is yes.  Stagecoach start the first stage of transferring operations across from tomorrow.  More about this in our next post shortly.

When and where will the supposed new Metroshuttle services launch?
Sadly there's no news on this yet.  Boo.

Ditto the new orbital routes?
And ditto the answer too.  Ditto our boo.

So there we go, a 50% success rate on the answer front.  Stay with Manchester Buses as we continue to bring you the latest bus service news from Greater Manchester.