100 BRITISH BUS ROUTES: ROUTE 43
Manchester Airport - Manchester City Centre (Piccadilly Gardens)
8 October 2022
ABOVE: Stagecoach Manchester 14001 (LF69 UXP), a BYD ADL Enviro400EV, is at Sharston Road whilst working route 43 towards Manchester Airport. All photos in this article taken on Friday 23rd September 2022 unless otherwise stated.
Operator: Stagecoach Manchester
Runs: Daily, 24 hours a day
Weekday frequency: Every 10 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 16 buses
Off-peak journey time: 68-69 minutes
Estimated route length: 10.5 miles
The Wilmslow Road bus corridor in Greater Manchester (heading south from the City Centre) is reputed to be the busiest bus corridor in Europe. I didn’t write that (well obviously I did, or you wouldn’t be reading it here…), but I found the statement on Wikipedia, which even has a dedicated page about the buses on this corridor.
Another article, on a blog called “Proper Manchester”, says it’s the bus corridor “… you don’t even need to look at the bus timetable for, because you know by the time you’ve taken your hood down as your shelter from the rain under the bus stop, one will be pulling in and leading you on your merry way to a house party in south Manny somewhere”.
Both articles are keen to point out that no authoritative comparison is available to substantiate the claim that this is “the busiest corridor”, and that how one measures it is likely to depend on how short a corridor can be considered to be. But there seems to be a consensus at least that the 3.7-mile road from central Manchester to Withington is pretty good for buses.
I had an overnight stay in Manchester on business some years ago and stayed at a hotel in Fallowfield, about three miles out from the City Centre on the Wilmslow Road. I remember seeing how crazy the bus service was then and, having returned to the same hotel for my recent visit to the city, my view hasn’t changed.
Operator: Stagecoach Manchester
Runs: Daily, 24 hours a day
Weekday frequency: Every 10 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 16 buses
Off-peak journey time: 68-69 minutes
Estimated route length: 10.5 miles
The Wilmslow Road bus corridor in Greater Manchester (heading south from the City Centre) is reputed to be the busiest bus corridor in Europe. I didn’t write that (well obviously I did, or you wouldn’t be reading it here…), but I found the statement on Wikipedia, which even has a dedicated page about the buses on this corridor.
Another article, on a blog called “Proper Manchester”, says it’s the bus corridor “… you don’t even need to look at the bus timetable for, because you know by the time you’ve taken your hood down as your shelter from the rain under the bus stop, one will be pulling in and leading you on your merry way to a house party in south Manny somewhere”.
Both articles are keen to point out that no authoritative comparison is available to substantiate the claim that this is “the busiest corridor”, and that how one measures it is likely to depend on how short a corridor can be considered to be. But there seems to be a consensus at least that the 3.7-mile road from central Manchester to Withington is pretty good for buses.
I had an overnight stay in Manchester on business some years ago and stayed at a hotel in Fallowfield, about three miles out from the City Centre on the Wilmslow Road. I remember seeing how crazy the bus service was then and, having returned to the same hotel for my recent visit to the city, my view hasn’t changed.
ABOVE: Timetable poster in Fallowfield, showing the range of services operating. Interesting to see a symbol against departures that are wheelchair-accessible is still being used, some years after such accessibility became compulsory (and thus every bus on the timetable carries the symbol)!
This is one of the places associated with the Stagecoach Magic Bus operation. Originally introduced to compete with First Bus services on the corridor, Magic Bus was cheaper (headline fare at one point was £1 single) and used older vehicles, so First Buses and Magic Buses ran in convoys, scooping up the large numbers of people accessing the Universities and the City Centre. A huge market; makes me wonder why the Manchester Metrolink hasn’t ventured down here.
This is one of the places associated with the Stagecoach Magic Bus operation. Originally introduced to compete with First Bus services on the corridor, Magic Bus was cheaper (headline fare at one point was £1 single) and used older vehicles, so First Buses and Magic Buses ran in convoys, scooping up the large numbers of people accessing the Universities and the City Centre. A huge market; makes me wonder why the Manchester Metrolink hasn’t ventured down here.
Stagecoach Manchester 12248 (SL63 GCU) and a stablemate pass the Friendship Inn in Fallowfield on Magic Bus service 142 in the evening of Wednesday 21st September 2022.
I am standing at a bus stop opposite the Royal Mail’s Manchester South Delivery Office. There’s a multitude of bus services listed. The main ones seem to fall into two groups; the Magic Bus services (142 / 143 / 147), which only run a little further south to East or West Didsbury; and the services that go further out of town. These include the 41 to Sale, the 42 to Stockport (which has siblings 42A, 42B & 42C to related suburbs), and the 43 to Manchester Airport.
