Stagecoach Manchester

Slogan	Moving Greater Manchester Forward
Parent	Stagecoach Group plc
Founded	1996, formerly GM Buses South
Headquarters	Hyde Road, Manchester
Service area	Greater Manchester (some services overlap into other counties)
Service type	Bus
Hubs	Manchester, Stockport, Trafford, Tameside
Depot(s)	Hyde Road, Manchester; Daw Bank, Stockport; Sharston, Wythenshawe; Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside
Fleet	Optare Solo Volvo B10M Alexander Dennis Trident Alexander Dennis Pointer Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 Volvo Olympian Leyland Olympian
Operator	Stagecoach Group
Web site	Official Website

Stagecoach in Manchester is the trading name of Greater Manchester Buses South Limited, and is a major operator of bus services in Greater Manchester.

Stagecoach Manchester is the largest UK bus subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, serving over 87 million passengers a year.^[1] Stagecoach Manchester's operations include the 192 service of which the portion between Stockport (Mersey Square) and Manchester (Piccadilly Gardens) is Britain's busiest route carrying 11 million passengers a year alone.^[2]

The company was formerly known as GM Buses (South) Ltd. which was formed as a management buyout of the southern area of GM Buses (which originated from Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive's bus division). The northern area of GM Buses is now known as First Manchester.

History

A timeline overview of public transport in Manchester, prior to 1993, is given here.

GM Buses (South) was formed in late 1993 in preparation for privatisation of the former PTE bus company in Greater Manchester. It was broken into two parts to make more money for the Government and also to fulfill the Government's 'sweet shop' bus company ownership vision. Stagecoach put in a strong bid, and gained clearance from the Department of Trade & Industry, but the employees bought it for £16 million. It faced an uphill struggle. as over 40 competitors had grown over GM Buses routes before the break-up, although most of those competed with GM Buses (North). However, Bee Line and MTL Manchester did go south, and Mayne, Walls and Finglands were established competitors on lucrative South Manchester routes.

Both companies also suffered from elderly fleets, as a stand-alone (nil subsidy) arms' length company, GM Buses had not been able to buy new buses, and thus Atlanteans and Fleetlines--the newest by then 15 years old—had to soldier on. Competitors were expanding and the private company could not meet the investment needed.

Stagecoach set up a Ribble subsidiary, Stagecoach Manchester, to compete on GMB (South)'s prime route, the 192 (Manchester - Hazel Grove) with brand new buses, and soon they became popular, the new Volvo B6s made a lasting impression where GMBS could only present a dowdy, dated image.

GMBS had to fight back, in response to increasing competition by Merseyside Transport (MTL Manchester) GMBS set up Birkenhead & District on the Wirral, running Fleetlines in Birkenhead Corporation livery. Throughout 1994 GMBS bought a large number of secondhand buses, mainly more Atlanteans and Leyland Nationals. Competition with Stagecoach became stronger, with Stagecoach bringing in new buses in the shape of new Volvo B10M-55s with Alexander PS bodies. GMBS used its Charterplan coaching fleet to attack Stagecoach Ribble's X43 to Burnley. By the end of 1994 everything turned peaceful, Stagecoach agreed no further competition on the 192, and financed 20 Volvo B6s for GMBS.

In February 1996 GMBS gave up, and Stagecoach bought the business, it was quickly rebranded Stagecoach Manchester and did well out of Stagecoach new bus orders. The original Stagecoach Manchester was sold to Finglands.

On 21 January 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased the bus operations of A Mayne & Son Ltd (Maynes), with the Maynes fleet of 37 vehicles passing to Hyde Road depot, to be repainted at a later date.^[3] No depot was involved in the sale.

On 10 August 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased another independent bus operator, this time Bullocks Coaches based in Cheadle, Stockport, removing the only independent operator to be based in Stockport. Bullocks has however retained one bus route, the 147 "Oxford Road Link" operated as a subsidised university and hospital link. Bullocks' services included the 157 route between Woodford and Manchester.,^[4] which has since been re-numbered X57 and made limited stop between East Didsbury and Manchester.

In March 2011, Stagecoach started running the Stockport Metroshuttle service, taking over the service from Bluebird.^[5] This is the first time that Stagecoach has run a Metroshuttle service in Greater Manchester.

In July 2011, Stagecoach introduced a 'Smart Card' system onto some of their buses, allowing travel to be pre-paid for and then simply swiped as one boards the bus.^[6] The scheme, labeled "StagecoachSmart", is designed to make bus travel simpler and more attractive, cut carbon and encourage people out of their cars and on to buses. Smart ticketing is shown lead to more efficient, seamless journeys for passengers.^[6] They hope to see this being rolled out to all modes of public transport in England as quickly as possible and this announcement from Stagecoach is another positive step towards that. Stagecoach is the first operator to install smartcard technology on its nationwide fleet of 7,000 buses outside London. Its London vehicles already accept the Oyster Card. It means passengers using a monthly Megarider Xtra ticket can have top-up payments automatically placed on their swipe card each month. The firm also uses the technology to record concessionary journeys made by pensioners in Manchester and Lancashire. Greater Manchester’s transport leaders want to introduce their own London-style Oyster ‘smart card’ that will cover all modes of transport. They have submitted a bid for funding towards the scheme from the Department for Transport. Bus firm Arriva also uses a smart card, called the sQuid, in Bolton. The firm says it was the first to introduce electronic tickets using mobile phones.^[6]

