First Greater ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818607
First Manchester Limited formerly Greater Manchester Buses North Limited is a bus operator in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

. It is a subsidiary of

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Stagecoach Manchester Stagecoach ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818654

which was dominant in southern areas of the county; however in recent years it has scaled back its operations, now primarily serving north eastern suburbs of Manchester, and the metropolitan boroughs of

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

and

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

. First operate the Vantage services from Folds Road, Bolton depot which they share with

Arriva North West Arriva North WestCompanies House extract company no 1990871

History

First Greater Manchester bus 5149 (SND 149X)

First Manchester bus 60344 (N549 WVR), 9 June 2008 (1)

First Manchester bus 12007 (YN05 GYE), 29 July 2007

A timeline overview of public transport in Manchester, prior to 1993, is given

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Technologies, Here Television * Here TV (form ...

. Before deregulation in 1986, buses in the Greater Manchester area were publicly funded and went under the name of Greater Manchester Transport. In 1986 Greater Manchester Transport became known as

GM Buses GM Buses was the main bus company serving the ten metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester in North West England. The company was formed in 1986 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. In December 1993, it was split into GM ...

, which was owned by the metropolitan borough and city councils of

, but were at arms' length from the local town halls. In December 1993

was split in two, GM Buses North and GM Buses South. It was planned that the two companies would compete against one another, but in reality they stuck to the sides of Manchester as indicated by their names. In March 1994 GM Buses North was sold to a management buyout. By this stage many competitors were operating GM Buses routes following deregulation. In March 1996 GM Buses North was sold to

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First Potteries and First Pennine. That even included many GM Standard Leyland Atlanteans making their way to those two fleets. Eventually the First Pennine and Manchester subsidiaries were merged, adding a number of routes in the

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, ...

area to First Manchester. A new management team was put in place and First Manchester was relieved of its responsibility for the Potteries subsidiary. Various depots have been closed over the past 12 years including Atherton (1998), Bolton Crook Street (2004) (replaced by a new depot at Weston Street), Knowsley (2008), Rochdale (2004) and Trafford Park (2005) sites at Lowton, Bolton and Manchester Piccadilly have also been used temporarily for either acquired fleet (Lowton/Bolton) in 1998 or for the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (Manchester Piccadilly). As of September 2010 First Manchester has taken over the management of the Cheshire and Merseyside depots of First Potteries with the Staffordshire depots transferring to the management of the new First Midlands division. The Cheshire and Merseyside depots fell to a First Manchester licence. In February 2012, the company came under fire from Department for Transport North West's traffic commissioner after a performance survey found an average of 26% of First Manchester services were not running on time. The company were fined £285,000 in March 2012 for their poor reliability. In Spring 2012 First Manchester was rebranded as First Greater Manchester. In June 2012, it was announced that

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Stagecoach Manchester Stagecoach ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818654

purchased the

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

operation.Stagecoach buys FirstGroup's Wigan bus arm for £12 million
''BBC News'' 31 October 2012 The transaction saw 300 employees, 120 vehicles (although 20 were owned by

Transport for Greater Manchester Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. TfGM is responsible for investments in improving transport services and facilities ...

) and the Wigan depot purchased by the former A Mayne & Son legal entity. On 1 August 2013, FirstGroup announced that subject to regulatory approval by the Office of Fair Trading, it had agreed to purchase the bus operations of south Manchester based company

Finglands Coachways Finglands Coachways was a bus and coach operator in Rusholme, Manchester. History Finglands Coachways was founded in 1907, initially as a coach operator. Bus services competing with GM Buses and other operators would be set up following dereg ...

. The purchase included the lease of Finglands's depot in

Rusholme Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, England, two miles south of the city centre. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north, Victoria Park and Longsight to the east, F ...

