Category: Ashton-under-Lyne
Down Our Street #5: Park Road, Dukinfield
A wander along a historical road of industrial importance
Park Road, Tame Valley, Dukinfield:
- Distance: 0.85 miles;
- Start: Crescent Road/Riverside, Dukinfield;
- Finish: Tame Street, Stalybridge;
- Bus: 346 (alight at Crescent Road).
Though with its semi rural origins, Park Road became an important connection with two major town centres at either end. It links the Tame Valley part of Dukinfield with Ashton-under-Lyne at its most westerly point, and Stalybridge in the east. In miniature, it documents the story of Tameside during the industrial revolution, its rise and its fall. Continue reading
Green Champions Launch 13 Hybrid Buses – on Friday the 13th
219 route to benefit from thirteen new electric hybrid buses
Raring to go: members of the Tameside Green Interest Group and David Heyes MP hand over the new buses. Photo © Tangerine PR
Friday the 13th is often associated with technical issues, the horror film, or the awful Commodore 64 game inspired by the film. Thankfully for Stagecoach Manchester, the launch of their hybrid vehicles went without a hitch. Continue reading
An Easter Surprise for Oldham Schoolchildren
New Optare Versas set to whisk Oldham schoolchildren to class in style
New to Oldham Depot: First Manchester/TfGM Optare Versas. (Photo by Bungle666)
An easter egg in the form of new hybrid vehicles will be heading towards Oldham and Tameside. First Manchester has received a number of low carbon Optare Versas for TfGM’s Yellow School Bus services. Each vehicle will seat 57 pupils, the equivalent of two form groups including three teachers.
Rear view of Optare Versa. (Photo by Bungle666)
Everything’s Gone Green – in Dukinfield!
I can confirm that Dukinfield garage’s latest batch of hybrid Optare Solo SRs will be operational from the 15 April. The lucky recipients of these new vehicles will be passengers of the 41 route from Crowhill to Ashton-under-Lyne and Dukinfield (Tennyson Avenue). They will also be seen on the 419 route from Middleton to Ashton-under-Lyne. The new Solos will be allocated FirstGroup national fleet numbers 59010, 59011 and 59014 to 59016.
First’s new buses are part-funded by Transport for Greater Manchester via the Green Bus Fund and will be seen in TfGM’s yellow and green liveries respectively.
S.V., 06 April 2012.
Kind thanks go to Alan Siddall (Bungle666) for supplying the photographs.
Proven Signalling Technology Chosen for Metrolink Extensions
New tram control system chosen for superior reliability
The future of Metrolink signalling, as seen at Boughton on the Northampton and Lamport Railway. Photo by Ben Coulson (Creative Commons Attribution License)
With Transport for Greater Manchester aiming to get the Phase 3 Metrolink lines completed as quickly as possible, MPT have opted for tried and tested technologies. Known as ‘Absolute Block’, the system is the cheapest possible way of getting Greater Manchester’s light rail system running to time.
The flexibility of absolute block allows for easy working with road and rail sections of the Metrolink. As well as on the former BR lines, it can work in cooperation with existing traffic lights. On the East Manchester line, the forest of posts along Ashton New Road will carry telegraph cables. Subsidiary tram control centres, with links to the Queen’s Road signalling centre will be seen at Droylsden, using the Moss Tavern, the derelict Jubilee Inn between Shaw and New Hey, and the former Habitat store in Baguley.
The transition to this proven system will also see the creation of 21 jobs (seven at each STCC), and non of the glitches which have plagued its tests of the computerised tram control system. Reaction among the public in Droylsden, Hollinwood and West Didsbury, weary of shifting completion dates, have been positive.
“Absolute block has been with us since the opening of the world’s first inter-city line, which began in this fine city of ours” enthused Ralf Pilools.
“It is a proven technology. If it is good enough for the Flying Scotsman or today’s Pacer units, it can fit in with our Flexity Swift trams.”
S.V., 01 April 2012.
Down Our Street #4: Tramway Road, Ashton-under-Lyne
One of Ashton-under-Lyne’s lesser known streets with an interesting past
The Eades Reversible double deck horse tram, a preserved example seen at Heaton Park. Further examples of which were seen at Cowhill Lane.
With the Metrolink due to reach Ashton-under-Lyne by 2014, few people would realise that Ashton was accessible by one of Greater Manchester’s earliest tram routes. Continue reading
Olympic Flame to Reach Ashton on Farmers’ Market Day
London games torch route adds dimension to Farmers’ Market
The head honcho of East of the M60 was never a fan of London’s Olympic Bid in the first place, not least the fact it had held back – allegedly – Ashton’s Phase 3 extension of the Metrolink. Even so, it would be churlish to ignore any reference to the games.