Depots

• Ashton-under-Lyne (Riverside, Clarence Street) (AZ)
• Manchester (Hyde Road, Ardwick) (HE)
• Manchester (Sharston) (SH)
• Stockport (Daw Bank) (ST)

Fleet

As of December 2010 (see below), Stagecoach Manchester had 667 operational buses,^[7] of which over half are Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. The fleet is as follows:

Image	Chassis	Body	Seats	Built	Allocation
	Alexander Dennis Enviro400H (hybrid)	Alexander Dennis Enviro400	81	2010	Sharston (30) Total: 30
	Alexander Dennis Enviro400	Alexander Dennis Enviro400	80 or 81	2006-10	Ashton (39) Hyde Road (168) Sharston (88) Stockport (65) Total: 360
	Dennis Trident 2	Alexander ALX400	74, 77 or 79	1999–2000	Hyde Road (31) Sharston (19) Stockport (8) Total: 58
	Dennis Trident 2	East Lancs Lolyne	81	1999–2003	Sharston (15) Total: 15
	Dennis Trident 2	Plaxton President	78	2003	Sharston (2) Total: 2
	DAF DB250	Optare Spectra	77	1998	Stockport (2) Total: 2
	Volvo Olympian	Alexander RL	87	1996-8	Hyde Road (6) Sharston (18) Stockport (3) Total: 27
	Volvo Olympian	Northern Counties Palatine	72	1997	Ashton (1) Total: 1
	MAN 18.220 HOCL-NR	Alexander ALX300	42	1998–2006	Ashton (29) Hyde Road (15) Sharston (12) Stockport (60) Total: 116
	Scania N94UB	East Lancs Myllennium	35	2004	Ashton (2) Total: 2
	TransBus Enviro300	TransBus Enviro300	45	2002	Sharston (1) Total: 1
	Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart	Alexander Dennis Enviro200	38	2009	Stockport (19) Total: 19
	Dennis Dart SLF or MPD	Plaxton (or Transbus) Pointer	29, 35 or 37	1999 / 2004	Ashton (3) Stockport (2) Total: 5
	Dennis Dart SLF	Alexander ALX200	29	1998-9	Ashton (3) Stockport (1) Total: 4
	Optare Solo M850 or M880	Optare Solo	27-29	2001, 2007-9	Ashton (1) Stockport (21) Total: 22

Services

201 service passing under Godley arches

Main article: List of Stagecoach Manchester bus routes

Stagecoach Manchester mainly run services in the southern areas of Greater Manchester, serving Stockport, Trafford, Tameside and south and central Manchester. They also run some local services in Glossop. Stagecoach does run some services outside these areas, which are the 22 (Bolton – Stockport) which is shared with First Manchester, and the 76 (Oldham - Manchester). From March 2011, they also run the Metroshuttle service in Stockport town centre.

See also

• Timeline of public passenger transport operations in Manchester

Publications

• Celebrating 100 Years of Princess Road. Manchester: Stagecoach, April 2010 ^[8][9]

References

1. ^ "Stagecoach welcomes government funding for Greater Manchester transport strategy". www.stagecoachplc.co.uk. 9 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2011-01-01. http://www.stagecoachplc.co.uk/scg/media/press/pr2008/2008-06-09/. Retrieved 26 September 2010. 
2. ^ Stagecoach Group - Greener Smarter Travel: Bus travel up to 80% cheaper than commuting by car Archived 1 January 2011 at WebCite
3. ^ Bus and Coach News Archived 1 January 2011 at WebCite
4. ^ "Stagecoach Manchester - News - Stagecoach Announces Bullocks Acquisition". Stagecoach Manchester. 2008-08-08. http://www.stagecoachbus.com/manchester/news_5301.html. Retrieved 2008-08-11. 
5. ^ "GMPTE - Buses - Latest Changes". GMPTE. http://www.gmpte.com/buses/service_changes.cfm. Retrieved 14 February 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Kirby, Dean (2 July 2011). "Bus firm Stagecoach lead the way with new 'smart card'". Manchester: menmedia. http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/transport/public_transport/s/1425477_bus-firm-stagecoach-lead-the-way-with-new-smartcard. Retrieved 7 August 2011. 
7. ^ Stagecoach Manchester.xls "Stagecoach Manchester fleetlist". North West Buses website. Archived from the original on 2011-01-01. http://nwbus.webs.com/Website Stagecoach Manchester.xls. Retrieved 2010-12-15. 
8. ^ "Princess Road book". Stagecoachbus. http://www.stagecoachbus.com/Manchester-PrincessRd-Book.aspx. Retrieved 2011-09-20. 
9. ^ "Bus firm Stagecoach travels to new stop as century-old depot shuts". Manchester Evening News. http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/transport/s/1314444_bus_firm_stagecoach_travels_to_new_stop_as_centuryold_depot_shuts. Retrieved 2011-09-20. 

External links

• Stagecoach Manchester official website