Buzzing around Greater Manchester
Part One
7 July 2024
ABOVE: Go North West 3499 (MX21 AUM), a Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid, arrives into Leigh Bus Station in Greater Manchester, on route 610 from Wigan. The bus is operating as part of Manchester's new Bee Network, and there is virtually nothing visible to identify it as a Go North West vehicle. All photos in this article were taken on Saturday 29 June 2024.
My regular reader knows that I can't keep away from Greater Manchester. If I am anywhere in or near the region, I have to drop in, whether I'm staying in Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool or Blackburn...
And so I'm back, on a soggy Saturday morning, at Bolton interchange, north-west of Manchester city centre, with a twin mission. I want to do another circuit around the suburbs of the city, and I want to see how the new Bee Network is settling down and changing the look of Greater Manchester's bus network.
The Bee Network is the first franchised bus operation outside London, with the Greater Mancheser Combined Authority having used powers, under the Bus Services Act 2017, to bring previously deregulated services back into local authority control. The worker bee was adopted as a motif for Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, at a time when Manchester was taking a leading role in new forms of mass production, so it makes sense for this to be applied to tbe branding for the region's buses (indeed, for all modes of transport in the region).
The Bee Network is being introduced in three tranches; two of these - broadly centred on the northern half of the city and covering Bolton, Wigan, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, north Manchester and parts of Salford - are so far in place. The third (and "largest") tranche, covering the southern side of the city, will follow in January 2025.
I made a circuit of the city in August 2021, which you can read about here. On that occasion, I started in Stockport and traversed clockwise. This time, I am starting in Bolton and am planning to complete an anti-clockwise circuit. I'm not covering exactly the same routes as before, as I want to vary things a bit, but the aim is still to get round in a day. The plan is not to go into Manchester itself, but to stay in the towns around it, that make up Greater Manchester.
Last time, Bolton came by in the middle of the afternoon, but it did give me a decent photograph that I put at the head of the earlier article, showing three buses from Diamond North West, one from Stagecoach and one from independent operator, Vision Bus.
This time things look very different... Most of the buses parked up are in the Bee Network's standard pale yellow colours, and the one vehicle that has yet to be so liveried has stickers to proclaim its allegiance to the Network.
ABOVE: Bee Network buses parked up at Bolton Interchange. The bus on the left is Go North West 3063 (BV63 VGU), a Volvo B5LH MCV EvoSeti that was new to Go-Ahead London. A sticker on the side window proclaims that this is "a Bee Network bus waiting to be made yellow". Accompanying it are two Enviro400 EVs and an Enviro200 MMC.
The principle is similar to the red buses of London, where all buses carry the same livery and branding, and most people don't know (or need to know) which bus company runs any particular service.
In Manchester, bus routes were not offered out on a route-by-route basis as in London, but in a series of 'packages'. Go North West was the big winner of the first tranche (Bolton, Wigan), whilst Stagecoach scored in tranche two (Oldham, Rochdale, North Manchester). Other operators won contracts for smaller groups of services, but no-one needs to know the details of who runs what, as the coherence is absolute.
On my 2021 trip I came to Bolton directly from Leigh, but today I want go to Leigh via Wigan.
Bolton Interchange is a huge facility with more than 20 stands, but the live departures screen is only showing the first eight departures, barely covering the next 10 minutes, so I need to find the right stop for my intended bus, the 575, which is due in 15 minutes.
Every stop has a "route finder" list, listing all services in route number order and indicating the appropriate stop for each. It's whilst wandering across to the 575 stand that I spot the 607 bus labelled for Wigan, and I decide to take this one instead. It's a double-decker for a start, which the 575 usually isn't, and the 607 is due out five minutes earlier.
As I board, it's raining heavily...
ABOVE: A Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid at 'The Mercury' stop near the Chequerbent Roundabout in Westhoughton, on route 607 towards Bolton.