Amid the hoopla surrounding the budget, NHS reforms and road privatisation, East of the M60 is happy to announce details of the Olympic Torch route within its locality. Sunday 24 June would see the Olympic Torch carried through the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne. As an added bonus, this neatly coincides with June’s Farmers’ Market and secondhand market. Continue reading
Down Our Street #1: Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne
The start of a new regular feature on East of the M60
In 1999, there used to be two free newspapers cluttering up our buses. As well as today’s Metro, there was also the Manchester Metro News. Just to confuse things, there was already a Manchester Metro News doing the rounds in South Manchester before becoming the South Manchester Reporter – incidentally, both printed by the Guardian Media Group. For a brief period, the Metro published by Associated Newspapers was known as News North West (bearing the moniker of Northwest Tonight’s lunchtime bulletin back when Northwest Tonight was Look North West). As a compromise, the Manchester Metro News morning freesheet was merged with Associated Newspapers’ title with the GMG’s adverts and jobs sourced from the Manchester Evening News.
The defunct free newspaper had an excellent feature which looked at the history behind local streets. In each edition, readers were treated to 100 words or so of prose on, for example, Hanging Gate or Withy Grove.
Today, almost 13 years on, East of the M60 thought it was a good idea to revive this feature. Whereas Tameside, Oldham, Stockport and Rochdale street names were under represented in the aforementioned journal, EotM60 has decided to right this wrong.
Our first street was partly modelled on one in London. Continue reading
East of the M60 Advent Calendar: 22 December 2011
22. A Preston Bus Eastern Coach Works bodied Leyland Olympian
Over the last 30 years, the Leyland Olympian has proved to be one of Leyland’s most enduring double decker vehicles. With the prototype originally conceived and built in Bristol (as a replacement for the Bristol VR), independent companies, PTE operators and the National Bus Company modernised their fleet with this vehicle. This example seen above was bodied by Eastern Coach Works in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Besides the ubiquitous ECW bodied examples, Alexander bodied Olympians were for some time Stagecoach’s standard double decker. Greater Manchester Transport’s examples (bodied by Northern Counties, as you would expect) represented their second generation GMT Standard vehicle. GMT’s version outlived GMT and GM Buses itself by means of the Palatine and Palatine II style of body, which was seen in the latterly renamed Volvo Olympians till 1997. Some examples remain in service with First Manchester, primarily from Bury and Queens Road garages.
Bus Route of Christmas Past: Manchester Corporation’s Eccles – Levenshulme route. Starting at the Lloyd Road terminus, Levenshulme, this service took in Stretford and Urmston prior to reaching Eccles. It had a basic frequency of every 20 minutes with a 15 minute frequency during peak hours. In 1974 it was renumbered 262 with a second 22 taking over the 40/42 route, this time extended to Unsworth. Today’s 22, operated by First Manchester, runs every half hour and includes the former Manchester Corporation route in much extended form, with its southerly terminus in Stockport (via Burnage) and northerly terminus in Bolton (via Swinton and Farnworth).
Bus Route of Christmas Present: I could have opted for the Bolton to Stockport service as the soft option. Instead, I have chosen the BRoCPre is Preston’s 22 from the city centre to Royal Preston Hospital. The service runs every 12 minutes on Monday to Saturdays during the daytime, co-working with the 23.
S.V., 22 December 2011
East of the M60 Advent Calendar: 19 December 2011
19. A Royal Blue Bristol RE, National livery
A small number of us will start our Christmas exodus to sunnier clines or UK seaside resorts, in a bid to avoid James Bond films, awful weather, railway engineering works or being stressed out over the Christmas dinner. Some of us may start our journey by coach, though on nothing quite as elegant as this one. Continue reading
East of the M60 Advent Calendar: 16 December 2011
16. An Arriva North West Alexander bodied DAF DB250LF
Arriva North West’s DAF DB250LF joined Wythenshawe depot via London (hence the staircase position). On first glance, it could be mistaken for a Dennis Trident – given the similarity of the Alexander bodywork seen on Stagecoach Manchester’s Tridents. This example is loading at Piccadilly Gardens. On leaving the city centre, it will take a circuitous route into Altrincham via Whalley Range, Ashton-on-Mersey and Brooklands.
Bus Route of Christmas Past: Oldham – Mossley (Brookbottom). Oldham Corporation’s 16 route entered Top Mossley via Lees Road and Grotton, starting from the Town Hall bus stop. In 1973 – 74, it was renumbered 416. On the 20 July 1980, it was absorbed by an expanded 343 service, offering Grottonians a direct route with Bottom Mossley, Stalybridge and Hyde.
Bus Route of Christmas Present: Arriva North West’s 16 route is a Goliath among Altrincham to Manchester routes (65 minutes compared with 50 on the 263 and 25 on the tram). On Monday to Friday, the service is operated every half hour along its full length, with two evening journeys from Altrincham operated by Finglands (three from Manchester). These are operated daily. By contrast, Arriva’s Saturday service only operates up to Sale! The Sunday service covers the full route, albeit every two hours with Finglands the sole operator.
S.V., 16 December 2011
