Late buses for partygoers to continue

Oldham’s early-hours specials are to keep getting late-night revellers home safely for another year.

As reported in the Evening Chronicle earlier this year, night buses from Manchester’s Shudehill bus station have proved a massive success and now transport chiefs have agreed to subsidise the 82 to Oldham as well as services to other towns for another 12 months.

Patronage on the Friday and Saturday night services fell in 2007 as city centre pubs and clubs varied their closing times, easing pressure on taxi queues.

And as the main focus of Manchester nightlife switched from the clubs and student bars of Oxford Road to the Printworks near Victoria Station, clubbers making their way across the city to the Piccadilly Gardens for buses and taxis at the end of their night brought complaints from the growing population of apartment blocks in that part of the city and put young women at risk from bogus taxi-drivers.

A deal between GMPTE, police, and three bus companies — First, Stagecoach, and Finglands — moved the services to Shudehill where they run until 3.30am with police and security guards on hand to prevent drunken trouble.

“Crime and anti-social behaviour in the area has significantly reduced since the introduction of the services,” PTE director Mike Renshaw told the authority’s Transport Network Committee which agreed the extension of funding until January, 2010.