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.