Stagecoach Manchester is the trading name of Greater Manchester Buses South Limited, and is a major operator of bus services in Greater Manchester. Stagecoach Manchester is the largest UK bus subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, serving over 87 million passengers a year. Stagecoach Manchester's operations include the 192 service of which the portion between Stockport (Mersey Square) and Manchester (Piccadilly Gardens) is Britain's busiest route carrying 11 million passengers a year alone.

The company was formerly known as GM Buses (South) Ltd. which was formed as a management buyout of the southern area of GM Buses (which originated from Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive's bus division). The northern area of GM Buses is now known as First Manchester.

On 21 January 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased the bus operations of A Mayne & Son Ltd (Maynes), with the Maynes fleet of 37 vehicles passing to Hyde Road depot, to be repainted at a later date. No depot was involved in the sale.

On 10 August 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased another independent bus operator, this time Bullocks Coaches based in Cheadle, Stockport, removing the only independent operator to be based in Stockport. Bullocks has however retained one bus route, the 147 "Oxford Road Link" operated as a subsidised university and hospital link. Stagecoach Manchester will seek to operate the Bullocks services separately until suitable regulatory clearance has been obtained. Bullocks' services included the 157 route between Woodford and Manchester.

History

GM Buses (South) was formed in 1994 in preparation for privatisation of the former PTE bus company in Greater Manchester. It was broken into two parts to make more money for the Government and also to fulfill the Government's 'sweet shop' bus company ownership vision. Stagecoach put in a strong bid, and gained clearance from the Department of Trade & Industry, but the employees bought it for £16 million. It faced an uphill struggle. as over 40 competitors had grown over GM Buses routes before the break-up, although most of those competed with GM Buses (North). However, Bee Line and MTL Manchester did go south, and Mayne, Walls and Finglands were established competitors on lucrative South Manchester routes.

Both companies also suffered from elderly fleets, as a stand-alone (nil subsidy) arms' length company, GM Buses had not been able to buy new buses, and thus Atlanteans and Fleetlines--the newest by then 15 years old—had to soldier on. Competitors were expanding and the private company could not meet the investment needed.

Stagecoach set up a Ribble subsidiary, Stagecoach Manchester, to compete on GMB (South)'s prime route, the 192 (Manchester - Hazel Grove) with brand new buses, and soon they became popular, the new Volvo B6s made a lasting impression where GMBS could only present a dowdy, dated image.

GMBS had to fight back, in response to increasing competition by Merseyside Transport (MTL Manchester) GMBS set up Birkenhead & District on the Wirral, running Fleetlines in Birkenhead Corporation livery. Throughout 1994 GMBS bought a large number of secondhand buses, mainly more Atlanteans and Leyland Nationals. Competition with Stagecoach became stronger, with Stagecoach bringing in new buses in the shape of new Volvo B10M-55s with Alexander PS bodies. GMBS used its Charterplan coaching fleet to attack Stagecoach Ribble's X43 to Burnley. By the end of 1994 everything turned peaceful, Stagecoach agreed no further competition on the 192, and financed 20 Volvo B6s for GMBS.

In February 1996 GMBS gave up, and Stagecoach bought the business, it was quickly rebranded Stagecoach Manchester and did well out of Stagecoach new bus orders. The original Stagecoach Manchester was sold to Finglands.

Depots

Stagecoach Manchester has two depots in Stockport, one at Daw Bank and the other on Charles Street. As well as this there are two depots in Manchester, located on Hyde Road, Ardwick, and Princess Road, Moss Side. There is also a depot slightly out of the former Greater Manchester area, situated at York Street in Glossop. Finally during June 2008 a depot was opened in Ashton. This new depot will, from the 25th Jan 2009 take on the small fleet from Glossop and in the long term, the Charles Street depot's role also. The Glossop depot was closed shortly after the transfer of the fleet to the new Ashton depot, with Stagecoach seeking to sell the site to a developer.

