Manchester Buses

Making a Bee Line for history

From time to time we like to share posts from other blogs that you may be interested in, and here's a real gem. Actually, it's more the opposite of a Gem* as it's a profile of late 80s/early 90s Manchester bus operator The Bee Line Buzz Company.

Stuart Vallantine has done his usual thorough job of covering the history of the operator and even includes a list of the routes they were operating back in 1987. You can read the post over at his East of the M60 blog here.

As a side note, does anyone have a list of the services Bee Line ran later in their life? Ian's photo here shows them operating the 197 (Manchester - Stockport) in 1992. They operated an 82 (Chorlton - Manchester - Oldham _ Rushcroft) around the same time. Does anyone have a full list?

(* Bad 80s bus pun - if you don't get it you will after you read Stuart's article).

[Image credit: Coradia1000 on Flickr]

Bus-mad pensioners do it again

61 year-old Manju Gosh of Bolton made the news last year when she traveled with her friend Christine Jackson across England using the new right for pensioners to travel by bus for free. Using only local bus services she traversed England from Berwick-on-Tweed to Land's End.

Manju and Christine must have enjoyed their journey because this year they're at it again! This year they're doing it for charity, donating the money they save through not having to pay for each bus trip to a worthy cause.

This is all very well but don't forget that Manchester Buses reader James McCollom is making his own journey later this month. He'll be making the far more audacious journey from the north of Scotland all the way to Brighton via Stagecoach buses to raise money for Christies Appeal. You can read his excellent Britain By Bus blog here and follow him on Twitter here.

Image: Christine, Manju and Councillor Keith Whitmore, who is contractually obliged to appear at every GMITA photocall ever, it seems.

Ashton's multimedia blogging bus driver

When you're a bus driver you can have a lot of time on your hands. Waiting at the terminus, waiting at the depot - you might as well use your time creatively. That's what one driver from Stagecoach Manchester's recently opened Ashton-under-Lyne depot has done. His blog, My Manchester, features photos and videos from his days on the road.

It's a fascinating look at the minutiae of a working day, uploaded from his mobile phone to his blog. From route-learning on the number 7 (Ashton-under-Lyne - Stockport) route, soon to be transferred from Stockport to Ashton depot, to eating cornflakes during a break near Hattersley ("It's nice up here as long as you don't go into Hattersley"); it's well worth subscribing to.

We've added My Manchester to our list of local transport blogs. Do you have a local bus-realted blog you'd like us to feature? Get in touch!

Happy Christmas from Manchester Buses... and the West Midlands

Yes, Christmas is here and there's just enough time before we spend the rest of the week in a Baileys-and-turkey-induced stupor under the table to wish you all the best for the season.

We'd also like to share this with you - a viral video created by Centro, the West Midlands PTE. Funnily enough it was someone from GMPTE who told us about it. Let's hope GMPTE embrace social media next year. We're thinking Twitter updates on the latest transport news, maybe their own blog... and staff singing at Christmas on Youtube!



Happy Christmas everyone!

Infrastructure never looked so interesting

Transport and photography go hand-in-hand. It's a regular occurence to see men (it's rarely women) with Digital SLR cameras hanging around our region's bus stations. They sometimes get a raw deal from security-conscious bus station staff and camera-shy bus drivers but here at Manchester Buses we love their work. After all, as long as photographers upload their images to Flickr with a 'Share Alike' Creative Commons license we're always keen to use their photos (credited, of course) to illustrate our posts.

Transport photos can also be a great trip down memory lane, as demonstrated by a rather good-looking site called Manctransit. Thanks to Paul Robinson on the Mancunian Way blog for bringing to light this fascinating look at the local transport and industrial infrastructure. From buses to bridges and trams to transformer stations, it surprising how interesting these things can look when photographed and presented in the right way. The 'GMPTE Studio' photoset is particularly interesting. Does anyone know what the SELNEC 'Futuroute' was? It looks like a jukebox for bus routes or something from Futurama!

UPDATE: as a commenter below notes, 'Futuroute' was the marketing name for the failed Piccadilly-Victoria rail tunnel project that was dropped in favour of the much cheaper Metrolink solution.

The site's name is a little misleading; Preston bus station is featured so it's not just Manchester, but we think if you're a regular reader you'll appreciate Manctransit.

Tameside blogger's comfort countdown

If you're not subscribed to Stuart Vallantine's East of the M60 blog, why not?  Stuart regularly writes about his experiences on public transport in Greater Manchester and his posts are always a good read.  We've mentioned his posts on specific bus routes (such as the much-missed 400) in the past.  His latest bus-related post is entitled 'The Best (Bus) Seat in the House: The Not So Perfect 10' and counts down Stuart's chart of the most comfortable bus rides in the region.

What comes out on top?  We'll let you read for yourself but safe to say it's not Arriva's diabolical Darts!  Head over to his post here to read on.

Bus stop romantic put in his place

We're sure that over the years plenty of people have found love on Manchester's bus network.  However, one man in Levenshulme failed in his bid to join their ranks earlier this year.  While perusing Flickr for photos to illustrate our posts we came across this rather amusing photograph.  Photographer Zawtowers describes the sad tale of the baseball capped romantic.

"When I was heading to work this morning, I saw that a hand written letter had been left at the bus stop, with the letter proclaiming how much he had seen a girl with red hair on the Monday 25th August, and how much he wanted to take her out for a drink.

Fair play for being romantic and all that, but I wonder if he's spotted that his hopes were dashed yet?

On my way home, at the same bus stop, the girl in the red hair in question has replied, it seems, and placed her reply directly underneath, making it pretty clear to me how she feels - even down to not having the time to place the apostrophes where needed. In fact, the end line says all you'd need to know.

There are other ways of finding love - I'm not quite sure advertising your unrequited feelings and email address on a bus shelter is one of them!"

Fantastic stuff!  We love the triple-underlined "Stay away" - no room left for debate there!  You can see the photo in better detail by heading over to its Flickr page and selecting 'All Sizes'.

Fun with maps

We like:
a) Maps
b) The idea of an expanded Metrolink network

So thanks to the MEN's David Ottewell for drawing our attention to this fantastic vision of what the Metrolink network could look like by 2030.  Click on the map for a better look.  The map includes made-up lines, including one from the Airport to Manchester city centre via Wilmslow Road/Oxford Road as well as all the proposed 'big bang' lines.

Of course, the chances of this all happening in the next 22 years are slim-to-none, but we can dream!

Metroshuttle - grinding the city to a halt?

The folks over at B3ta.com are best known for doing things like Photoshopping movie posters to look like they're advertising cat food, but one of the keen-eyed people on their forum has brought up a good point about the Manchester Metroshuttle posters.  Take a look at the photo below and you'll notice there's no way those cog wheels could actually turn!

Either the art department at GMPTE have a limited knowledge of engineering or they're making a veiled reference to city centre traffic levels at 5pm.  Have a look here for the full B3ta forum thread.

Thanks to James for telling us about this.

Service 400 - a history

If you lived in the north, west or south parts of Greater Manchester any time between 1970 and 2004, chances are you'd have seen service 400 in action.  This bus service ran between Bolton and Stockport via Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside.  While the 22 service, which runs between Stockport and Bolton 'the other way' (via south Manchester, Trafford and Salford) remains, the 400 was withdrawn four years ago.

Why was this?  Well, we recommend you read Stuart Vallantine's in-depth article which details the 400's demise and suggests reasons why it should be reinstated.  Click here to head over to the article on his site.