Kingsway Local Link bus to be axed from next month

Aerial photo of Kingsway Business Park

The Kingsway Local Link bus is to be withdrawn from the end of next month after more than nine years of service and replaced with a traditional fixed route hourly bus.

Providing crucial transport links for shift workers, Local Link minibuses run between 5am and 11pm to pick workers up from their home addresses or place of work. Booked in advance like a taxi and shared with other passengers, the buses are fully accessible and include space for a wheelchair.

The service is being withdrawn by Transport for Greater Manchester, and will be replaced with a traditional fixed route hourly and daily bus covering shift time access at Kingsway Business Park, which employs thousands of people across sites like JD Sports, Asda, Dachser, and Amazon.

The final date of operation for the Local Link service is 23 April, and the new service will come into effect the following day.

A new R6 service by bus operator Transdev will provide an hourly daily service from Rochdale between 5.36am and 9.36pm and will also replace the current R4 service to the Ladyhouse and Pennine Drive areas of Milnrow.

The existing R7 service will be rerouted via Kingsway Business Park and also extended from Castleton to Middleton. Transport for Greater Manchester says a new timetable will provide an hourly daily service with departures from Middleton times to meet shift start times at Kingsway.

The Middleton Local Link service is also being changed to no longer include the Kingsway element, meaning passengers will not be able to use Local Link to travel from Middleton to Kingsway

Nick Roberts, TfGM’s Head of Services and Commercial Development, said: “The Kingsway Local Link service was introduced while bus passenger numbers were low, and demand for the service to the Kingsway Business Park had yet to be established.

“Since then, people living across Rochdale have enjoyed access to Kingsway, but as passenger numbers have increased and travel patterns have become clearer, the opportunity has been taken to provide a network of traditional fixed route services to meet this demand.

“Currently over 150 journeys to and from Kingsway Business Park are refused a month due to limited capacity on Local Link services. The new service provided by Transdev will offer more capacity, without the need to prebook journeys, in a bid to boost passenger numbers even further.

“This change will also pave the way for a wider range of benefits to the Rochdale area, including twice as many buses to Hollingworth Lake, twice as many buses to Milnrow, as well as a wider network of evening services across the borough.”