Oldham told to wait for buses

Oldhamers will have to wait a little while longer before they see any of Greater Manchester’s new green buses on the streets of the borough.

The first vehicle will arrive in Manchester at the end of this month to allow sufficient time to carry out rigorous road testing and staff familiarisation before the new contract starts next April.

The 20 hybrid diesel electric “Metroshuttle” buses are part of a £15m green fleet on order which also includes 16 low carbon yellow school buses and 30 green single deckers for use on subsidised services — following Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority’s award of just over £3m from the Department for Transport’s Green Bus Fund competition.

Officials say they have identified proposed packages of daytime, evening and Sunday services for over 50 buses.

This will allow flexibility during the tendering process to select contracts on which to deploy the 30 vehicles for general bus services in order to give best value for money.

They will be tendered in batches according to the varying contract expiry dates. The first tenders will be issued in November.

Current school services will be reviewed during the next school term in order to identify candidates to be converted to the Green Bus-funded Yellow School Buses.

GMPTE’s bus and rail director, Michael Renshaw, said: “Manchester’s Metroshuttle has been hugely successful and I am delighted that we will soon be running these free, city centre services on a fleet of low carbon buses.”