, South Manchester routes and approximately 100 members of staff, but no buses. The deal was approved on 27 January 2014 with First taking over Finglands services on 9 February 2014. The Queens Road depot in Cheetham Hill was purchased by The Go Ahead Group to form the new company

Go North West Go North West is a bus operator in Greater Manchester, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History Go North West commenced operations on 2 June 2019 following the Go-Ahead Group's purchase of First Greater Manchester's Queens Roa ...

on 2 June 2019 with 25 routes and 163 buses. The

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

depot was purchased by

Rotala Rotala plcCompanies House extract company no 5338907
Rot ...

on 11 August 2019 expanding the operation of

Diamond Bus North West Diamond Bus (North West) Ltd., trading as Diamond North West, is a bus operator providing services in the districts of Bolton and Wigan in Greater Manchester operating an extensive commercial network along with tendered services on behalf of Tra ...

by adding 18 routes and 125 buses.Diamond North West services are expanding
Diamond Bus North West 25 July 2019Diamond Bus North West takesf over First Manchester depot this Sunday ''Coach & Bus Week'' issue 1405 6 August 2019 page 6

Depots

In April 2017 Bury and Tameside depots closed with operations transferred to Bolton, Queens Road and Oldham depots. In January 2019 Rusholme depot, which was acquired as part of the Finglands purchase, closed with services 41 (Sale to Piccadilly Gardens) and 53 (Cheetham Hill to Salford Shopping City) transferred across to Queens Road Depot. The fleet of ADL Enviro 400s and Wright Streetlites were allocated elsewhere within Greater Manchester.. In June 2019, the Queens Road depot was taken over by

Go-Ahead Group The Go-Ahead Group plc is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2022 it was purchased ...

and rebranded

with 163 buses.First Manchester are selling 160 buses and their Cheetham Hill depot for £11.2 million
''Manchester Evening News'' 19 February 2019 In August 2019, the Bolton depot was taken over by

Rotala Rotala plcCompanies House extract company no 5338907
Rot ...

and became part of

Fleet

As at April 2020, the fleet consisted of 195 buses and coaches. Over half are Volvos.

Articulated buses

First Greater Manchester followed the lead of

Travel West Midlands National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is a bus operator in the West Midlands that operates services in Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Solihull, as well as limited routes outside of the general area of Birmingham, s ...

in using

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

articulated buses An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is us ...

with the delivery in 1998/99 of 15 Wright Fusion bodied

Volvo B10LA The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributi ...

s, all articulated buses have now been withdrawn from service.

Double-deck buses

The

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been su ...

is now the most numerous vehicle type in the fleet ahead of the newer 2012/14 registered Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s, as many of these have transferred to other

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Go North West Go North West is a bus operator in Greater Manchester, England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. History Go North West commenced operations on 2 June 2019 following the Go-Ahead Group's purchase of First Greater Manchester's Queens Roa ...

. Previously when the company first began operations in 1996, the standard double-deck buses were Leyland Atlanteans and

MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989, with over 4,000 built. The original MkI was superseded by the MkII which had a symmetrical windscreen with an arched ...

es from the early 1980s, which were prominent in the Manchester area before First Manchester existed, as well as the Northern Counties bodied Metrobuses which GM Buses had since 1986, and they would be a mainstay in the fleet. These buses were being withdrawn from service and all were withdrawn from the fleet by 2006.

Single-deck buses

The Single-deck fleet consists of 30 Alexander Dennis Enviro300s and Volvo B7RLEs. First Greater Manchester formerly operated

Wright StreetLite The Wright StreetLite is a low-floor midibus introduced by Wrightbus in 2010. It was originally available in only one body style (wheel forward) before the door forward and StreetLite Max variants were introduced in 2011 and 2012 respectively. ...

vehicles but these have been either transferred to

First West Yorkshire First West Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, and is made up of three sub-division brands: First Bradford, First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield and Firs ...

and First Potteries or have been purchased by

Wright Renown The Wright Renown was a low entry single-decker bus body built on Volvo B10BLE chassis by Wrightbus in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Over 800 Renowns were built between 1997 and 2002, making it somewhat more successful than the B10L-based Lib ...

bodied

Volvo B10BLE The Volvo B10BLE was a rear-engined low-entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1993 and 2004. The first prototypes were built in 1992, but mass production started in 1993, only a year after the high-floor B10B. I ...

s and

Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/ EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia ...

s have now all been withdrawn, with one Citaro having been preserved.

Midibuses

These are primarily

Optare Versa The Optare Versa is a low-floor midibus that was manufactured by Optare at its Sherburn-in-Elmet factory. In total 883 were produced between 2007 and 2018.Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and the north eastern area of Greater Manchester including

and parts of

. First also operate services in the Wigan area, although following the sale of the Wigan depot to Stagecoach Manchester in December 2012, First only serve Astley, Atherton,

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

and

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, southeast of Wigan ...

with the V1 & V2 Services that use the Leigh Guided Busway and the A580; these services are marketed as Vantage.

