Stagecoach Manchester

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. Stagecoach Manchester's operations include the 192 service of which the portion between Stockport (Mersey Square) and Manchester (Piccadilly Gardens) is a busy route carrying 11 million passengers a year alone.

The company was formerly known as (however still legally named) 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 Greater 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. 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, 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. This is the first time that Stagecoach has run a Metroshuttle service in Greater Manchester.

On 31 October 2012, an agreement was reached by First Manchester Ltd and Stagecoach Group for Stagecoach Manchester to acquire First Greater Manchester's Wigan operations, including the Lockett Road Depot, satellite facilities at Wigan Bus Station and bus fleet, for £12m. The deal will see the 300 employees and 120 vehicles (although 20 are owned by Transport for Greater Manchester) transfer to Stagecoach's Greater Manchester East Buses Ltd subsidiary, which was also used for Stagecoach's takeover of Mayne in 2008. The transfer of operations from First to Stagecoach took place on 2 December 2012. Following the takeover the subsidary was renamed Greater Manchester Buses West Ltd and a Stagecoach Wigan brand was introduced, the subsidary is seperately run though shares the same managing director as Stagecoach Manchester.

One week later, on 7 November 2012, Stagecoach announced that they had agreed to acquire the business and assets of Bluebird Bus and Coach for £2m, although the deal is subject to clearance from the Office of Fair Trading and was approved on 22 February 2013. The purchase will include Bluebird's 40 vehicles, 80 staff members and its lease on the depot at Greengate, near Middleton and was completed on 3 March 2013.

Depots

 * Ashton-under-Lyne (Riverside, Clarence Street) (AZ)
 * Manchester (Hyde Road, Ardwick) (HE)
 * Manchester (Sharston) (SH)
 * Middleton (Greengate) (MN) - Bluebird operations taken over from 3 March 2013 subject to OFT approval
 * Stockport (Daw Bank) (ST)
 * Wigan (Bryn Lockett Road) (WN) - First Manchester's Wigan operations taken over from 2 December 2012

Fleet
As of April 2012 (see below), Stagecoach Manchester had 639 operational buses, of which over half are Alexander Dennis Enviro400s which are used on all the main high-freqency commercial services terminating/beginning in Manchester city centre such as 42/43, 50, 76, 85/86, 101, 104/105, 111, 192, 197, 201/203, 204/205/206, 216, 219, 231, 250/X50, 255/256, X41 and X57. Enviro 400 hybrid buses are used on services 42/43, 192, 197 and 219.

Magic Bus vehicles, on Dennis Trident 2 and Volvo Olympian chassis, constitute around a tenth of the entire fleet and are used primarily on services 142 and 143 although some are seen on services 86 and 216 at peak hours. The fleet list is as follows:

Stagecoach have recently acquired a range of buses from their purchase of the Wigan Depot including: Volvo B9TL's and Volvo B6BLE. These will be painted in the Stagecoach livery over the 'changeover' period.

Services
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 Greater Manchester, the 50 (East Didsbury - Manchester - Salford Quays), which became Manchester's first cross-city service for nearly two decades, and the 76 (Oldham - Manchester).

From December 2012, Stagecoach also operate services in the Wigan area, following the takeover of the Wigan depot from First Greater Manchester. Services from Wigan depot mainly run in the Wigan and Leigh areas, whilst also serving Manchester and Salford on the 32, 33 and X34 services (the latter two being shared with First), while the 540 runs to Bolton, which is also served by the 22 and Stagecoach Lancashire service 125. Service 113 is operated from both Stagecoach Manchester's Wigan depot and Stagecoach Lancashire's Chorley depot.

Stagecoach also took over Wigan's Nightbus services from First as part of the takeover. The Nightbus network is largely based on the main Wigan services with some services running an amended route to its normal routes. Wigan's Nightbus network runs on Friday nights/Saturday mornings and Saturday nights/Sunday mornings. The services also operate on New Years Eve with additional journeys during the evening between 1900 and 2300, along with journeys on Arriva North West's service 352 to Orrell and 362 to Standish and on Wigan Buses/Maytree Travel service 612 to Wrightington Hospital.

From March 2013, Stagecoach moved further into north Manchester by taking over services previously operated by Bluebird, with services and a depot in the Middleton area.

Nightbus
Stagecoach Manchester offer several night bus services in Manchester and Wigan every Friday and Saturday night to help people get home from a night out. The services run every 30 minutes or every hour from midnight to 3am and the routes are mainly the same as the normal routes with some exceptions.

In Manchester, the 86 runs to its normal route from Manchester to Chorlton centre before continuing to Altrincham via Stretford and Sale, while the 237 runs one journey to Glossop with the normal service no longer operating from Manchester. Stagecoach also operates the Saturday journeys of the 82 (First Greater Manchester operates the Friday night journeys), which is based on First's former 82 service.

In Wigan, service 600 runs to its normal route to Ashton-in-Makerfield and Golborne before returning to Wigan via Platt Bridge instead of running to Leigh, like its normal route, while services 631/632 divert via Pemberton and Hawkley Hall. The 629 is based on a former First Greater Manchester, the 635 partly replicates South Lancs Travel's 635 daytime route before continuing back to Wigan via Standish, while the 695 is based on Arriva North West's 375/385/395 services.

The fare system on the night bus services are different to the normal fares offered by Stagecoach, as there is only a flat fare offered. For passengers travelling from Wigan, the price is £2.00  while in Manchester, the price is either £2.50 or £3.00

Nightbus services that operate in Greater Manchester by Stagecoach are :

Publications

 * Celebrating 100 Years of Princess Road. Manchester: Stagecoach, April 2010