Stagecoach service changes (Tameside and Glossop), 26/10/2008

• Off-peak evening services on 236/237 to run between Ashton - Glossop;
• 4 hour gap between direct Manchester services in Dukinfield cut to 1 hour 45 minutes;
• 220 Sunday service replaced by 217/218;
• New direct link with Carrbrook and Mossley on Monday - Saturday for Dukinfield (King Street and Boyd’s Walk) residents.

Most often than not, the very two words ’service changes’ fill me with dread. Thankfully not this time.

With the summer season ending in the Peak District, the Tameside area often gets four sets of service changes from Stagecoach alone. In addition to those affecting Manchester routes, Tameside’s are also affected by revisions affecting Glossop and Peak District routes at the beginning of and at the end of the summer season.

For probably the first time ever, the King Street and Boyd’s Walk area of Dukinfield will have a direct link with Mossley on Monday - Saturdays. Between the Albion Hotel and Mossley (Brookbottom), this will augment Speedwell’s 343 service. This is the knock on effect caused by the withdrawal of Mayne’s routes 232 - 235. Mossley passengers travelling into to Manchester by bus will take the 217 in a clockwise direction, with the 218 moving anti-clockwise.

Sunday services on the 220 will be renumbered 217 on journeys to Manchester from Stalybridge and 218 on journeys out of Manchester into Stalybridge and follow the route of the present 218 service.  The present 217 Sunday service to Tameside Hospital will see westbound journeys renumbered as the 218.

The Littlemoss and Smallshaw sections of the 232 - 235 routes will be served by an upgraded 231, with a 15 minute daytime frequency between Ashton - Manchester - and buses running every 7/8 minutes in the weekday peaks.  This will also replace the whole 230 route operated by Stagecoach.

The revisions also end an embarrassing gap in service provision in Dukinfield where there is at present a 4 hour gap between direct Manchester buses (1515 - 1915 from the Albion Hotel).  However, there are some gripes with the changes, in that a more direct link with Tameside Hospital has been severed, and that there is no longer a journey between 0830 and 1012 to Stalybridge from Dukinfield (Albion Hotel).

Though less of a gripe (and of surprise) evening services on the 236/237 will terminate at Ashton, with extra journeys on the 216 taking over.  I was also relieved to find that the 236/237 will still run to and from Manchester in the peak hours.

All other services are unaffected, thus meaning the evening 217 (Speedwell), evening 220 and 230 journeys (both First Manchester) will run as normal.  The new 217/218 will also augment the extra peak hour journeys on the 220 and 221, also operated by Stagecoach Manchester.

S.V., 03 October 2008.

H.A.P.P.Y (Birthday) Tameside Radio

Live from Harrop Edge; 75% music, 25% chat, 100% Tameside, and now 367 days old*

Some time between the 30th September 2007 and the delocalisation of the Piccadilly Radio stations, the radio landscape in Tameside was a most barren place. Aside from the formation of Revolution 96.2 (the FM station serving Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside), the CD player or MP3 file were the only sanctuaries from mechanical playlists and reduced local coverage.

Quietly happening between test transmissions and within the walls of Tameside Hospital were the pioneers of who were about to become Tameside Radio. Most of which cut their teeth on Eight Towns Radio, a hospital radio station founded on Sunday 22 October 1983 as ‘Heartbeat Radio’.

Just under 24 years after and numerous limited service licences later came our station.  Not for two weeks, not for a month, not only for Tameside Hospital, but the whole area.

At Chez Vallantine, Tameside Radio has now taken over from all other stations for radio needs (except for one, Oldham Community Radio, which has a good brass band programme).  For me, its main factors include: a less rigid playlist, the excellent ‘The Show That Time Forgot’ (hosted by Mike Wallbank) and (most importantly) its local bias.  I would be interested to know what effect Tameside Radio has had on other popular stations in the borough, such as Key 103.

For a community station, it is hard to tell whether they are a commercial one or one ran by volunteers.  This is down to its professionalism and experience with Eight Towns Radio and Tameside’s other local station Revolution 96.2 - with production values that can hold their own against other commercial stations.  Unlike the other local stations, Tameside’s non league clubs are covered, giving much needed coverage to my beloved Stalybridge Celtic.

