Finglands

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Finglands
Probably this was the best outcome as First sort of ensures some form of competition with Stagecoach on the Wilmslow Road corridor and the only other option Arriva wasn’t really interested adding Finglands to their Manchester operations strange given their substantial operations in Wythenshawe, Sale and Altricham and that they used to operate on Wilmslow Road in the 1990’s. It will be interesting to see how First promotes itself on Wilmslow Road. Will they brand/promote themselves specifically for the student market or will they merge some of their North Manchester/Oldham/Rochdale routes into cross city routes in partnership with TfGM like the 18 and use Finglands route network and extend these routes to Northenden, East Didsbury/Stockport or Sale/Altrincham? I also wonder whether JPT might be tempted to come on to the Wilmslow Road and will Stagecoach retaliate against First in some way?

The deal is win-win for EYMS as it enables them to cascade a fairly modern fleet of low floor vehicles that are common with the main East Yorkshire operation that will see off the last of their step entrance vehicles and Finglands Enviro 300’s would be very useful in beginning the replacement process for B10BLE’s and MAN’s which possibly still have a few years left in them but will need to be replaced at some point over the next few years.

Interesting times ahead.