Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[StageStig]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Don't know about that, nothing ends in wigan, it works at Hyde Rd because journeys start and end in Manchester plus there has just been a new toilet drop fitted.
Besides Preston is a big Megabus presence

[mbonwick]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(01/11/2012 00:00)gilesbus1 Wrote:  Optare Excels are expected to be withdrawn after December but the likely replacements will be MAN's stored at Manchester. Arrows might hit the dust later although this is more suggestive than factual when Stagecoach Manchester gets some 02 plate Tridenst for Magic that will free up existing Low Floor Magics that could mean these get repainted to nornmal livery and moved to Wigan, likely those that are Highbridge and none standard and from independent take-overs.

I would love to know where these 02 plate Tridents are coming from, seeing at Manchester don't have any, and there aren't any spare elsewhere....
Personally I think we're more likely to see the 06 plate Enviro400s move to Wigan when the E400Hs turn up.

I can also see Stagecoach requesting Volvo Olympians to be swapped with Arrows at Wigan, just to get some standardisation.

I agree that the Excels won't have long - I can quite easily see the MY&SL reserve B10BLEs going over as well, either to replace B10BLEs there already or replace the Excels.

[gilesbus1]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Apparently they are none leaset cascvades from London due early next year. THe 06 and 56 reg Enviro400's are listed for cascade already in the main so little chance of any coming to Wigan we are talking schools work here not something that needs 06 reg buses. THe Magics will then cascade the highbridge Native stock inhgerited from Independents to Wigan for schools as Stagecoach is keen to see it remain in Manchester as the heights are too high for rural cascading. So we arte talking the Ex-Dennis, Mayne's, and Bullocks numbers in all probability, which considering Wigans work on Arrows shouldn't be that much different, There is little point now in moving around Olympians as they are time expired in all essense anyway with more closurer to age line than anything.

Also note that many routes using Arrows that are not on the school rosta could in effect be worked by smaller vehicles.

As for bringing in vehicles from other fleets that depends really on whats required and whats in PTE spec remember its unlikely any of those B10BLE's at Gillmoss would be to PTE spec so therefore unable to be used on tenders and therefore not that useful.

What might be an early option would be new Volvo B7RLE;s for the Leigh Guided Busway and therefore it is likelyt that any slaoons in the interim would come out of Manchester, eg MAN 12.220's etc or maybe ex native ones brought back in from where they've been scattered eg Scotland or wherever.

As for the First Manchester fleet it is thought to be now frozen at Wigan as that gives an asset value so FirstGroup unles sthey have removed from the sale prospectous cannot swap buses around, it maybe that some could be removed now or at a later stage but this would seem unlikely given the purchase price.

A lot of what can be cascaded in depends on TfGM specificatiosn being fitted, especially if there is any intentions to use it on Schools, Evenings or Sunday Routes which at Wigan account for a fair amount of stuff.

[Jack]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
In the long term this definitely looks like fantastic news for the bus users of Wigan, as for expansion towards neighbouring towns this is certainly interesting. Another not already mentioned is Ormskirk/Southport from Wigan.

Whatever happens, it's a case of wait and see now but I'm certainly excited about what happens next! Think a visit to Wigan is due also to catch the older First fleet before it's too late.

[cumbria0902150]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Can only wait and see with Wigan, there will be lots of rumours floating around and lots of speculation. Plans have been worked on for a while now and I believe nothing has been confirmed internally yet.
As a side note, some stored Olympian's in Cumbria have apparently been earmarked for potential transfer to Wigan, no doubt to replace Arrow's if it happens. They've been earmarked for transfer for a short while now, but nothing has been said on where they'd go to. Stagecoach are taking all of the vehicles currently allocated to Wigan, but there's absolutely nothing to say that all transferred vehicles will be used under Stagecoach ownership, only Manchester management will have an idea of what will be used and what won't.

[ace]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(01/11/2012 10:51)mbonwick Wrote:  

(01/11/2012 00:00)gilesbus1 Wrote:  Optare Excels are expected to be withdrawn after December but the likely replacements will be MAN's stored at Manchester. Arrows might hit the dust later although this is more suggestive than factual when Stagecoach Manchester gets some 02 plate Tridenst for Magic that will free up existing Low Floor Magics that could mean these get repainted to nornmal livery and moved to Wigan, likely those that are Highbridge and none standard and from independent take-overs.

I would love to know where these 02 plate Tridents are coming from, seeing at Manchester don't have any, and there aren't any spare elsewhere....
Personally I think we're more likely to see the 06 plate Enviro400s move to Wigan when the E400Hs turn up.

I can also see Stagecoach requesting Volvo Olympians to be swapped with Arrows at Wigan, just to get some standardisation.

I agree that the Excels won't have long - I can quite easily see the MY&SL reserve B10BLEs going over as well, either to replace B10BLEs there already or replace the Excels.

The only 02 plate tridents I know about are the ones that were registered new to Manchester for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and then later transferred to Hull. It's been talked about that East Midlands were going to take some of the Manchester 06's so I suppose it's possible they may want to do a swap deal.
I was also thinking possibly that some of the older Enviro400's might go to Wigan on arrival of the Stockport hybrids, though I was wondering possibly about the 09 plates allocated to the 50 route. I get the feeling that route may be branded sometime in the future and some new Euro 6 buses put on it, which would make the current 09's redundant. That's probably at least a year to 18 months off yet, if it happens at all but it's probably at the back of the mind of the bosses.

I'm not sure how Arrows or Excels would fit in at Manchester so I can't see them lasting long. That would mean employing mechanics who know about them and considering most of them are P reg's I can't see that happening.
It could be an ideal opportunity to cascade the B10BLE's though if the excels do leave.

[Bevan Price]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Is there likely to be some high profile "Stagecoach comes to Wigan" public relations exercise, with a batch of buses painted in Stagecoach liveries on "Day 1", working on one or two of the busier routes ?

And also in the long term, might we see many of the Wigan local services converted to Solo operation ?

[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.

[SF07]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
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.

[gilbert]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(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?