Since ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2 marked Tameside Radio’s first song, we have been hooked ever since.  Though I could listen to the other stations, overseas SW stations and the national radio stations on my portable radio, it is firmly stuck to Tameside Radio 103.6FM.

Long may they continue.

S.V, 02 October 2008

Links:

Eight Towns Radio history: http://tamesideradio.moonfruit.com

Tameside Radio 103.6FM: http://www.tamesideradio.com

* At the time of writing this entry.

Welcome to Stalytraz?

TESCO Extension Plans Akin To Aesthetics Of A Youth Offenders’ Institute

Summertime has traditionally been a slow news period and a dependable outlet for news on the latest Big Brother entrants.

Could Cross-City Bus Services Return to Manchester?

Plans for new cross-city bus network proposed under Transport Innovation Fund

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, Manchester was the successful bidder for the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund. This would

The Not So Perfect 10: Things I Miss About Bus Travel in Greater Manchester

“Pick You Up Tomorrow As Usual”

Today’s bus operations in Greater Manchester are dominated by the big three companies, Arriva, FirstGroup and Stagecoach.  As with the local shopping centres, the clone town scenario is also true of bus operations outside London.

The Best Free Show on Earth #2

Part 2: The Whit Friday Brass Band Contest

2008 sees the 125th year of this great institution, the Whit Friday Brass Band Contest.  The first Whit Friday contest began in Stalybridge a good 125 years ago.  This came about after bands who led the churches decided to host a contest in the Cheshire town.

125 years on, Stalybridge remains an important venue for the Whit Friday contest.  This year saw two contests, with one at Bower Fold (home of Stalybridge Celtic), and the town centre one at the Labour Club near Cheetham’s Park.  Whereas Mossley and the Saddleworth villages are the best places to watch the Yorkshire bands, Stalybridge’s contest is probably the best one for bands from Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands.

This year’s contest at the Stalybridge Labour Club had a venue record of 53 bands, some 3 short of the town’s record of 56 bands (achieved at the now demolished SIDS arena).  Represented at the 2008 contest was a band from Switzerland, bands from East London, Oxfordshire and the Midlands, as well as Lancashire and Cheshire (which make the bulk of the contest’s entrants).

A Whit Friday band contest includes prizes for the best bands within a local area (usually a radius of 10 miles), a ‘Best Open’ prize (any entrant) and prizes for ‘Best Deportment’, youth bands and instrument based prizes (i.e best solo cornet, euphonium).  Some contests award sectional prizes, according to which section the band is in.  Points are allocated on how well each band plays the piece by an adjudicator.

Like the Football League and the FA Premier League, brass bands are divided into sections.  The Championship section is the highest one, with world famous bands such as Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, and Foden’s Richardson among its members.  There is also a further four sections and a youth section.

On arrival, the band ’s runner registers the band’s details (i.e. band [Black Dyke] then march piece [Knight Templar]) and pays its entry fee.  The adjudicator checks note for note each piece, awarding marks on how well it is played.  He or she is unaware of the band, as each band is referred to by number till the results are announced.  Once finished, the band moves onto their next contest.

Since 1989, Tameside MBC has also added a competition for the best band in the borough.  These are comprised of the results from each contest.  The first winners of this was Black Dyke Mills band.

For anyone wishing to delve further into the history of the Whit Friday Brass Band contest, I fully recommend Alec Greenhalgh’s excellent book ‘Hail Smiling Morn’.  Though published and (to the best of my knowledge) not updated since 1991, this is the definitive reference of the competition. 

In chronological order, all contest venues past and present have been stated, with details of the winners in the Best Local and Best Open sections.  For each year, there is also details of the weather conditions.

The book is available for sale at Oldham Tourist Information Centre (inside Gallery Oldham, Union Street) and in Uppermill Tourist Information Centre at Saddleworth Museum.

S.V., 17 May 2008.

Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth

The Best Free Show on Earth #1

Part 1: The Absolute Beginners’ Guide to Whit Friday

East of the M60 has been around in cyberspace for nearly two years, yet in this period it has still to cover Whit Friday.

Until now.

For those of you unsure about Whit Friday, Whit Friday falls after Whit Sunday and is two days before Pentecost.  There is no fixed date, with the date determined by the month when Easter falls on.

