The Bus Chronicles: Ghost buses, or why the 375 had to go

Oh look! An extinct unicorn!

Despite the 375 being one of my local bus routes, I never actually had need to use it. This was thanks to the 385 being great and the 383 being a suitable back up.

That all changed in November 2024 when my dad had the first of two heart attacks that year and spent ten days in Stepping Hill Hospital.

In theory the 375 should have been able to take me from a bus stop five minutes walk away from my house to a bus stop inside the hospital grounds. But when you actually came to look at the timetable for the 375, it quickly became apparent that Stagecoach, its operator, was only running it every two hours. At certain points of the day they were only running it every four hours. 

It goes without saying that this particularly spartan bus timetable did not in any way fit in with the visiting times for either Cardiology (November's stay) or AMU (December's stay). When dad was in hospital in November I was having to visit after work, meaning that the visiting times were 7-9pm. When he was in hospital in December, I'd finished for Christmas so could visit during the day, meaning the visiting times were 4pm-6pm. 

There were no buses on that route that could get me there within a sensible margin of either 4pm or 7pm. There was even a four hour gap between 4pm and 8pm when there were no 375's running at all. 

To get to the hospital in the evening I had to catch a 383 to the junction of Dialstone Lane and Nangreave Road, walk down Nangreave Road to the A6 (about a 15 minute walk) and then catch a 192 to the hospital. On the way back from the hospital after 9pm, I had to catch a 192 to Stockport College (a super stop, needless to say) and wait for whatever turned up first: the 358 or the 383. Usually one turned up within about 15 minutes, but never actually to timetable so you never quite knew what it would arrive. 

Come December, when the roads were increasingly busy with festive traffic and everything was gridlocked and running late, I simply walked to the hospital. 

It takes about 45-55 minutes to walk to the hospital, depending on how long it takes to get across the A6, and it's fair to say that it's a particularly unpleasant walk. It involves walking down what were once narrow country lanes but which are now narrow rat runs with equally narrow pavements, which are only on one side of the road anyway. The road is so badly lit in places that, when it's dark, you need a torch to see where you're going. Then you hit the equally un-fun A6. 

About the only good thing you could say about walking to Stepping Hill as opposed to taking the circuitous route offered by the 383 and the 192 was that it was quicker. 

Given my recent experience of travelling to Stepping Hill, it wasn't much of a surprise to me to see that the 375 has not survived the transfer from the wild west of de-regulation to the re-regulation of the Bee Network. In recent decades, it has become increasingly apparent that the route was being run purely for the subsidy paid by Stockport Council to the operator, Stagecoach (though periodically other companies have run it as well, whenever Stagecoach refused to run it anymore) and not actually with the intention of having passengers travel on it. Even so, given it - in theory at least - linked the populations of Hazel Grove, Bosden Farm, Offerton, Marple and Hawk Green to their local hospital, it felt like a ballsy move for TfGM to have scrapped it altogether.

I suppose the theory goes that because the bus service wasn't being used (and on the rare occasions that I sighted a 375 around here, there was never anyone on it) it therefore proves a lack of need for it, and as such should be scrapped. 

The alternative theory, as my experience demonstrates, is that there was, and remains, a need for a regular and reliable service between Marple, Hawk Green, Bosden Farm, Hazel Grove and Stepping Hill. We just haven't actually had one for several years now and, as such, have been forced to make other arrangements. 

The Bus Chronicles: Of storms and super stops

A very happy Andy Burnham. Image TfGM, 2023.

When the Met office announced the arrival of Storm Éowyn this week I found myself thinking "Oh bloody hell, here we go again..." 

Three weeks into January and three weeks into the Bee Network and it had just been beginning to feel as though things were just starting to settle. Only to be upended again.

So far Stockport's buses at least seem to have remained unaffected by Éowyn, though apparently some train lines around Hazel Grove have been knackered by the winds so - as with the flooding and snow earlier in the month - we haven't got off scot free. With more weather warnings for this weekend and into next week, it is possible that there will be further disruption. I mean, the residents of Meadow Mill are only just back in their homes after being flooded on New Years Day, so who knows?

With fresh bad weather on the cards, now feels like an opportune moment to talk about the super stops.

What is a super stop? It's essentially a bus stop that serves multiple bus routes. 

If you live, as I did for many years, on the main transport artery through Stockport that is the A6, you won't ever really need to figure out where your nearest super stop is because there are so many buses going down the A6 that it's largely irrelevant: Most stops are super stops. But if, as I once did and now do again, live somewhere or work somewhere that is only served by one bus route, you soon find out where your nearest super stop is. 

