Stagecoach Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
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.

In terms of what differences might be made there are fare reductions likely presumably seeing as FirstGroups fares where quite high, so the new fare scale will I suspect be similar to that used by Stagecoach Manchester.

Other possibilities I guess might be rejigging stuff up at Lancashire and moving 113's and schools currently operated by Chorley into Wigan, and maybe even the Copull - Chorley's and Blackrod - Chorley's as that might free up space at Chorley thus allowing the overspill yard to be got rid of, wsome of those might also be able to be extended to Wigan for positioning journeys.

Later on the Leigh Guided Busway will offer further options, presumably this will now be jointly worked with FirstGroup, unless something has been signed in the takeover agreement that will stop one of the two parties using it, that might also have a baring on which operator will operate service X34.

The other thing that I wonder about is wether Stagecoach will draft vehicles into Wigan physically before the takeover in order to allow a repainting float but with vehicles displaying on hire to First Manchester labels in the windscreens.