The 41 is run by Go North West. I presume it has some valued unique links as the operator doesn’t seem to want to tap into the main market here, running single-decker buses every 20 minutes. The 42 and its siblings provide another six buses an hour between them and the 43 yet six more, making a total of 15 per hour for the longer-distance services. Add the Magic Bus, at 20 per hour (including route 143 which runs every five minutes), and you’re up to 35 buses per hour.
The competition is less than it was. First pulled out of the area and Stagecoach now runs 32 of the 35 buses per hour (everything except the 41). I’m not sure whether the Magic Bus is still cheaper than the other services, or whether the services just complement one another, but no-one I see seems to care much!
The Magic Bus signage across the front window is extremely annoying
But let’s pull away from this crazy road for just a moment and relax into the relative calm of Manchester Airport’s Bus Station. After a visit to the dreadful bus facilities at Bristol International Airport, https://busestopdeckarchive.co.uk/?p=2034, I am not necessarily expecting a lot here.
But this bus station is fit for purpose, if a little spartan. It’s under cover and there are sufficient stands for all services. There are washrooms, and one can get into the adjoining railway station, and the airport terminal itself, without having to go out into the open.
Stagecoach Manchester 14017 (LF69 UYJ) shows off its electric credentials at Manchester Airport Bus Station
I am planning a different route out of here, but it isn’t due for 40 minutes and there’s nothing to do in the meantime. The bus station coffee shop looks like it hasn’t been open since before the pandemic. I wander towards the terminal, but it doesn’t look immediately promising, so I decide to ride the 43 instead!
The 10-minute frequency means it’s not going to be a long wait, and the bus soon pulls up onto the stand. The route is operated by electric buses – BYD ADL Enviro400EVs – intriguingly with London registrations, although older stock creeps in too.
It’s mainly residential for the first part of the run towards Wythenshawe. There are a lot of nice houses and green spaces on the airport’s doorstep.
Ruddpark Road, Wythenshawe
The Wythenshawe Bus Interchange sits alongside the Metrolink stop. On a visit here earlier in the week, I hadn't been especially impressed. The departure boards were barely legible in the bright sunshine, and there were children riding up and down the bus station, at some speed, on an e-scooter.
There also appeared to be two stand Fs, and I was initially waiting at the wrong one when my intended bus appeared. Can’t work that one out at all!
As I pass through again, I’m also irritated for a different reason. I previously left the tram here to ride to the Airport by bus. I’ve since realised that Wythenshawe to Manchester Airport is the only substantial part of the Manchester Metrolink network that I have never travelled on – I could have done it that day and virtually 'finished' the network (the only other bit I haven’t done is in and out of Media City UK).
Back to the 43, and we continue through residential areas, down roads that parallel the segregated tram tracks. It’s wide, open and feels welcoming. After the Benchill stop the tram route turns left (westwards), whilst we continue north.
Older Enviro400 19399 (MX58 FSP) in Wythenshawe Town Centre
At Sharston Green we make the first of two motorway crossings, over the M56 “North Cheshire” motorway. It turns a lot more industrial here but that doesn’t last and we’re soon into residential areas again as we approach Northenden Village. Here we make a right turn onto the road that will eventually join the Wilmslow Road. It's a straight run from here almost the whole way to the terminus!
Someone wants to board the bus here, but the bus stop is closed due to roadworks. Although it’s clear that the bus will be held by the temporary traffic lights for a minute or so, the driver doesn’t let him board.
We pass under the M60 Manchester Orbital motorway and enjoy a relatively calm, open stretch for a mile or so, down tree-lined roads past such attractions as the Withington Golf Club and the Britannia Country House Hotel; the latter is certainly striking and inviting but doesn’t look like my idea of a country house.
At Central Road in West Didsbury, we pass the turning circle of Magic Bus route 143. Although the Magic Bus routes are officially allocated slightly older E400s, there’s one of the 43’s electric vehicles on a 143 on the stand (and I see another further along the route) – which perhaps explains the presence of older vehicles on the 43.
Electric 14022 (LF69 UYO) passes Brook Road in Fallowfield whilst working ‘Magic Bus’ route 143, normally the preserve of older E400s
Then we’re into Withington, where the road from the right (already the Wilmslow Road), merges with ours, and brings the buses from East Didsbury and Stockport with it.
14010 (LF69 UYA), at Circular Road in West Didsbury, is accompanied by a cyclist (who appears to be in the middle of a phone call) and a Go-Ahead Mercedes-Benz Citaro on route 41.
