On the 24th
September 2023 the Bee Network went live marking the most significant change to
the bus services in the Greater Manchester area since deregulation in
1986. The Bee Network will be introduced
in three tranches each having a mix of small and large franchise contracts
which operators had to bid for.
This DVD
programme looks at the events resulting from the introduction of the first
tranche filmed in October and December 2023. The areas affected include Bolton,
Wigan and parts of Salford and Bury. The
biggest of the franchises was awarded to Go North West (GNW) covering Bolton
and Wigan, with smaller franchises awarded to Rotala’s Diamond North West. In
order to run the services a fleet of 50 BYD/ADL Enviro400City battery-electric
double-deckers were introduced as well as a large fleet of ADL Enviro200MMC
single-deckers that were starting to enter service during our filming. Before their arrival GNW borrowed over 40
similar vehicles from Go North East - mostly in their Green Arrow livery and
from Go South Coast with buses appearing in both Swindon and Morebus liveries,
all of which are seen on this DVD programme.
Our filming begins in Bolton during October and is centred on the bus
station and Great Moor Street. Here we
see a plenty of buses and liveries on the GNW buses as well as Stagecoach and
Transdev buses in service. We then move
to Wigan. Beginning on Hallgate our independent
transport videos cameras then move towards the exit and then the
entrance of the bus station, which is a superb place for filming as we see all
the buses running through in Bee Network livery and the liveries of the borrowed
ADL MMC200 single–deckers, not forgetting some Arriva and Stagecoach buses as
well. From Wigan our cameras move onto
Leigh where we film at the busy bus station and on King Street. Most of the buses are in Bee Network livery
and it is here we see the former Firstbus Wright Gemini 3-bodied Volvo
B5LH hybrids for the ‘Vantage’ guided busway, their route terminating at the
bus station, with their striking purple livery and ‘Vantage’ names removed in
favour of the Bee Network yellow and black livery. Three former London MCV EvoSeti
double-deckers have also had guide wheels fitted for the V2 service and are
seen on this programme. After Leigh we make a brief visit to the Trafford
Centre bus station to record the buses before they join the Bee Network at the
beginning of 2025 in the third tranche.
Manchester
city centre is our next major location. We see the buses in
action on Princess
Street, Portland Street, Piccadilly Gardens and Shudehill. There
is a mixture of liveries and fleetnames
that will change in time to the all yellow livery with Bee Network
fleetnames. During December 2023 our
cameras visited Ashton-under-Lyne, which is another area that will come
under
the Bee Network banner in early 2025. We
see buses from the fleets of Firstbus, Stagecoach and independent
Stotts. From Ashton we visit Rochdale. Filming locations
include Water Street, Drake
Street and the bus station. This area
will join the Bee Network in the second tranche in March 2024. We
see buses from GNW as well as Transdev
buses in the liveries of Team Pennine, Rosso, generic Transdev and
their various
route branded vehicles adding to the colourful scene. Our
final location is a return to Manchester
city centre with our filming taking place at Shudehill, Piccadilly
Gardens and
Portland Street. A good variety of buses
are seen, including a Preston Bus from the Rotala group operating a Bee
Network
X50 route for Diamond North West. Interesting
times!