First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester
From what I understand about Vantage is that it was a ten year contract, the service is making money, however First's bid was too low for them to make a profit so they are actually losing on it.

If First are keeping Vantage they would also keep service 582 hence the bid for Green Bus Fund here as the staff interlink between the two routes and as part of the bid Electric Bus infrastructure would be shared between services 582 and V1-V2.

There is a problem though with Vantage loadings in that, in peak times they re overloaded, but in the winter off peak they struggle to fill up vehicles which means in effect a lot of dead running with empty vehicles and extra resources having to be stored for peak-time use, this was also the case with the 34 prior to 1996 when First Manchester operated it commercially. Services V1 & V2 are commuter routes into Manchester and many people from Leigh and Atherton due to the decline of those towns economises over the years, work in Manchester City Centre mainly in various offices, but also in the retail industry and for the NHS at the Manchester Hospitals, in addition some people change and go onwards to destinations like Oldham, Stockport and South Manchester for work, in the day times, that load really depends on Students and Old Age pensioners, so the loading's can be remarkably different and varied, also traffic issues in and out of Manchester means further spares are required in addition in peak times which is the problem in a nutshell.

However passenger growth has been very good and Giles Fearnley was praising the V2 service for the largest Growth of any First Service anywhere in the last three years, only recently in a trade magazine.

Interestingly some V3 and V4 peak extra's are currently operated by Queens Road depot therefore it will be interesting to see what happens with these when Queens Road depot passes to Go Ahead, will they transfer over to Bolton depot or will Go Ahead become a sub contractor as well?