TRANSPORT | General (Non Metrolink)

[Fernando Partridge]

Originally Posted by Futurelink

Unsurprising. I imagine the M60 ticket was pretty popular.

....and the Oldham tickets may just stop some from defecting to the (far superior but more expensive) Metrolink service.

[Rail Ranger]

Actually in the off-peak the tram is still cheaper from Oldham to Manchester (£3.70 off-peak day return compared with £3.90 for the First Oldham day ticket).

[SF07]

Arrived with little fan-fare, new hybrid vehicles on the 192 route. Similar to the existing hybrids Enviro 400Es on the 42/43, 197 and 219, although the new ones have the added bonus of wi-fi. First few have been introduced today with more expected over the coming weeks.

http://mancunian1001.wordpress.com/2...the-192-route/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwbphotos/8435558136/

[Manchester77]

Originally Posted by SF07

Arrived with little fan-fare, new hybrid vehicles on the 192 route. Similar to the existing hybrids Enviro 400Es on the 42/43, 197 and 219, although the new ones have the added bonus of wi-fi. First few have been introduced today with more expected over the coming weeks.

http://mancunian1001.wordpress.com/2...the-192-route/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwbphotos/8435558136/

I'm not too sure about the 192 special livery, I much prefer the standard stagecoach hybrid green if you know what I mean

[Motortownman]

It's got a revamped timetable too. 12 entered service yesterday and the rest very soon. It's also all operated from Stockport depot now, Hyde Road not partaking...

[WatcherZero]

This is something ive been keeping my eye on, you may remember last year I reported on the Wigan Hub Study on the relocation of the central bus station and the merging of the two railway stations. This report found that the two principal options 3a and 3b which involved a modernisation of North Western and the construction of several rows of bus stops at the station to create a bus spine throught the town (effectivley splitting the current bus station between the existing site and North Western with more on street pickup points in the town centre as well). 3a had a cost of £30m and a TfGM BCR of 1.9, 3b option involved moving the Wallgate platforms into North Western and cost £10m more at £40m but had the same BCR of 1.9. These options were then incorporated into option 6 which took some of the improvements and trimmed the costs down to £19m, essentially the budget option it produced a BCR of 3.4 but was only a short term fix to demand concentrating on improving the bus services rather than rail services.

I argued at the time that while 3b was a higher cost option it provided the same level of return on the investment as 3a though the report favoured the cheaper option 3a and 6.

Well about a month after it first appeared the report version 3.0 dissapeared from the Councils website. This weekend a new version has appeared, version 4.0. The most interesting thing is the 3b option while still costing £40m now has a BCR of 3.6 becoming the highest returning option. The 3B option has also been assessed as providing a Dft BCR of 5.1 again beating option 6 which was previously considered the best option by the report, (the difference in methodology is tfGM assessment assesses tangible financial benefits, Dft assesses intangible benefit to business). They appear to have raised the BCR by factoring in the other transport improvements underway in Wigan, better accounting for the improved journey times to Manchester via Chat Moss and taking onboard that TfGM likes big shiny interchanges not the cheapest budget option. To me it smacks of asking the consultants to keep producing a report until they get the answer right, however as it was the option I wanted and thought provided the best long term improvements im not complaining!

[Nathan Dawz]

Originally Posted by WatcherZero

To me it smacks of asking the consultants to keep producing a report until they get the answer right, however as it was the option I wanted and thought provided the best long term improvements im not complaining!

Precisely! Might be a lesson to a certain individual on here about how 'experts' can fudge the figures to get the answer their paymasters want to hear.

[LNGCats]

Nathan, we're waiting for you in the high speed thread to provide a link.

[John07]

Originally Posted by Nathan Dawz

Precisely! Might be a lesson to a certain individual on here about how 'experts' can fudge the figures to get the answer their paymasters want to hear.

Which is precisely the reason why optimism bias is included in estimates at 44%.

[Tony_H1]

All aboard the Polar Express to Blackpool and Clitheroe

[boyaloud]

Completely free travel on all GM bus companies on Sat 23rd February, just sign up at this link by the 15th and they'll post you the voucher/ticket! www.freebusday.co.uk

[WatcherZero]

Update on the Stagecoach aquisitions OFT investigations.
Bluebird result expected in mid February
Wigan result expected at the end of February.

[WatcherZero]

And an update on the A6 Quality Partnership Scheme.

http://www.transportforgreatermanche...future_schemes

For the 192 WiFi on 40 buses from mid-March, new turnaround facility in Stockport to be built this year and which will improve services to the college and Stagecoach are building a 300-400 space park and ride at Hazel Grove next to The Rising Sun at the junction of Buxton Road and Macclesfield Road.

The A579 Leigh-Bolton 582 service is to be a pilot of Voluntary Partnership Agreement. Once both are up and running they will be comparing VPA and QPS to decide which to rollout en masse across the rest of the region.

As I understand it in a QPS scheme its the bus company thats legally bound to provide improvements while in a VPA its the local council who are obligated but not legally bound to. Stagecoachs QPS obligations run until 31st March 2017 while the VPA will run for five years. They decided QPS wouldnt work on the 582 route because the majority of the infrastructure was over 10 years old. One of the issues coming up with QPS is that every time they improve infrastructure they have to legally amend the agreement meaning lots of lawyers.

The five QPS that will be rolled out alongside the Bus Corridor scheme are.

A580 Frederick Road to Old Clough Lane, Salford 1
A580 Old Clough Lane to Ellenbrook, Salford 1
Rochdale Road/Manchester New Road, Manchester/Rochdale 2
Regional centre, Manchester 3
Wigan/Hindley/Atherton/Tyldesley/Leigh, Wigan 4
Oxford Road, Manchester 5
Upper Brook Street, Manchester 5
Lloyd Street / Cambridge Street, Manchester 5

[M60lad]

Major traffic problems in Manchester yesterday caused by temporary traffic lights at Oldham Street/Dale Street junction and also the lights at junction of Rochdale Road Abdingon Street were only letting 4 vehicles at a time up Rohdale Road before changing back to red.

I was at Shudehill about 13:00 and it was utter Chaos with Buses leaving Shudehill having to wait about 3 sequence of lights before getting through and then slowly moving up Rochdale Road, I noticed quite a few buses in the end that ended up coming out of Manchester out of service due to late running

[r02bapurdie]

Originally Posted by boyaloud

Completely free travel on all GM bus companies on Sat 23rd February, just sign up at this link by the 15th and they'll post you the voucher/ticket! www.freebusday.co.uk

This might sound stpuid question but that free bus day ticket/voucher, is that for First Manchester buses, Stagecoach buses, Bluebird buses and JPT buses?

[SF07]

I would guess it would be System One, so all operators

[WatcherZero]

Northern apparently in talks with the Dft to get some extra EMU's by 2014 to operate the south manchester services currently diesel under the wire.

[Mwmbwls]

Originally Posted by WatcherZero

Northern apparently in talks with the Dft to get some extra EMU's by 2014 to operate the south manchester services currently diesel under the wire.

New build or cascade?

[VDB]

Edit

[Manchester77]

Originally Posted by Mwmbwls

New build or cascade?

I'd imagine it depends upon how many 319s are needed for the Valley Lines and GW suburban electrification. If the 315s displaced by 345s on Shenfield Metro aren't in a good enough condition then they'll most probably use 319s on the Valley Lines instead of 315s. If so then most probably new build for a standard fleet. On RUK rumours are saying this could be some of FCCs 377s for northern electrification