200 new buses ‘will improve reliability’

AN Oldham bus company is bringing in a £33 million fleet of 200 new double deckers to improve reliability.

First Manchester, which has its headquarters in Wallshaw Street, will start running the first of the high-tech Volvo buses next month and introduce the rest over the next 18 months.

The 180/184 from Saddleworth to Manchester will be one of the first three routes to get the new buses. The other two will be between Bolton and Manchester.

From the end of this month, two Oldham routes — the 24 which runs through Royton and Chadderton on its way to Manchester from Rochdale, and the 59 which runs from Shaw, through Oldham, to Manchester — will be among eight to get extra drivers and buses to improve reliability.

Over the past few months spare buses have been stationed at Ashton, Shudehill, Bolton, Leigh, and Wigan bus stations ready to swing into action if others break down.

The reliability drive coincides with a new marketing campaign advertising the £14 price of a week’s bus travel compared with £40 a week for a car.

Network director Simon Bennett told the Chronicle: “We have been working on this for some time.

“Some companies lease their fleets but we actually buy our buses. By the time this phase is over, we will have spent £70 million on new buses since 2005.”

Oldham’s shopping link bus service which has taken pensioners and the disabled to the town’s supermarkets since 2005, has proved so popular that a similar service is to be set up in neighbouring Rochdale.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority decided to launch the second service to give elderly and disabled residents access to affordable fresh food shopping and reduce taxi journeys.