Shudehill Bus Station was all but deserted when I got down there yesterday afternoon. Lots of proud GMPTE officals standing round. It is actually a very nice bus station,warm and comfortable and similar in style to the new one in Hyde. The only confusion as to the new arrangements that I saw was on Cross Street where people were still waiting for buses that will never turn up! As I said yesterday though, the true test of these new arrangements will be to see what Deansgate is like at about 5.30pm tonight!
I decided to start this blog on a whim yesterday. Since then I've decided to find out if there are any similar blogs out there and I found this one: The Nightmare of the X84 Bus, about one woman's bad experiences of travelling in West Yorkshire.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Shudehill - The Big Day Arrives...
Hello and welcome to Manchester Bus Blog. To be honest, I'm not sure how often this will be updated or who will read it - it's just a way of getting across my thoughts about public transport in Manchester.
So today is the 'big day' - apart from this blog being launched Shudehill Interchange has opened finally. Now this *would* be cause for celebration usually, unfortunately it has coincided with the closure of parts of Corporation Street and Cross Street. Apparently it's something to do with accidents that have occurred leading the council to believe pedestrianisation to be the best solution. Great, except that buses towards Bridge Street, that previously just ran down Corporation Street, Cross Street and John Dalton Street (in the main bus dominated roads) will be sent past Victoria Station and down Deansgate! Have you seen Deansgate at Rush Hour? I reckon there will be some serious delays for people heading towards Salford at peak times.
In addition, it appears that Victoria Station Approach will now be much more heavily used, being served by buses in both directions. It's quite a narrow road, is it really a sensible idea to have tons of buses per hour running down such a narrow road?
So, the council and GMPTE appear to have not thought this one through fully! Especially when you think about the fact that stops on Cross Street will no longer be served by buses, forcing shoppers and office workers to walk further to catch their buses!
So, north Manchester and Salford appear to have got a bad deal from the new arrangements. How about Stagecoach's south Manchester services that previously used Corporation Street and Cross Street? Well, their services have been rerouted to terminate at Albert Square or Spring Gardens. This won't cause as many operational problems as the Deansgate debacle, but it will mean again that passengers will have to walk further to their buses.
That's not my main gripe with Stagecoach though - they could hardly help the closure of Corporation Street and Cross Street. My main gripe is that Stagecoach have actually cut their services from today.
- The 87 and 87A have been withdrawn and partially replaced by rerouted services 46 and 47. This maintains service levels on the old 87/87A route but adds more pressure to the already heavily used 86 route along Upper Chorlton Road and Manchester Road in Chorlton. The estates most poorly served and badly abused by bus companies in Manchester (Arrowfield Road and Hardy Lane in Chorlton) are now served during Monday to Saturday daytimes by service 84, meaning the 84 now has *three* different routes depending on what time of the day/week you catch it! There's simplicity for you!
- They've also withdrawn service 45 (partially replacing it by introducing evening & Sunday journeys on the 44) This means that while people on Parrs Wood Road finally have an evening service again, people in Didsbury village have lost their link to the Airport and there's one less bus per hour serving the Airport during Monday to Saturday daytimes.
- The peak service to Ashton-upon-Mersey, the 230, is withdrawn and one morning journey on the 258 peak express service from Flixton has been cut.
Admittedly, they have improved peak services on the 85, 108 and 109, and maybe the 230 and 258 journeys that have been cut weren't used heavily, but getting rid of services at the same time as rerouting buses away from one of the main shopping streets in Manchester doesn't seem to be working towards more people using the bus, does it?
Looking at this all happening on one day, it makes me pray even more for a more integrated transport policy in the future - maybe even including the London-style tendering for all routes that GMPTE have been pushing for...
I'm heading off to the city centre now, so I'll post my first impressions of the new bus station and city centre routing arrangements later...
So today is the 'big day' - apart from this blog being launched Shudehill Interchange has opened finally. Now this *would* be cause for celebration usually, unfortunately it has coincided with the closure of parts of Corporation Street and Cross Street. Apparently it's something to do with accidents that have occurred leading the council to believe pedestrianisation to be the best solution. Great, except that buses towards Bridge Street, that previously just ran down Corporation Street, Cross Street and John Dalton Street (in the main bus dominated roads) will be sent past Victoria Station and down Deansgate! Have you seen Deansgate at Rush Hour? I reckon there will be some serious delays for people heading towards Salford at peak times.
In addition, it appears that Victoria Station Approach will now be much more heavily used, being served by buses in both directions. It's quite a narrow road, is it really a sensible idea to have tons of buses per hour running down such a narrow road?
So, the council and GMPTE appear to have not thought this one through fully! Especially when you think about the fact that stops on Cross Street will no longer be served by buses, forcing shoppers and office workers to walk further to catch their buses!
So, north Manchester and Salford appear to have got a bad deal from the new arrangements. How about Stagecoach's south Manchester services that previously used Corporation Street and Cross Street? Well, their services have been rerouted to terminate at Albert Square or Spring Gardens. This won't cause as many operational problems as the Deansgate debacle, but it will mean again that passengers will have to walk further to their buses.
That's not my main gripe with Stagecoach though - they could hardly help the closure of Corporation Street and Cross Street. My main gripe is that Stagecoach have actually cut their services from today.
- The 87 and 87A have been withdrawn and partially replaced by rerouted services 46 and 47. This maintains service levels on the old 87/87A route but adds more pressure to the already heavily used 86 route along Upper Chorlton Road and Manchester Road in Chorlton. The estates most poorly served and badly abused by bus companies in Manchester (Arrowfield Road and Hardy Lane in Chorlton) are now served during Monday to Saturday daytimes by service 84, meaning the 84 now has *three* different routes depending on what time of the day/week you catch it! There's simplicity for you!
- They've also withdrawn service 45 (partially replacing it by introducing evening & Sunday journeys on the 44) This means that while people on Parrs Wood Road finally have an evening service again, people in Didsbury village have lost their link to the Airport and there's one less bus per hour serving the Airport during Monday to Saturday daytimes.
- The peak service to Ashton-upon-Mersey, the 230, is withdrawn and one morning journey on the 258 peak express service from Flixton has been cut.
Admittedly, they have improved peak services on the 85, 108 and 109, and maybe the 230 and 258 journeys that have been cut weren't used heavily, but getting rid of services at the same time as rerouting buses away from one of the main shopping streets in Manchester doesn't seem to be working towards more people using the bus, does it?
Looking at this all happening on one day, it makes me pray even more for a more integrated transport policy in the future - maybe even including the London-style tendering for all routes that GMPTE have been pushing for...
I'm heading off to the city centre now, so I'll post my first impressions of the new bus station and city centre routing arrangements later...
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