There was a time when I worked on Oxford Road in Manchester, a road which is full of super stops. Despite this, the 191 service was (for a mercilessly short period of time) so bad that I found myself walking down Plymouth Grove to Longsight Library to get the bus home. This was because the stop on Oxford Road gave me access to the 191 and 197 but it didn't give me access to the 192 and the stop in Longsight did.

I found myself reflecting on this experience at the tail end of the week before last when, having walked three stops to catch the 385 at a stop that was nearer the one for the 383, and the 385 not having turned up (again...) I ended up missing the quarter to five 383 because it had left the stop in the five minutes it took me to walk from the 385 stop to it. "Surely" I thought, "there's got to be a better way of doing this". 

As I waited for the 383 that was due to come at 5 past the hour, I remembered the 191 experience and started to calculate in my head how long it would take me to walk to the nearest bus stop that served the 385, 383 and 358. I knew where it was, but what I didn't know was how long it would take to walk there from work and whether the timings would work out with the bus timetables for all three routes. 

To explain, I finish work at 4pm. Between 4pm and 4:25pm, there are no buses. Well, there is one at about 2 minutes past four but it's at the stop that's a ten minute walk away, so that can automatically be discounted. This means that there is a kind of dead time for buses that lasts half an hour, given that the bus at 25 past is often late. I calculated that it would probably take me about 25-30 minutes to walk to my identified super stop, by which point the first of the three buses of the 4:30-5pm slot would be due. Given that the 383 at 4:25pm is always rammed to the gills and you always have to stand or, on a particularly bad day, spend your entire journey squashed up against the perspex grill of the drivers cab, I was not upset about the prospect of missing it. 

The bus due after that would be the 385, which has variable reliability at the moment, and the one after that was another 383, which tended to be early or on time. Then you were looking at post 5pm buses. The 358 is only once an hour and is often late so it's only really in the calculations as a random factor: It might surprise you and turn up in an opportune moment, then again it probably won't.

At this moment in time, all of the buses going to Marple (ie the 385, 383 and 358) were running approximately 15 minutes late most days. This was a real pain in the arse given that I was waiting for a bus (the 385) that only runs once an hour. The 383 runs every 20 minutes so it's lateness was marginally less of a pain in the arse than with the other two: It would be late but, what with it being every 20 minutes, one of them would arrive eventually and - in theory - you wouldn't have to wait too long for one. 

I should say at this point that the super stop on the way into work is only a ten minute walk away. I started using this super stop on the 6th January because of the snow, and only stopped using it this week because I was fed up of ending up on the (late) 384 instead of the 385, and having to walk the rest of the way to work rather than being dropped off outside. I eventually worked out that the 385's reliability at 7:30am was stronger than at 4:30pm and that, as such, it wasn't really worth trekking up the hill and across the grass verge to the super stop every morning. If the 385 doesn't turn up in the morning, I can walk to a different super stop in a slightly different direction that is further down the route.

Stockport by LS Lowry

For now the super stop on the way home feels like it's worth continuing to use, if only because there's nothing more frustrating than standing at the 385 stop from 4pm until 4:50pm waiting for a bus that clearly isn't coming, and then having to walk ten minutes down the road to the nearest 383 stop. 

I am hoping that, eventually, reliability will improve - and there have been flashes of progress in this regard over the past week - but it's not there yet, and the super stop acts as insurance against things going wrong.

Perhaps the most ridiculous thing about the super stop, certainly the one on the way home, is that it's a half hour walk and it only actually takes me about 45 minutes to walk home: I can literally walk all the way home from work in the time it would take me to get home by bus. 

Why not simply walk home then? Well, at the most basic level, it's a horrible walk: It involves busy main roads with multiple hills and there are stretches of road where there's only pavement on one side, and it's often not the side you want it to be on. This means that you have to keep crossing over the road, taking extra time. It really is more fun taking the bus. You can be home in 15 minutes. When the bus turns up that is. 

The Bus Chronicles: The annual bus ticket

On Saturday 18th January I travelled to Stockport Interchange on the (15 minutes late) 385 and handed over £800 to TfGM to purchase the newly created Bee Network Annual pass. 

It has been a long time coming.

Years ago, in the wild west of post 1986 de-regulation, and amidst round 3 of the 192 bus wars, I had purchased first a monthly, then an annual, System 1 Anybus Pass.* This entitled the bearer to travel on any bus in Greater Manchester, regardless of who was running it, at any time during the issue period. I purchased the annual System 1 for years, until it was scrapped. 

