Mobilisation work ahead of the rollout of the second tranche of bus franchising in Greater Manchester on 24 March is proceeding to plan, although delays in delivery of new buses have led to a requirement for “interim vehicles” to be sourced.
Details are within a report published by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 23 February. It outlines the status of second tranche contracts and notes that rollout preparation is benefiting from “several lessons learned” during commencement of the first tranche in September 2023.
Those are not laid down in the document, but neither Stagecoach – which will operate all three large franchise contracts awarded in the second tranche, at Middleton, Oldham, and Queens Road to the north of Manchester city centre – nor small franchise winners First Manchester and Rotala expect to use agency drivers from the start.
However, Stagecoach will second 80 drivers, engineers and supervisors from elsewhere in the group. That is to mitigate the loss of any staff that do not transfer from other operators. First and Rotala have confirmed to the Combined Authority that they have sufficient drivers and engineers to deliver services without secondment.
In addition, Stagecoach has already seconded 60 drivers from First Manchester and Go North West – which currently operate two of the depots that will fall under the large franchises – “to ensure that drivers can be released for training ahead of operational commencement date,” says GMCA.
The report notes that driver training efforts for the second tranche have been informed by the earlier round, while work on buses to install new ticket machines has commenced much sooner.
Expected deliveries of new vehicles have fallen behind because of multiple reasons. Cited by GMCA is industrial action at Alexander Dennis, which has delayed the arrival of all 50 BYD Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV battery-electric double-deckers that are for use by Stagecoach at Oldham.
Completion of that batch been expected by 26 January, but GMCA now believes that “between 26 and 32” will have arrived by the second tranche mobilisation date. Because of that, it has sourced 30 used Euro VI buses that “will cover any shortfall in the zero-emission buses to ensure we have enough vehicles of Bee Network standard on Day One.”
Small franchises have also been affected by delays, but all existing new vehicle orders for tranche two will complete delivery by June, GMCA says. It claims that 60% of buses will as a minimum carry Bee Network livery at franchise mobilisation.
First Bus is using a newly installed paint booth at its Potteries subsidiary to apply that yellow identity, while at least one bus has been to the workshops at its Ensignbus business in Essex for repaint and refurbishment. Stagecoach has used facilities including its Rock Ferry depot on Wirral to repaint buses for the second tranche.
Work at Oldham to install charging infrastructure is on schedule, with commissioning to take place a week before franchise mobilisation. GMCA has completed the purchase of Oldham and Queens Road depots, while Middleton is now its responsibility via lease.
Rollout of the second tranche of bus franchising in Greater Manchester will capture 30% of the conurbation’s network. Tranche one represented 20%, and the third round will complete reregulation in the city region.
Separately, on 22 February GMCA authorised the draw-down of £20.8 million of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement funding to enable the purchase of a further 94 zero-emission buses. Those will be operated by franchise contract holders in the first and second tranches.