And so we are onto what could be the busiest bus corridor in Europe (not proven, as noted above). Even mid-morning, it’s busy. Incredibly so. My bus has been moderately loaded up to now but is now filling up fast. I can no longer have the front seat to myself!
At the Friendship Inn in Fallowfield a man is running for the bus. The man in the seat behind me tells his companion that “the driver won’t wait”. He doesn’t. According to the same man, “the bus drivers in Manchester are ridiculous”. For a moment it feels like I’m back in London.
14015 (LF69 UYG) passes the Friendship Inn in Fallowfield
Elsewhere, a teenager on his phone has his own concept of priority seating: “I sit on the Priority Seating if I want to because I’m my biggest priority”! Given the way they behave, I'm referring to the generation after Generation Z as “Generation Entitled”.
And then we reach Langley Road, adjacent to the Fallowfield Campus of the University of Manchester. It’s a segregated bus stop, large enough to accommodate several buses at once. We’re arriving in convoy with two buses on route 142 (one in front of us and one behind), and it’s just as well, as there are enough people waiting to fill all of the available spaces on all three buses.
Such is the crowd at the stop here that Stagecoach has deployed people to manage the queues. Some are already boarding the 142 in front and others are directed to my bus. But the other 142 then passes both and pulls in at the front end, and yet more prospective passengers are directed towards that one. And the driver does wait for them, so not quite like London.
12253 (SL63 GDA), an ADL Enviro400H, pulls into the Langley Road stop in Fallowfield, closely followed by my bus. Note the 30+ people waiting to board these already busy buses, as well as the two Stagecoach staff members who are assisting with the flood.
We’re coming into the centre of Rusholme now, where the Wilmslow Road is known colloquially as the Curry Mile. The name relates to the presence of around 70 restaurants, takeaways and kebab houses in what is probably only half a mile or so of road, despite the name.
The road is thought to be “the largest concentration of South Asian restaurants in the UK”, but, like the bus corridor, I don’t think this has been measured or proven. I’ll come back to this stretch (literally in my travels, and also figuratively in this article), in a moment.
The so-called Curry Mile, in Rusholme, where a Go North West Enviro200 is working route 53 (Cheetham Hill – Pendleton), one of those non-direct services that misses the City Centre. You can see a few of the restaurants - there are many more!
Wilmslow Road turns into Oxford Road as we reach the environs of the City Centre, now just a mile or so away. This area seems to be the main site of the University of Manchester and there’s a significant exodus of passengers here, although others are still joining for the last lap.
The Manchester Royal Infirmary Hospital is here as well. I assume one can get an MRI scan there. Actually, I suppose that any scan completed there is automatically an MRI scan...?
Oxford Road, by the University of Manchester
We reach the City Centre, and the major bus interchange at Piccadilly Gardens is our terminus, after a journey of 69 minutes. After the busy nature of the journey, it is reasonably calm here at this mid-morning juncture.
It’s not the same at 6pm. I’ve come back to Piccadilly Gardens to find a bus back to my hotel. Two buses on route 43 have turned up at the same time, and the queue has divided itself between them. There are two Magic Buses on route 143 loading up as well.
There seem to be enough people about to fill most of the available buses. It is reminiscent of what happens when a major venue empties out after a concert, and everyone wants the same bus out. I spend the journey back to Fallowfield leap-frogging with at least three other buses.
A different day, at closer to 9pm, I’m making another journey out of the City Centre, again on route 43, although this one isn’t one of the electric vehicles.
It’s almost as busy a service as the rush hour trip was. All seems fine until the bus unexpectedly takes a left turn just before the Curry Mile. There’s no announcement of a diversion, and no-one else bats an eyelid. I have no idea where I’m going, or whether the bus will be back on its official route in time for my stop.
It turns out that buses are being diverted away from the Curry Mile on Friday and Saturday nights between 8pm and 1am. I presume this is due to the sort of traffic congestion that one could imagine a narrow road with 70 restaurants and take aways might generate.
But there’s no mention of the diversion (or should that be route variation as it’s a regular one) on the Stagecoach timetable page. After a bit of a search for information, with the benefit of hindsight, I find advice online on the Greater Manchester PTE site:
It can also be deduced via Traveline if you generate an all-stops timetable, where services at the relevant hours are missing a few stops. But you need to know that you need to look!
We're back onto the proper route well before my stop. What a roller-coaster of a ride on the Wilmslow Road. I’m just very glad that I don’t have to do it every day!