Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[Wright Eclipse]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(28/04/2014 20:32)SF07 Wrote:  If Stagecoach were to take on First on another corridor in/out of Manchester, the four main options would be:
a) Cheetham Hill Road to retaliate against First's expansion of the 42 and add to recently gained 88/88A/89/89A
b) Rochdale Road against the 17/18/163
c) Oldham Road, which is all First routes (24, 83, 180, 181, 182, 184).
d) Eccles-Manchester on either the 67/100 route or the 33.

Could be interesting to see which route First would try to take on next against Stagecoach if they decide to follow in the footsteps of Stagecoach's 38 service, as there are the Chorlton routes, the 192 route (the most ambitious), the Hyde Road corridor, Chester Road or either of the two Ashton routes (added competition in the Metrolink).

I would probably say Stagecoach up Rochdale Road and First along to Ashton to connect the Tameside routes with Manchester without having to go via Oldham.

Cheetham Hill: Too Risky for Stagecoach,First could flood that corridor if they wanted to
without using too many extra buses (same if First went onto Hyde Rd)

17: Too many operators have tried & failed on this route before (JPT,Rossendalebus &
Others).Stagecoach should know better than to try 17

18: Like i said on anther post i could see them sending all 156s up langley or maybe
cut 156 To middleton & send all 112s up langley to make it a better frequency against
first?.

163: Never thought of this route,if they was i dont think they would go all the way
into Bury but maybe to Harwood?,Could be a possibility

Oldham Rd: Now i could see this!,Also With First Makeing 350 Single Decker again
how about 184 Route into Uppermill,Then 350 Route to Ashton Under Lyne,Every
10 Mins To Uppermill with Half Hourly Extentions to Ashton using Enviro400s & i think
they could be onto a Winner.

Eccles: Currently got both Arriva & First on this corridor (think i`d say Arriva are winning) so dont think stagecoach would make a move,but for against 100 maybe the could extend one of the X50s an Hour from Trafford Centre into Warrington,Stagecoach have got a track record for making Long Distance services work & if they use X50 they could market the fact its limited stop against the normal stopping First service