Is the future orange and white or pink with yellow spots? Unless we know different by the end of May, we shall be bracing ourselves for a new era of franchised bus operations by 2025. There will be endless chat on social media and blogs as to what bus routes will change, the fares, the […]
Read More What Colour for Greater Manchester’s BusesMayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham goes for Bus Franchising Scheme Nearly four years after he was elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham stuck to his pledge to reform Greater Manchester’s buses. Following a second consultation, he made his announcement at 1440 beside Stand E of Ashton-under-Lyne Interchange. The Free Trade Experiment with […]
Read More Franchised Buses Get The Green LightFeast of the M60 reviews Heck’s latest sausage sensation ALDI, Stalybridge, 1.45 pm: thanks to the third lockdown and one of my parents shielding till the 1st April, I have been charged with doing the big shop. After falling out of love with trudging heavy bags from Morrisons, I discovered ALDI – thanks to being […]
Read More A Brazen Banger: Heck’s Feck SausagesWith the possibility of bus franchising in Greater Manchester and improved local networks, has the government fallen in love with our buses? There are four things that the creator of this blog shares with Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, otherwise known as Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP. One of them is a lackadaisical approach to […]
Read More Bus Back Better: Towards a Second Bus Renaissance?Brownfield funding source sees return of plans to move Droylsden library to Guardsmen Tony Downes House Back in 2015, Tameside MBC began a consultation to move Droylsden Library from its existing premises to the ground floor of Guardsmen Tony Downes House. As I attended a creative writing group there (and fell in love with the […]
Read More Droylsden Library Move Back On TrackThis month’s semi-reopened window on the shop windows This month will see some sense of normality returning to our High Streets – or at least plans pointing us towards a sense of normality. The first part of this post-pandemic ‘reopening’ will begin with our schools. According to the Government’s Roadmap, non-essential retail businesses will be […]
Read More Retail Comings and Goings in Tameside, March 2021: The Ashton Review of ShopsIconic 999kHz and 1152kHz wavelengths to go in North West “In the North West, you know what’s best…” “We thank you for sharing your days with us/For The Best Hit Music with a smile/Whatever the time of day or night, your music and your friend…” If you are older than 30 years old, there’s every […]
Read More Greatest Hits Radio Ditches MW FrequenciesStagecoach Group invests in AI based bus route planning tool Investment will help plan the changes in travel coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic; New AI platform Optibus will help improve service delivery and provide more efficient timetables; State-of-the-art artificial intelligence, advanced algorithms and cloud computing used to make timetables smarter; Major technological transformation will […]
Read More AI’s ‘Aye’ For The 111: Introducing OptibusThe even longer awaited fourteenth part of our informal look at bus operations For beginners. Once upon a time, quite some time ago, a certain Robert Stephenson created the world’s first true inter-city railway line. By September 1830, it carried its first passengers and goods between Liverpool and Manchester city centres. Today, Liverpool Lime Street […]
Read More Duffers’ Guide to Bus Operations #14: Lowbridge BusesTen iconic buses for beginners – or anybody old enough to pay child fare without an iGo card For many people, a bus is just a bus. A box on six wheels for 16 or 90 people. A way of getting home from school, or from home to the shops. These boxes with windows and […]
Read More A Child’s Guide to Iconic Buses: The Not So Perfect Ten
