First Manchester

[Mayneway]

RE: First Manchester

(07/04/2016 13:35)Dentonian Wrote:  There is an argument to say that the two projects are completely the wrong way round. Leigh/Atherton is some distance from Manchester, and car ownership is relatively high compared to the eastern half of Manchester. Metrolink might have been the better solution, if it could form a new route with little in common with commercial bus services, and serving people who could drive (or even walk) to tram stops. Logically, it could have joined the Eccles line, to give completely new transport links between the two towns. Unfortunately, the Eccles line is notoriously slow because it serves the Quays. Also, of course, the new trams have plastic seats every bit as uncomfortable as First Darts and Solos - 50 minutes or so on those and those with low bmi would soon be getting back in their cars!
The Ashton tram line is the epitome of what is WRONG with this country's public transport policy. It runs through low car ownership area with a total length of barely six miles. As such, it manages to achieve something the ridiculous; longer average walks to stops, but NO (off-peak) time saving on any stretch of the route, unless you are continuing across the city centre. And, of course, Ashton (like Haughton Green, Denton, Dane Bank, Reddish, Gorton and Belle Vue) HAD frequent cross city buses until 1995. And that's before you get into any moral argument of spending millions of tax-payers money on abstracting revenue from commercial bus services that the less ambulent depend on to access work, shops, medical facilities etc. So far, Stagecoach have only cut Sunday 216s (not withstanding the loss of MagicBus ops on the route), but how long will the remaining service last in its current form? I'm assuming the loadings are considerably reduced.

Not entirely relevant to this thread but I don't think loadings on the 216 are that badly effected. From what I can see both tram and bus tend to leave Ashton on average half full during the day but the 216 seems to pick up more mid route than the tram does.
I caught a 216 into Manchester a few Sundays ago at lunchtime and it left Ashton with a good load.

Buses in the evenings after say 7ish tend to be busier than the tram and I often see them enter and leave Ashton practically empty.