A traditional Whit Friday involves the Procession of Witness in the morning.  Churches from, for example Uppermill meet at a central point in the village or town centre and assemble for a short service.  Before and after the service, each church leads with the church’s banner at the front (carried by two strong persons, augmented by a small number of children holding onto its ribbons).

As well as adult members of the congregation, each church is represented by members of its school, Cub/Beaver/Scout/Rainbow/Brownie/Guide groups or other bodies such as mother and toddlers or the local Mothers’ Union.

Behind the banner is a local brass band which leads out fellow walkers.  Some of which carry smaller banners, or other religious artifacts such as a cuddly lamb (symbolising the ‘Lamb of God’).  After the service, each church returns ‘home’ with the full congregation for raspberry buns and a brew.

After the parade (as if the younger members did enough walking), the afternoon’s proceedings would include a sports day, with traditional activities like ‘The Egg and Spoon race’, ‘Three Legged Race’ and an obstacle race featuring.

By night came the centrepiece of Whit Friday, a tradition upheld by villages within the Saddleworth area and the Tameside area - the Whit Friday brass band contests.  From 1883, the first recorded contests took place in Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley.  Bands travelled far and wide (within 20 miles from the venue). 

Stalybridge, as well as being home to the world’s oldest brass band is also home to the first  Whit Friday contest.  Its roots stem from the bands trying to prove which church had the best band.  125 years on, it is now possible to see bands from Switzerland as well as Friezland competing - thanks to motorways and the Channel Tunnel.

Whit Friday is the traditional day for this procession, though the late 1980s saw, mainly in the Tameside area the walks switching to Sunday before Whit Friday.  Since 1883, the number of Whit Friday contests had increased to 23 at any one time.  The late 1980s also saw great expansion of the Whit Friday contest, with Denton, Ashton-under-Lyne and Droylsden alongside the traditional three (Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley).

As well as an increase in the number of contests, the modern day epidemic of congestion has made it impossible for any band to do all the contests, a far cry from 1884 when Stalybridge Borough won the first Stalybridge contest.

S.V., 17 May 2008

Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, religion, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth, local history

Dukinfield Bank Holiday bus services

346 to gain Bank Holiday service for the first time since 2000!

For the first time since GM Buses was split into three (the third being Charterplan, moving to East Yorkshire Motor Services), Dukinfield now has some semblance of a decent bus network over the Bank Holiday period.

In line with First, Arriva and some independent companies, Stagecoach Manchester will operate a full Sunday service on Bank Holidays starting from Good Friday (21 March 2008). This is in line with the Mayne of Manchester services acquired by Stagecoach on the 22 January this year.

This good news for Dukinfield passengers who have recently been at the sharp end of this year’s service revisions alone - as well as insufficient Bank Holiday services. The knock on effect sees the 346 operating a Bank Holiday service for the first time since 2000!

The last company to do so was First Pennine (then owned by First PMT who are now First North Staffordshire), whom in 1999 operated a normal weekday service on their 346 route.  From 2003, the only Bank Holiday 346 journey was the 0830 from Ashton - Hyde, operated by First Manchester.

Running order:

• 0845 - 1955: 220 Manchester - Tameside Hospital;
• 0910 - 1850: 346 Hyde - Ashton (via Newton);
• 0830 - 2340: 330 Ashton - Stockport;
• 1130 - 2255: 41 Ashton - Dukinfield (Yew Tree);
• 0900 - 1900: 388 Ashton - Hyde - Marple (via Yew Tree);
• 1900 - 2330: 389 Ashton - Hyde - Gee Cross;
• 0910 - 2330: 343 Hyde - Mossley - Oldham;
• 0900 - 2158: 345 Ashton - Denton (Pendle Road).

East of the M60 wishes its readers a Happy Easter.

S.V., 12 March 2008

Dukinfield bus service changes: double whammy hits Albion Hotel area

The good, the downright obvious and the ugly

• 343 service retained and rerouted;
• Sunday evening 220 withdrawn;
• Monday - Saturday 419 (Stalybridge - Dukinfield - Ashton) withdrawn;
• Minor changes on Monday - Saturday 220 and 221 route.

New Year, New Increases, Old Grumblers

Bus and rail fare squabblefest

Can’t you tell that the New Year has started already? Two days into the year, our blessed transport companies let New Year in by issuing a 5 - 15% fares increase on its passengers.