Metroshuttle

First Greater Manchester previously operated the three Metroshuttle services that operate around Manchester city centre. These services were free for passengers. The services were passed on to Go North West, following the sale of the Queens Road depot in June 2019.

Vantage

On 3 April 2016, First Greater Manchester commenced operating services on the 4.5 mile North West Guided busway between

and Ellenbrook under the Vantage brand.

Route branding

First Greater Manchester originally branded their frequent services as an ''Overground''. Based on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

network where each frequent service is given a recognisable colour, each Overground service was also allocated its own colour line. The concept was a prominent fixture on network maps and coloured vinyls applied to the buses frequently serving those routes. However, the brand has largely been dropped. Usually, the colours are allocated randomly. However, the 180/184 was allocated the Purple line when the services were made into an Overground route in 2004 and the 184 was extended to Huddersfield replacing service 365. The extension also saw the 184 service incorporated into the Huddersfield Overground with services 348, 350 and 352 (which were later replaced by routes 181, 182, 183 and 185 to fit in with the 184) already branded as the Purple line (as had the 365 previously). Due to ongoing fleet modernisation most Overground services are currently unbranded, with only the 180/184 and 409 having significant route branding. Former route, Route 100 was previously branded as "unmissable", route X34 branded as "Spinning Jenny" and route X35 as "Flying Shuttle", rather than with a colour line.

Heritage liveries

First Manchester 37430 MX58DZC - Flickr - Alan Sansbury

In 2013, First Greater Manchester repainted eight buses into the liveries of former transport companies to create a heritage fleet across their operating areas, which acknowledges the preceding companies that would eventually become First Greater Manchester. Three

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the B10BLE. In essence the B7RLE is the front section of t ...

s were painted into the liveries of Bolton Corporation Transport, Oldham Corporation and Ramsbottom Urban District Council, while five

s were painted into liveries of Bury Corporation, Manchester City Transport, Rochdale Corporation, Salford City Transport and

Lancashire United Transport Lancashire United Transport (LUT) was a tram, bus and trolleybus operator based at Howe Bridge in Atherton, 10 miles north west of Manchester. It was the largest independent bus operator in the United Kingdom until its acquisition by the Grea ...

Overground Link

In Spring 2006, First Manchester re-routed its 67 service between

Cadishead Cadishead is a village in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 10,739 in 2014. Within the historic county of Lancashire. History The earliest record of Cadishead date to 1212, and show that the whole of Cad ...

and Manchester to run direct along Liverpool Road during the day. This was designed to speed up the service running between Eccles and Cadishead. As a result, buses were withdrawn from running via Merlin Road and surrounding areas in Irlam. To help passengers, First introduced OvergroundLink, which is described by First as a feeder service. The 67L service, which uses a small bus or vehicles with low floor access for wheelchairs and pushchairs, runs a clockwise circular service from the White Lion pub on Liverpool Road, running via Cutnook Lane, Merlin Road, Morillon Road and Silver Street, returning to the White Lion, where the service connects with the 67. The service takes 5 minutes to complete its route and runs Mondays to Saturdays with a frequency of every 10 minutes from 06:40 (08:00 on Saturdays) until 19:00. This service was the first one introduced by First and ran until 2010 when it was replaced by the 100 service. Other attempts were not so successful. Another 67L service was introduced in July 2006 to serve the Brookhouse estate. The service was designed so that passenger could board or alight the bus at any point along the route in Brookhouse, also known as 'Hail and Ride' before alighting the service at the Unicorn pub in Peel Green to connect with the 67. This service was withdrawn in January 2007. The main reason for the service not succeeding is probably down to the fact that the estate is served by the 10, which was run by First, and the M10, which was run by Arriva. Both services run services from Brookhouse to Manchester without the need to change buses, the M10 has been withdrawn and the 10 is now run by Arriva, there is also an early morning and night service 63 operated by First. Another OvergroundLink service was introduced in July 2006 and withdrawn in January 2007 was the 98L. This was designed to link up with the 98 service running between Bury and Manchester on Bury New Road at the junction with Butterstile Lane. The 98L would operate around the Carr Clough area using Hail and Ride. Like the 67L Brookhouse service, the 98L was probably withdrawn because another service already links Carr Clough and Manchester, the 93 which ran between Bury and Manchester now it only runs between Carr Clough and Manchester. In April 2007, First introduced the 598L, which was introduced when First replaced its 593 daytime service with a new Overground route, the 598. However, while the 593 ran via Castle Hill and Belle Green, the 598 runs direct between Hindley Green and Wigan. Castle Hill was still served by the 540, whose frequency increased from every 30 minutes to every 10 minutes and the 32 was re-routed to serve Castle Hill, the 598L was withdrawn in 2009 and replaced by rerouted 598 buses directly serving the Estate. In May 2007, First introduced another 67L service in Irlam. Starting at the White Lion, the service runs via Fiddlers Lane, Mond Road, Princes Avenue, Addison Road and Liverpool Road to the White Lion. The service was re-routed at the end of July 2007 to run via Boundary Road instead of Princes Avenue and Addison Road. This route was withdrawn at the end of August 2007. Another 67L route was introduced on 2 September 2007 running via Liverpool Road, Vicarage Road, School Lane, Parkston Road, Cutnook Lane and Silver Street. In August 2008, service 67L was extended to serve the local