Fleet

As at 3 May 2009, Stagecoach Manchester had 680 operational buses, of which almost half are Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. The fleet is as follows:

Image	Chassis	Body	Built	Allocation
	Alexander Dennis Trident	Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 H47/33F	2006, 2008-9	Ashton (9) Hyde Road (105) Princess Road (89) Stockport (60) Total: 263
		Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 H47/34F	2006-7	Ashton (28) Hyde Road (25) Princess Road (23) Total: 76
	DAF DE02GSSB220	Northern Counties B		Stockport (1) Total: 1
	DAF DE02RSDB250	Optare Spectra H50/27F	1998	Stockport (2) Total: 2
	Dennis Dart SLF	Alexander ALX200 9.4m B29F	1998-9	Ashton (7) Total: 7
		Marshall Capital B37F	1998	Ashton (4) Total: 4
		Plaxton Pointer B35F	1999	Ashton (2) Total: 2
		Plaxton Pointer B36F	1997	Stockport (1) Total: 1
		Plaxton Pointer B37F	1996	Stockport (6) Total: 6
		Plaxton Pointer B39F	1997-8	Stockport (3) Total: 3
		TransBus Pointer B29F	2004	Stockport (1) Total: 1
		TransBus Pointer B37F	2004	Stockport (2) Total: 2
	Dennis Dragon DDA1820	Duple Metsec/AVA DPH55/37F	1995	Princess Road (8) Total: 8
		Duple Metsec/AVA H51/37F	1995	Princess Road (7) Total: 7
	Dennis Trident 2	Alexander ALX400 DPH47/27F	1999	Hyde Road (2) Total: 2
		Alexander ALX400 H51/26F	1999	Princess Road (3) Total: 3
		Alexander ALX400 H51/28F	1999-2000	Hyde Road (22) Princess Road (28) Stockport (2) Total: 52
		East Lancashire Lolyne H51/30F	1999	Hyde Road (5) Total: 5
		East Lancashire Lolyne H51/31F	2000, 2003	Hyde Road (5) Stockport (5) Total: 10
		Plaxton President H47/31F	2003	Hyde Road (2) Total: 2
	MAN 18.220 HOCL-NR	Alexander ALX300 B42F	1998-2000, 2003-4	Ashton (28) Hyde Road (17) Princess Road (18) Stockport (55) Total: 118
		Alexander Dennis ALX300 B42F	2006	Stockport (9) Total: 9
	Optare Solo M850	Optare B27F	2008	Ashton (1) Stockport (7) Total: 8
	Optare Solo M880	Optare B27F	2007	Stockport (5) Total: 5
		Optare B28F	2008-9	Stockport (5) Total: 5
	Scania N113DRB	East Lancashire H47/31F	1993	Ashton (2) Total: 2
	Scania N94UB	East Lancashire Myllennium B35F	2004	Ashton (2) Total: 2
	Transbus Enviro 300	Transbus B45F	2002	Princess Road (1) Total: 1
	Volvo B10M-55	Alexander PS B49F	1997	Stockport (17) Total: 17
	Volvo Olympian 50	Northern Counties Palatine 2 H47/30F	1999	Princess Road (2) Stockport (1) Total: 3
	Volvo Olympian 56	Alexander RL H51/32F	1998	Princess Road (1) Total: 1
		Alexander RL H51/36F	1997-8	Hyde Road (17) Princess Road (19) Total: 36
	Volvo Olympian YN2RC16V3	Alexander RL H51/36F	1996	Hyde Road (10) Princess Road (3) Total: 13
	Volvo Olympian YN2RV18Z4	Northern Counties Palatine H47/30F	1996	Princess Road (3) Total: 3

Service

Stagecoach Manchester mainly run services in the southern areas of Greater Manchester, serving Stockport, Trafford, Tameside and south and central Manchester. They also run some local services in Glossop. Stagecoach does run some services outside these areas, which are the 22 (Bolton – Stockport) which is shared with First Manchester, and the 76 (Oldham - Manchester).

Due to reduced traffic during the summer holidays, Stagecoach Manchester change some of their timetables on busier services at this time of year. Services are re-timetabled closer to the off peak timetable. Also, some services introduce additional journeys using buses that would normally otherwise be used for school services.

References

External links

• Stagecoach Manchester official website