Councillors and residents address Transport for Greater Manchester over bus changes

Middleton councillors and local residents were given the opportunity to address representatives from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) on Thursday (17 September).

James Lewis, Section Manager Services Planning at TfGM and his colleague Sarah Medwell were invited to the meeting following concerns from residents.

Concerns were raised regarding the 131 bus which runs through Boarsahw to Manchester City Centre between Monday and Friday.

Speaking about the service Mr Lewis said: “We are, like many other services under financial pressure and are having to review the support of our services. Over the last two years we have had to reduce spending on bus services by around 20% and that is a significant reduction. The 131 bus was involved with some proposals of reduction to the service and some concerns were raised. We have now developed alternative proposals that are being looked at. They will have to go through central government to get approval but we are hoping to progress on those new proposals.”

Following statements of financial pressure, Councillor Carol Wardle questioned why new bus stops and new services were being planned for Hollin Lane. Mr Lewis stated that the money would be from a separate pot.

Further concerns were raised about the 412 service which is the service that feeds hospitals and four local schools. Residents are concerned that the service is not running on time and following its timetable and that people don’t know when the bus is coming, resulting in people running for the bus or waiting up to an hour at a time for it.

Mr Lewis agreed that this was not the correct way to run the service and stated that this was down to the bus operators. He added: “We don’t have a say on the routes and that is one of the problems we are having. We have central power but we don’t cover all of the network.”

Councillor Linda Robinson questioned why when a lady went to purchase a disabled bus pass at Middleton Bus Station she was told she couldn’t have one and instead would need an elderly age pass. Mr Lewis stated that changes in relation to passes are made at the TfGM Head Office in Manchester and queries would have to go to them. This is not something Middleton Bus Station makes decisions on.

The 163 service, which has been rerouted was also discussed.

Mr Lewis said: “The 163 service is one of the commercial services run by First and we have been in communication with First about this service. They have told us that, at the moment, they don’t consider this to be a priority and that is the communication that I can pass on at this time.”

Councillor Phil Burke raised the issue of a staggering increase in weekly tickets on the 788 school bus service. Councillor Burke stated that the weekly ticket price has raised from £6.50 to over £12.00.

Councillor Burke added: “There are a lot of parents who won’t be able to afford that increase. Why has this increased and why weren’t the parents told before this happened and why weren’t we as councillors told?”

Mr Lewis said: “This service previously received financial support from TfGM but the operator decided to run a commercial service and following this we are obliged to take off our service. This price increase would have been decided by the operator. It is a legal requirement that we take off our service if they decide to run a commercial service as we can’t be seen to be undercutting the commercial service.”