The bus is a Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid, and was new to Diamond North West. Many buses in Manchester have been transferred from their previous operator to the designated Bee Network operator, although there has also been investment in new vehicles. Diamond operated a range of services in north Manchester, but many of those routes were lost through the franchising process, and Diamond's presence in this area is much less than it was before.
I buy a Day Ticket for £5.00, which covers all buses in Greater Manchester - this product is not a development of the Bee Network (it was already in place), but it has been rebranded as the "Bee AnyBus".
The 607, which used to be known as the 7 until the Bee Network renumbered it to avoid duplication of route numbers on the new network, twists and turns through a number of residential and industrial areas. In one such residential area, Castle Hill, Hindley, a man is running for the bus, and the driver takes the trouble to slow down and stop a hundred yards short of the stop to reduce the distance that the customer has to run - very thoughtful.
It's in Hindley itself that we find the "Summat to Ate" steak restaurant. Looks nice, but it's not really the time to stop for a big meal as it's only summat past 10 in the morning...
ABOVE: The "Summat to Ate" restaurant in Market Street, Hindley.
At this point, we're about three miles east of our destination. The driver's excellent customer service skills take a slight knocking here when he tells a prospective passenger in a wheelchair that he can't take her because the wheelchair spaces are both occupied. They are both occupied, but only by buggies. This potentially-tricky situation is swiftly resolved when one of the pushchair owners agrees to get off a stop early to make room.
In the centre of Hindley (incidentally, Music Hall and film star George Formby lived in the town as a child), is the magnificent Parish Church of St Peter Hindley:
ABOVE: The Parish Church of St Peter Hindley
We reach Wigan Bus Station at 1031, two minutes later than scheduled. Like most bus stations, pedestrians are not allowed in the bus manoeuvring area, but a woman is working her way across the area, and receives a round of applause from a number of between-trip bus drivers for completing the crossing safely!
The Bee Network influence is as prominent here as it was in Bolton, with a line of yellow buses broken up only by one Arriva North West bus on a route that leaves Greater Manchester and does not form part of the Network.
ABOVE: A selection of Bee Network buses lined up in Wigan Bus Station. On the left is Go North West 4129 (SK73 CTY), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, on route 575 (which I declined to catch from Bolton in favour of the 607). Next to that is the only non-Bee Network bus in the bus station at this point, a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2 of Arriva Merseyside, probably working the 352 to St Helens.
I'm now catching the 610 over to Leigh. This is another ex-Diamond route that is now operated by Go North West as part of the Bee Network, and again using ex-Diamond Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrids.
Transport for London operators show their names discreetly on their vehicles but there is no such provision here. The only way to identify an operator on the Bee Network is by the legal lettering on the vehicle (all buses must, by law, show the legal name and address of the operator); this is unless one is able to tell by the fleet number - a four-digit number isn't going to be Stagecoach, Diamond or First, for example, as they use five-digit numbers.
ABOVE: Go North West 3480 (MX70 AOY), a Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid, still carries its previous livery from Diamond Bus North West. The only clues to the change of ownership are the Bee Network stickers and the change of fleet number, where the 3480 sticker has been put over the previous Diamond fleet number, which was 40790. The location is the former Rockleigh Hotel on the Bolton Road in Ashton-in-Makerfield.
One small difference from my 607 bus is that the corner bulkheads on my 610 are glazed rather than blocked up, giving a better view. The rain is not hitting the corner window quite so heavily, so I attempt a few pictures out of it (including the one above).
It rains all through this journey, making it perhaps less memorable as a result. Looking at a map afterwards (see my map below) highlights how this is anything but a direct journey. We don't cross out of Greater Manchester but we get to within half a mile of doing so.
My notes record a particularly courteous driver, which is always nice, and a five-minute late arrival into Leigh Bus Station at 1142, which is one of those things.
We're now in the western suburbs of the city, and I wonder, as we venture closer to the southern, as yet-unfranchised, area, whether the difference will start to show in terms of the Bee Network's "presence".
