Buses magazine always seems to be a treasure trove of information when it comes to the slightly more ‘hidden’ areas of the Bee Network, possibly due to its more journalistic prowess – it’s not just a lay person with a keyboard like me.
In the middle of page 6 of its June 2023 edition it laid out more preparations for franchising. As I earlier reported (David vs. Goliath?, 27-06-23) independent operator Vision hadn’t won any of the public service work in tranche 1. It turns out they have been successful in winning 6 schools contracts with Stagecoach winning 17 (schools are an area of the franchise transition I’m not really keeping an eye on). I’m glad for them, hopefully they adjust well and keep up the good work.
In absolutely no surprise to anyone, Ticketer won the contract for ‘tap on tap off’ ticketing and AVL. It was inevitable really as Ticketer have been TfGM’s preferred supplier of ticketing for years for smaller tender operators who are forced to use them by way of TfGM making it mandatory and supplying the machines.
The cost of sticking yellow stickers on bus stops in the tranche 1/sub area A was reported as being ‘in excess of £200,000’. Tasty.
In slightly more worrying news, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities awarded Transport for Greater Manchester (itself mostly funded via GMCA’s Mayoral council tax levy) £7.5million to buy land in Central Park from Manchester City Council. It continues TfGM’s cosy relationship with MCC with regards to property, they’re in partnership for the Mayfield development – Mayfield Partnership LLP – and a 50% share hold in Piccadilly Triangle Developments LLP.
TfGM said that the nearby ‘legacy depots’ “can be re-provisioned for further development and regeneration” – read as: knock ’em down and shove up cheap, poorly built housing. The 13-acre site is within the Central Park development around the back of Monsall, most notable features include the Police headquarters and the Metrolink stop whose mega stylistic sweeping roof resembling a flying saucer doesn’t even fully cover the platforms. It hopes to house 250 electric buses there.
I seriously hope moves like knocking down historic depots with significant value don’t come to fruition. Places like nearby Queens Rd a 1.5mi drive away, I assume a site they hope to ‘re-provision’, has been providing services for over 120 years and are established in the communities, even the road it’s on is named after the Corporation chairman. It (the full building being Manchester’s first electric tram (now bus) depot built in 1901 and the very ornate Transport Museum in the ‘original bus’ part built in the late 1920s) is a grade II listed building, and the Museum society is owned by TfGM meaning they’ll be forced to find somewhere to re-home them, so hopefully those provide some protections. I wonder how contaminated the land around these elderly buildings is.
TfGM’s absolute determination to throw up brand new bus yards continues. The new Wigan depot is still awaiting planning permission for proposals submitted May 2022. The only public question being raised by a neighbour querying the location of the fuel tanks, grid capacity, and traffic light phasing. No obvious indication of why it’s progressing so slowly. Neither Stagecoach or TfGM have publicly commented about the acquisition of the former’s existing yard. There’s only 17 days left to go!
Or is there? As I worried about a lack of PR campaign in the run up to T1 live, it seems TfGM have started an attempt at a ‘quirky’ and mysterious campaign. Plain yellow billboards with the Bee logo and sole ’18 September’ stared to appear this week. With the start of T1 on 22 September one can only assume this means the launch of the Bee Network website (BeeNetwork.com currently redirects to TfGM.com) and app. Users of the Metrolink app stared to report last week a message popping up informing them of the app becoming defunct and that there is currently no replacement – until the Bee stuff launches a week later… what a co-ordinated joined-up system!: “On 12 September, this app will stop operating. We’re also launching a Bee Network app in September.”
Meanwhile work continues to electrify Bolton depot. Big temporary generators arrived yesterday on the back of some wagons to power the chargers, but don’t worry, they’re vegetable oil fuelled. As to be expected, the nay-sayers spouting the usual stuff saying it’s hilarious jumped to it. Still, I think 1 or 2 big engines running for a handful of hours a day is way better than 50 engines running continuously for 20-odd hours a day. GMCA seem to think they’re still diesel buses – a hastily deleted Tweet/X from the GMCA account heralding the arrival of new electrics on the 22nd used a picture of a diesel powered (although micro-hybrid) Streetdeck under the banner ‘say yellow to your new electric buses’, much to the amusement of enthusiasts.
