Manchester Buses

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!

We won!

Last night saw the Manchester Blog Award winners announced in a ceremony at Matt & Phred's Jazz Club in the city centre.  Manchester Buses was shortlisted in the 'Best City & Neighbourhood Blog' category.  The judges said ""Blogging is about passion and information. No one could ever accuse Manchester Buses of not believing in what they write. I've also used this site to gather news!".

We're grinning from ear-to-ear about the result, although it did mean that the shield of partial anonymity we've enjoyed previously is gone!  There'll be a post with more detail about the awards over on our sister blog 14sandwiches later today.

We'd just like to thanks everyone who has supported the site in our first year online.  Our readers, anyone who's ever given us news to share, anyone who's commented and those in the industry who reads us.  Thanks to you all!  Right, we're off to cry like Gwynneth Paltrow for five minutes, grab a sandwich and then we'll be back with some bus news.

Meanwhile, why not head over to The Manchizzle to read about all the winners from last night?

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!

We're Manchester Evening News 'Blog of the Week'

The Mancunian Way is the Manchester Evening News' blog about Manchester's "Life on the web".  Run by Paul Robinson and Sarah Hartley, it's well worth sticking in your RSS reader if you have an interest in the city's online activities. 

They've recently started a 'Blog of the Week' feature and Manchester Buses has the honour of being this weeks' recipient of a nice little write-up!

Take a read of their post here.

Come write for us!

Manchester Buses has been running for 10 months now and in that time we've built up a loyal readership of bus users, enthusiasts and members of the industry.  It's clear from the comments and emails we get that there are quite a few potential bus bloggers out there so now we're looking for people to contribute posts to the blog.  We want to expand our writing staff.

Here's what we're looking for:

• Being based in south Manchester, we can write most comprehensively about Manchester and Trafford.  We know Oldham pretty well too.  What we'd like is someone at the other end of the region to write about goings on in places like Wigan, Bolton and Bury. If you reckon you can explain why buses to Wrightington Hospital being rerouted is a problem for some passengers or if you know the bus network in the north west part of Greater Manchester like the back of your hand then get in touch!
• It's not just other parts of the region, maybe you're an expert on a particular operator.  Let us know!
• Do you know about the history of Greater Manchester's buses?  We'd like to do some 'looking back' pieces, so why not write them?
• Opinion Pieces.  Does something about Greater Manchester's bus network really annoy you?  Maybe you're really impressed by something?  If so, why not do a guest post for us?
• Any other ideas.  If you have ideas for something we could be covering (whether you want to write about it yourself or not) then let us know!

In all cases, you'll get full credit for what you write and we'll plug your own site if you have one (or anything else you'd like us to plug).  If that sounds good to you, or if you have any questions, then email us: manchesterbus@googlemail.com
We'll look forward to hearing from you!

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.

Going on a summer holiday

It's time for this blog to take a two-week summer holiday.  We'll return in just over two weeks.

Questions we hope to know the answer to by the time we write our next post:

• Will there definitely be a Congestion Charge referendum, if so when?
• Will Stagecoach definitely buy R. Bullock?
• When and where will the supposed new Metroshuttle services launch?
• Ditto the new orbital routes?

That's enough questions.  Let's hope for some answers!  See you in a fortnight.

We're 100 posts old!

Okay, we don't usually talk about ourselves here on Manchester Buses, but what with yesterday's radio interview, one more piece won't hurt!  Yes, this is the 100th post at the blog.  We've only been going since October, and buoyed by every increasing visitors we're going to continue bringing you regular updates on the latest news on Manchester's bus network.

In the meantime, we're celebrating with a Mars Bar and some Hot Chip on the stereo.

By the way, thanks to Omnibuses for the piece about us today!

Catch the radio interview before it's gone!

At 5:45am this morning the Manchester Buses alarm clock woke us from our slumber so we could head into the BBC Radio Manchester studio for a 7:15 slot talking about this blog, and the whys, whats, whos, wheres and whens behind its existence.  If you missed it then you can catch the show at the 'Listen Again' link on the Radio Manchester website.  It's Eamonn O'Neal & Diane Oxberry's show.  Make sure you listen before 9am tomorrow morning though as the next show replaces it then.

One of the staff on the show told us she got the bus from Rawtenstall to Manchester this morning, arriving before 6.30am.  How come the first bus from Northern Moor (which is actually in Manchester, unlike Rawtenstall) to the city centre arrives at 7.12am?  There's something wrong there!

Manchester Buses takes to the airwaves

Tune into the BBC Radio Manchester Breakfast Show tomorrow because just after 7am they'll be debating Greater Manchester's bus services.  Not only that but we'll be in the studio to discuss this site and why re-regulation of buses would be a good idea.  If you're up that early then those of you in Greater Manchester can catch it on 95.1FM.  Those outside the area can catch it live online through their website.

Ironically, we told the BBC bod who booked us that we would be coming by bus.  Turns out the earliest you can get to Manchester from Manchester Buses HQ is 7.12am.  Funnily enough we'll be mentioning that on air if we get the chance!

Update: The time's been changed (slightly): the discussion will now be on the show at 7.15am.