Not a bit of it. Bee Network buses are still very much in dominence here, with only the services that are running over the 'border' breaking ranks. In this case, as well as Arriva buses, we have Warrington's Own - another fleet that is about to be transformed; Warrington's Own is replacing its entire fleet with electric buses.
ABOVE: Warrington's Own 222 (YY67 USH), an ADL Enviro200, awaits departure from Leigh Bus Station on route 19 to Warrington. Three Bee Network buses are also in evidence.
The Bee Network branding is prominent everywhere, from a symbol at the entrance to the bus station (see title picture) to the actual bus tickets themselves. As I have noted above, work has also started on renumbering some bus routes to reduce duplication, and, based on the explanatory text on the poster below, to remove lettered routes from the network as well.
ABOVE: Poster explaining the renumbering of various routes in the Wigan area. "There's a number 6 ... in Wigan and ... another ... in Rochdale ... Some routes even had letters! Talk about confusing!"
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Most of the buses I am targeting today are pretty frequent (the 610, for example, runs every 12 minutes), but I now have the least-frequent bus of the day - the 126 to the Trafford Centre, which only runs hourly. And I have missed it by four minutes...
A cup of tea later, I am at the bus stop in good time for the arrival of the incoming journey, eight minutes before our 1238 departure time. This is a 24-reg ADL Enviro200 MMC, new into service in March, and therefore to full Bee Network specification.
This bus is operated by Diamond Bus North West, under one of the smaller contracts. The first noteworthy point is that the QR code on my Go North West-issued day ticket can be read by the machine on this bus. I have never previously seen a ticket that has been issued by one operator that can be read by another, even when available across multiple operators - clearly part of the joined-up nature of this Network.
There's a screen at the front of the bus showing the next few stops, but it is partly obscured from some seats by a solid yellow board at the front of the bus. This turns out to be another electronic screen, facing the other way for the benefit of those in the forward section. I wonder if this is necessary? Surely the main screen is still visible to people here?
ABOVE: The main information screen on this Enviro200 MMC is partly-obscured from some seats by the 'secondary' screen, which is visible from the other side of the yellow board.
There are audio announcements as well. Meanwhile, I partake of the opportunity to top up my phone using the in-built charging kit. On the negative side, the legroom for a tall person like me is extremely poor.
The journey towards the Trafford Centre is getting busy. In Worsley, we pass The Court House, built in 1849 as the local manor court, but now available to hire as a venue for weddings, conferences and so forth.
ABOVE: The Court House, Worsley
It's getting very busy on the 126. A group of youths board, and one sits himself fully inside the luggage rack behind the front door. You would think that the driver would ask him to move, but he doesn't.
The last section of this route usually involves a short stretch of the M60 motorway, but on this occasion we are not heading that way, but are instead running along the parallel B5211 Barton Road / Worsley Road through Eccles. Presumably there is a problem on the motorway.
ABOVE: A view from the Worsley Road in Eccles, running alongside the Bridgewater Canal during a diversion on route 126.
The result of that diversion is that we arrive 11 minutes late at the Trafford Centre, at 1324.
ABOVE: The Trafford Centre
A quick turnaround is needed here, as the bus that has come in as the 126 is now forming the 1320 departure on route 132 to Wigan, but it's 1329 by the time that the driver has finished loading up and is able to get going. (BusTimes.org shows that the bus made up all but two minues of the lost time before Wigan.)
There are a number of people waiting at the Trafford Centre Bus Station, but there's a distinct lack of buses. Possibly whatever is affecting the nearby motorway is having a knock-on effect on various routes here.
ABOVE: The Trafford Centre Bus Station
As buses do come in and out, there is more variety of liveries here. The Bee Network is still prominent, but, as we're into tranche three territory, there are more Manchester services that the Network has yet to seize control of.