After the System 1 was scrapped I bought Stagecoach annual passes** on the basis that they were cheaper and less hassle than traipsing to Stockport bus station every month to buy a monthly System 1. Also, I was living in Heaton Chapel at the time and Stagecoach had the monopoly on all the routes between Stockport and Manchester which meant that the only bus company I was using was Stagecoach. 

But I have always really missed having an Anybus pass. 

When I moved house last year and found myself in an area of Stockport not under total control of Stagecoach, I quickly concluded that I was going to need to purchase the monthly Anybus pass, entailing a monthly trip to the newly built Stockport Interchange, as this would enable me to use both the 383 and 385 without having to purchase multiple tickets. As much as I enjoy visiting Stockport Interchange, it was a relief when it was announced in October 2024 that one of the new changes that the Bee Network would introduce would be a new Annual pass that could be paid for outright or purchased in instalments via credit unions. I was overjoyed. 

The member of TfGM staff who sold me my annual pass seemed similarly excited about it's creation, remarking that they are proving very popular and providing me with a yellow Bee Network card holder and, despite the recent travails with my commute, I went away with a skip in my step.

* - My employer at the time purchased my System 1 bus passes for me, and I paid them back in instalments via PAYE.

** - I paid for these myself using money from my savings account, which I then paid back in instalments throughout the year. I am using the same system to fund my £800 Bee Network pass.

The Bus Chronicles: The Fate of the 385

Image: Stockport Council

I wrote about the fate of the 385 earlier this week, but what I wanted to get across in this post is just how special the route was, prior to the Bee Network taking it over. 

The service only came into existence because its parent route, the 375, after spending decades being passed around operators like an unwanted parcel, was split into two routes in 2023 following the collapse of Little Gem, its most recent operator. Stagecoach, who had spent decades reluctantly operating the 375, agreed to take it back but made it clear to TfGM and Stockport Council that they weren't interested in taking it in its current route form. I imagine they also wanted more subsidy to run it as well. 

The upshot of this was that the 385 route was created to serve the populations of Mellor, Marple, Hawk Green, Bosden Farm, Offerton and Heaviley, and the contract was handed to D&G, a small bus company based in Stoke. 

I first began using the 385 in February 2024 and, in the period that I used it (February through to December 2024) I would say that 96 times out of 100, it would turn up within 15 or so minutes of the advertised arrival time. Maybe more like 20 minutes some days. Which sounds terrible but, when you consider that there was only one an hour, it doesn't seem as bad. Most times it would arrive within 10 minutes of its arrival time and I can think of two occasions when it was around 30 minutes late, but the crucial thing was that it turned up. I can only think of two occasions between February and December 2024 when it didn't turn up, and one of those was on a morning when there had been snow and the roads hadn't been gritted. 

On the day in November when the 385 didn't turn up, I walked to work instead of trying to catch another bus. My thinking being "Well, if the 385 can't get through, nothing is getting through". I think I was right about this as not a single bus passed me as I walked, slipped and slid my way to work that morning. And all the roads were gridlocked. A few days later I found out from the driver who'd been on duty that day that he had, technically, turned up - but over an hour later thanks to an accident in Marple and total gridlock on the roads. 

By November it was known that D&G had not been awarded the contract to continue running the 385 in the new Bee Network era. The contract had instead been given to Diamond, a company more known for running buses in North Manchester and who didn't appear to have a great reputation for customer service (there are Facebook groups to this effect). They were also the company that took the GMCA to judicial review in an attempt to stop the Bee Network from happening. Twice. Even Stagecoach only did it once.

It is perhaps with this in mind that I am saddened, but not entirely surprised, to find that the reliability of the 385 has decreased in the first two weeks of the Bee Network in Stockport. I have interrogated my feelings about this a lot over the past fortnight, and I've come to the conclusion that yes, it is possible that I am giving Diamond less slack in terms of opportunities to turn up than I would have done D&G. This is probably because D&G seemed to have more of a tendency to turn up than Diamond currently appear to do. I have, on a number of occasions over the past two weeks, spent over 20 minutes waiting for the 385 to turn up. And it simply hasn't arrived. True, it might have arrived 10 minutes after I gave up and walked to a different bus stop to get the 383, but I bet it didn't. I did, however, catch it by chance on Saturday when I'd gone out to get the 384, and it was only 15 minutes late then so perhaps all is not lost.

What I mourn as much as the reliability and determination to turn up, come what may, is the sense of community that there was on the 385: The people I talked to at the bus stop, the drivers I talked to. The way that we were all regulars and knew each other by sight if not by name. The way that the drivers would look out for people and help and reassure new and inexperienced bus users, or just people who seemed a bit fragile. 

