Except on Saturdays
Recent service changes have seen Micklehurst Road and Staley Road disappear from the Greater Manchester bus network, with the exception of a Saturday only service.
Monday to Friday daytime journeys on the 343 (Oldham – Mossley – Hyde) route will follow the evening and Sunday route. Speedwell Bus, operator of the weekday daytime service has since lost the subsidy from GMITA resulting in this change. Passengers using the bus from Staley Road or Micklehurst Road will need to walk to Egmont Street or Winterford Road. Also scrapped is the Buckton Vale Road link which would mean Carrbrook passengers will have to change at The Carrbrook (late Buckton Castle) for the 348 to South View.
Passengers of the 343 from Dukinfield will however see a reduction in journey times to Mossley, equalling First Manchester’s evening route. The Saturday service operated by JP Travel (which along with the First Manchester service is subsidised) remains unaffected. The revised timetable also offers better connections for Dukinfield passengers with Flowery Field railway station.
Other changes:
- Passengers of the 219, 330, 347 and 201 routes will benefit from shorter journey times from the 19th July to the end of August. Stagecoach Manchester will be introducing a summer timetable for these routes;
- The 330 will also have an additional evening journey from Stockport on the Monday – Saturday timetable. The last bus will leave Stockport at 2345 hours;
- Elsewhere, Speedwell Bus will launch a new service from Mossley Hey Farm to Manchester. Entitled the S50, it will follow First Manchester’s 350 route to Ashton and the 216 route from there to Manchester. Its aim is to provide a quicker bus based alternative to the longer 217/218 routes;
- The end of July will see changes to the Haughton Green – Denton – Stockport route 324. Operated by Stagecoach Manchester in the daytime, there will be a change of operator for its evening journeys. Monday – Saturday evening services will be operated by JP Travel with the Sunday evening service operated by Travelmaster.
East of the M60 Comment:
To compensate for the lost journeys on the 343, I would like to see Staley Road return to the bus network full time. This could be achieved by rerouting the 217/218 service via Staley Road. Another idea could be the rerouting of the 217 via Micklehurst Road with the 218 serving Staley Road. However the former could be problematic due to the gradient and the width of Micklehurst Road.
S.V., 02 July 2009