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

superstore in Irlam with buses running to the store between 9.45 am and 2.45 pm, whilst reducing the number of journeys running around Irlam from every 10 minutes to every 30 minutes. The link was withdrawn in January 2010, when the 67L was withdrawn and replaced by a re-routed 100 service, which would cover the route. The withdrawal saw the end of the Overground Link services.

Nightbus

First Greater Manchester offered several

night bus service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, refers to the public transport services operated during the night hours. These services are operated, mainly using buses but in certain cases using trams (or streetcars), not including inte ...

s in Manchester every Friday and Saturday night to help people get home from a night out. The routes are mainly the same as the normal routes with some exceptions. Services 8, 17 and 67, which during the day start from Shudehill Interchange, started their journeys from Piccadilly Gardens. Services 82 and 135 left from different stands in Piccadilly Gardens, with the 82 leaving from stand D instead of stand A, while the 135 left from stand N instead of stand E. The 135 also served Shudehill, which it doesn't do during the day, while the 67 didn't serve Shudehill. The services ran every 30 minutes or every hour from midnight to 3am. The fare system on the night bus services was different from the normal fares offered by First, as there is only a flat fare offered. For passengers travelling from Wigan, the price was £2.00 while in Manchester, it was £3.00. A FirstNight ticket was available for passengers who uses the Nightbus in both directions. The ticket is still available for passengers travelling after 6pm. Until December 2012, First also operated the Nightbus network in

town centre, providing a number of services to the various area in the Wigan area plus the 598 to Leigh, which allowed connection with the 39 to/from Manchester. The services were mainly a replicated route of its normal services with a few exceptions. The 600 normally runs from Wigan to Leigh while the night bus runs a circular service to Ashton-in-Makerfield before returning to Wigan via Platt Bridge. The 629 Nightbus service was based on the former daytime service between Wigan and Castle Hill. The 631 & 632, which normally run circular services from Wigan to Highfield Grange are re-routed to serve Pemberton and Hawkley Hall. The 635, normally ran by South Lancs Travel from Wigan to Shevington Vale, while First's night bus service 635 ran a circular service to Shevington, Shevington Moor and Standish. The 695 service, which was not based on any First route, ran to Upholland along

Arriva North West Arriva North WestCompanies House extract company no 1990871

's 375/385/395 route. From 2 December 2012, the Wigan Nightbus network passed to

Stagecoach Manchester Stagecoach ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818654

with First Manchester's Wigan business. In 2015, First withdrew night bus journeys on services 17, 67, 82 and 135, meaning that Rochdale, Bury and Eccles lost their night bus service, while the 82 was reduced to Saturday nights only (these journeys were operated by Stagecoach. In Spring 2016, the night bus journeys were withdrawn on services 8, 36 and 39 due to poor passenger numbers. This meant no night bus journeys were provided by First.

References

External links

Company website
{{Transport in Greater Manchester Bus operators in Greater Manchester FirstGroup bus operators in England Transport companies established in 1996 1996 establishments in England