Meanwhile, I want to catch the 247 to Altrincham, but I have missed the 1315 departure (I doubt I would have made it anyway, even if the 126 had got in on time at 1313), and, though half-horly on weekdays and Saturday mornings, the frequency drops to hourly on Saturday afternoons, and the next departure isn't until 1415, about 45 minutes away.
The odds of my being able to complete the circuit I have planned feel to be fading fast. I won't get to Altrincham until 1509 at the earliest, and that's still not even halfway round.
I decide to change my route to cut out Altrincham altogether - both the 247 which would have taken me there, and route 11 that I had planned to catch onwards to Stockport. I'm going to go straight to Stockport instead. This means that I will cut squarely into Manchester itself, which I had planned to avoid, but I will still be doing a circuit and will miss the City Centre.
I need either the 23 or 25 services. There are queues for both so it will be whichever comes in first.
They come together - one behind the other! There are lots of people getting off both buses, but the 23's driver isn't ready to load up yet so I go for the 25, which is presumably the 1324 departure, even though it's 1338.
To confuse matters, this is a Bee Network-liveried vehicle - a 24-reg ADL Enviro400 MMC - operated by Stagecoach Manchester, but, as far as I can tell, the 25 is not (yet) part of the Network. Stagecoach uses different ticket machines to other operators and there's no QR reader, so it's just a matter of showing my ticket to the driver. We're off the stand and on our way before the 23 has started loading up.
This journey is supposed to take exactly an hour, but roadworks in the Stretford area add several minutes to the journey, and of course, we've already been about 15 minutes late from the off. The driving style is brisk; the driver is doing his best to recover the lost time.
ABOVE: Diamond Bus North West 32270 (SM13 NEJ), new to First Potteries, is a Wright StreetLite DF. It is heading along the Wilbraham Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, working route 150 from Gorton to the Trafford Centre
But circumstances are conspiring against him. There's a particularly poorly-managed set of roadworks in Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where the traffic in the opposite direction has been left to fend for itself around some roadworks paraphernalia:
ABOVE: Stagecoach Manchester 19502 (MX09 ATN), an ADL Enviro400, is stuck at the head of a queue to get around the "roadworks" in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, whilst working on route 23 to the Trafford Centre. Is there actually a hole in the road or are the materials just decorative?
ABOVE: At the back of the same queue in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Stagecoach Manchester 19462 (MX58 VBU), an ADL Enviro400, and 10430 (YY15 HJZ), an ADL Enviro400MMC, wait for a chance to squeeze around the works in order to continue to Manchester City Centre on routes 85 & 86 respectively.
There are fewer Bee Network buses around, which is what I would expect in the south of the city, but they are still in evidence, including another one on route 25.
ABOVE: Stagecoach Manchester 11816 (SK24 CKN), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, crosses Kingsway, a couple of miles from Stockport Town Centre, en route for the Trafford Centre on route 25.
Despite the driver's best endeavours, we are 26 minutes late arriving into Stockport, where the bus pulls into the newly-opened Interchange. The alighting point is outside the entrance to the Interchange, from which it is possible to appreciate the high level of the railway viaduct here.
ABOVE: A Bee Network bus moves into the new Interchange at Stockport, in the shadow of the railway viaduct. Residents on higher floors of the new tower block being built here will have an excellent view of the railway line!
Standing 111.1 feet high, the railway viaduct was designed by George Watson Buck, in consultation with the architect John Lowe, for the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. Work began in March 1839 and the viaduct was completed in December 1840. The 11 million bricks used in its construction have made it one of the world's biggest brick structures, and it is now Grade II*-listed (source: Wikipedia).
Stockport Interchange has less history. In fact, it has only been open since March 2024.
ABOVE: We'll have a peek inside here in Part Two...
So I have made it to Stockport, but it's almost 1500hrs. I left Bolton at 0925 and this feels like only being the halfway point. Can I make it round the eastern side of the city and back to Bolton within a reasonable timeframe? And what is my impression of the partially-completed Bee Network? Find out next time...
BELOW: An approximation of the first half of my circuit
