I also wonder whether Stagecoach Manchester Megariders will have their validity extended to include Wigan routes? They are already valid on route 22 from Stockport to Bolton, even on First (but not Arriva) journeys, so hopefully they will be valid on routes 32 and 540, subject to these being sold to Stagecoach.
(03/11/2012 17:44)gilbert Wrote: [ -> ] (03/11/2012 12:54)SF07 Wrote: [ -> ]I suppose given the news this week, it was quite apt to see one of the MANs this morning in Ashton heading to Victoria on one of the replacement bus services for the trains, which had the replacement bus service sticker in the front window with the First logo on it.
Which one?
I did see 22182 with 'Greenfield rail replacement' guess it would had been that one then?
22120 spent 6 hours on stanby at victoria station (corporation street) in the end returned to hyde road without carrying one passenger!
All Rail Replacements between Manchester Victoria-Greenfield were yesterday operated by MANs form what looked like Ashton Depot, not to sure why MANs as virtually all journeys from what I saw had quite healthy loads on and could have really waranted a double decker, in fact 13:04 Greenfield-Manchester Victoria service I was on was full/standing by the time it left Stalybridge so couldnt let anymore passengers on at Ashton unfournatly
Apparently the 'extra' services operated by the MANs yesterday were due to capacity problems during the week. So buses were used for passengers travelling between Victoria and Greenfield and passengers travelling beyond Greenfield used the coach ( think I got that right
)
I noticed that most of the Stagecoach vehicles used during the course of this week had their destination displays modified to not only to display 'rail replacement' but the actual station they were travelling too.
(03/11/2012 21:48)Metroline1511 Wrote: [ -> ]I also wonder whether Stagecoach Manchester Megariders will have their validity extended to include Wigan routes?
I would have thought so, as the Manchester Megarider is valid within the whole of Greater Manchester. It is already valid on the 113 and 125 within the region.
(02/11/2012 23:29)gilesbus1 Wrote: [ -> ]I think its quite right to say Olympians in in the short term as Arrows are elderley and none standard.
Also MAN's and Dart SLF's out of reserve is quite likely plus any deckers that might be not allocated to any fleet and are out going in Manchester.
The longer term plan will be as I said before to mark in Low Floor MagicBuses for schools at Wigan and to repaint them either back to corporate or into school livery. I cannot confirm as I said that they are 02 regs but there are a further batch of London cascades for Magic's due in at Manchester which would cascade older Magics out to Wigan - It would be logical that it would be the East Lancs types acquired elsewhere as presumably Wigan has East Lancs Pyoneer spares and Arrow spares which to some degree would be interchangable, rather than throwing the spares out.
Volvo B10BLE's at Gillmoss I aren't sure about, yes mechanically it makes sense, but the spec's on them probably isn't to TfGM standard so there uses might be limited.
An early replacement target would be the Dart SLF's as they are on the long side of age profile for what is a lightweight model. The Optare Excels where always going, I have been told that there is an issue with the floors on them which will need attention that would be too costly to repair, those that have already gone have gone because that has become an issue already.
In the longer term we might ask what the new Wigan - Manchester service promised will mean as that is the first route development promised.
If there's another batch of cascades from London coming, then wouldn't it make more sense to send them to Wigan along with the other London ones already in Manchester? None of these have been painted into Magic yet so it would save a lot of time and expense as they are already Stagecoach Livery. I can see your point about the East Lancs types but I think there's only about 4 or 5 of them in Manchester on Magic as they are mostly Olympians and Tridents.
(04/11/2012 10:16)Nicholas Wrote: [ -> ] (03/11/2012 21:48)Metroline1511 Wrote: [ -> ]I also wonder whether Stagecoach Manchester Megariders will have their validity extended to include Wigan routes?
I would have thought so, as the Manchester Megarider is valid within the whole of Greater Manchester. It is already valid on the 113 and 125 within the region.
Ahh, I didn't know that. I always thought they weren't valid on Stagecoach in Lancashire services in the same way the Stagecoach Lancashire and NW Explorer tickets weren't valid on Stagecoach Manchester services.
(04/11/2012 16:33)ace Wrote: [ -> ]If there's another batch of cascades from London coming, then wouldn't it make more sense to send them to Wigan along with the other London ones already in Manchester? None of these have been painted into Magic yet so it would save a lot of time and expense as they are already Stagecoach Livery. I can see your point about the East Lancs types but I think there's only about 4 or 5 of them in Manchester on Magic as they are mostly Olympians and Tridents.
Some Tridents in the 17400s have just been withdrawn from London service. Maybe some of these could come to Wigan, joined early next year by other ex-London examples currently at Stockport once E400Hs come for route 192. Some mixed MAN/Enviro400 routes at Stockport such as the 368 and 369 could go all-Enviro400, releasing some MANs to Wigan to replace non-standard types such as Excels and B10BLEs.
There's plenty of MAN's already in reserve that could be utilised there.