All of that is gone and, if it ever comes back, it's going to take a long time to rebuild that trust. 

The Bus Chronicles: A shaky start

Image: TfGM

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've a feeling that when TfGM and the GMCA were setting dates for the implementation of the three tranches of the Bee Network they weren't banking on the first week of implementation for tranche three being marred by snow and ice.

But, needless to say, that's exactly what happened when buses across South Manchester (including Stockport) joined the Bee Network on the 5th January. 

Monday 6th January was the first day back at work for many after Christmas, meaning that they had finished their commutes to work back in December under the old system of chaos and multi coloured buses, and were beginning the new year with shiny new yellow buses and hopefully more order. 

The snow hadn't arrived on Monday as I set out for work, and I was feeling a bit nervous and apprehensive as I headed for the bus stop to hopefully await the arrival of the newly franchised 385. The route which was only established in the summer of 2023 had been saved by the Bee Network while its parent route, the increasingly useless 375, had been ruthlessly binned. Unfortunately, D&G were no longer running the 385 route. 

It was late to arrive and when it came around the corner we weren't sure at first if it was a bus. It was so small it looked more like a minibus. But no, it was the 385. It was tiny and yellow, with only 16 seats, and a very fancy sliding automatic door that beeped alarmingly whenever it was opening and shutting, but it was here. "Well, this is going to be a problem at 4:30 when the college kids get on." I thought to myself as we bounced over the speed bumps. Time to get out the Rate Your Journey questionnaire on the Bee Network site...

At 4:30pm, I waited at the bus stop for the 385 along with a crowd of about 15 other people, almost all students from the college. Since September 2024, the 385 has become a firm favourite with the college kids: They can catch it from opposite the college and, unlike the other buses heading in the same direction, it could be relied on to turn up.

Well, until the 6th January it could anyway.

The bus was due to arrive at 27 minutes past 4pm and when it hadn't arrived by 4:35pm, people were a little worried but not entirely surprised: It has been known to not turn up until 4:40pm before now. 

When it got to 4:50pm, some of us headed down the road to the 383 bus stop, but many people stayed at the 385 stop. Unable to comprehend that the bus was not coming. The Bee Network app hadn't been any help in this regard: It wasn't showing any 385 service coming, in real time, until after 6pm. Clearly stuff had gone wrong.

Most of us ended up on the 358 (not to be confused with the 385...) at just after 5:30pm. How the population of Mellor (who have no other service apart from the 385) got home remains uncertain.

Snow was due over night and day one of the Bee Network had been a mixed bag. Clearly I was going to have to tweak my commuting plans...

The Bus Chronicles: An introduction

On the 5th January 2025, TfGM (Transport for Greater Manchester) and the GMCA (Greater Manchester Combined Authority) completed their implementation of the Bee Network, a new network of franchised bus services now under public control. The first new publicly controlled network in the UK since 1986.

The final tranche of services to come under the Bee Network included Stockport who, along with the rest of South Manchester, had been waiting an extra 18 months to be brought under public control. Meaning that we had an extra 18 months of Wild West style chicanery and poor services compared to, say, Bolton - who were done first. 

This wasn't all entirely bad given that fate delivered the populations of Mellor, Hawk Green, Marple, Offerton, Bosden Farm and Heaviley the 385, as run by D&G, a small bus company based in Stoke. Which turned out to be something of an accidental triumph when it came to creating a real sense of community on the buses. 

The fate of the 385 after the introduction of the Bee Network is something I intend to write about over the next twelve months as I explore the rollout of the new system, and keep a careful eye on how it's going. As someone who has written extensively about the need for bus re-regulation in the UK, who campaigned for Greater Manchester to use the Bus Services Act 2017 to take it's buses back under public control, I am certainly not going to be trolling TfGM, the GMCA or the Bee Network itself. What I am going to be doing is writing about how I feel the newly franchised services are running in Stockport, and gently raising any concerns and issues I find along the way.

Franchising was never going to be a perfect solution; it leaves many of the bus routes across Greater Manchester in the hands of the same bus companies who were running the routes (often badly) before the Bee Network was introduced. But what it does bring is greater powers to hold those companies to account when they fail to provide a service, along with the powers for TfGM and the GMCA to set fares and timetables. It will be interesting to see if the introduction of the £2 hourly 'hopper' fare will increase use of the network, and I have heard anecdotally that the new annual pass is proving popular. Fares have been lowered across the board, are good times ahead? We will see.