24-hour services and flat £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares included in new Greater Manchester bus plans
A new five-year plan being discussed tomorrow iincludes new £1.50 'hopper' fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, and more evening and Sunday services.
The mayor and council bosses have submitted new plans to Westminster to help make bus travel cheaper for thousands of people in Greater Manchester.
The £1 billion bid for cheaper fares sees a long-term goal to overhaul bus travel in the region take another step forward after the mayor confirmed plans to bring buses back into public control.
The five-year plan, due to be discussed by leaders on Friday morning, features new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, 2,000 more accessible bus stops and more evening and Sunday services – not to mention redesigned and rebuilt transport interchanges.
This would mean be there would be 70 new bus routes, with regular ten-minute services making it much easier to just turn up and go – rather than having to hang around in the bus station for half an hour (or longer) waiting for your next ride.
The bid also promises to include 20 new outes with ‘24 hour services’ and ‘three or four’ express bus routes for places not served by the Metrolink, although it is not clear as to where specifically these will be.
Whilst there is currently no list of where these high-frequency services would run, there is a map to gie some indication – showing them spreading throughout the region.
Credit: GMCA / TfGM
Andy Burnham has previously made a lot of noise about bringing a London-style travel network to Manchester. These new plans are the first step in that direction.
By simplifying the range of different bus fairs across Greater Manchester into flat £1.50 rates that can be used to hop on and off services, daily fares for travellers across the region will be reduced by around 25%.
Plans to make travel cheaper and simple across the ten boroughs also include ‘attractively priced one day and one-week travelcards’ as well as the new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares.
But of course, improvement costs money – hence why the mayor and council bosses have submitted their bid to the government’s ‘Bus Services Improvement Plan’ fund.
According to the calculations made in the report, a rising subsidy of between £10m and £60m (by 2030) would be required from central government in order to keep fares at these cheap levels for passengers – notwithstanding dropping passenger levels caused by Covid.
Whilst suggesting a range of different bus corridors, for the fastest routes inspiration has been drawn from the Leigh Guided Busway.
Credit: GMCA / TfGM
Plans would involve the segregation of large swathes of highway, and come as part of a longer-term solution.
In the short term, the authority also wants to upgrade eight current key routes – notably Salford Crescent to Media City, Wigan to Bolton, Rochdale-Oldham-Ashton, Bury Rochdale and Ashton-Stockport -adding more accessible bus stops, as well as more signs, gates and signal priorities.
Routes between Altrincham to Carrington and Sale West to Broadheath are also included in the upgrade plans.
There is also plans to make the majority of the bus fleet electric, with two-thirds of buses in the plans would be electric, whilst the rest would be remodelled existing vehicles in the network.
Council bosses will discuss the plans on Friday 29, October.
Feature image – Commons Wikimedia
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‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
“It speaks of nature, of craftsmanship, and of a couple who chose each other over status and what others thought of them.”
The sculpture has now gone on display at Dunham Massey from Thursday 26 June.
Featured Image – James Dobson (via Supplied)
News
Lewis Capaldi announces MASSIVE comeback gig in Manchester this year
Thomas Melia
Everyone’s favourite Scottish ballad-maker, Lewis Capaldi, is heading out on tour across the UK, including a massive Manchester date.
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi is ready to tug at our heartstrings again right in front of our eyes as he announces a new UK arena tour.
This huge announcement comes right after his surprise set at the UK’s biggest music event of the year, Glastonbury, where he made a heroic return to the Pyramid Stage just two years after being forced to pull out.
Capaldi is known for writing some of the most notable and emotive hits of the late 2010s and early 2020s, including a long list of anthems such as ‘Someone You Loved’, ‘Bruises’ and ‘Before You Go’.
His monster of a hit ‘Someone You Loved’ has surpassed 3.9 billion views and is the UK’s most-streamed song of all time, so it is safe to say that his presence has been well and truly missed.
To many fans’ delight, the singer has stepped back into the spotlight and is ready to sing his heart out live at a variety of arenas across the UK, including Co-op Live right here in Manchester.
Now, in a post on his official Instagram account announcing this upcoming UK and Ireland arena tour, it’s good to see the Scottish powerhouse hasn’t lost his wit and charm as he jokes, “About time I got back to work.”
These shows are set to be in high demand as the singer has also revealed these upcoming dates, “Will be my only shows in the UK, Ireland or Europe this year! Would love to see ya there.”
On the back of his glorious Glasto return, Capaldi has dropped a huge heart-wrencher titled ‘Survive’ which offers more insight into the struggles and challenges the singer has been facing.
There is no confirmation of whether this new single marks the launch of a bigger project or not, but we can’t wait to scream his hits at the top of our lungs, regardless of when he pays Manchester a visit later this year.
Georgina Pellant -
28th October 2021 
