Stagecoach ManchesterCompanies House extract company no 2818654
Greater Manchester Buses South Limited is a major bus operator in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, operating franchised Bee Network bus services on contract to

Transport for Greater Manchester Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is a local government body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. It is an executive arm of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), ...

(TfGM). It is the largest UK bus subsidiary of

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom. Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as ''Gloagtrotter'', a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. Dur ...

outside of

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

, as well as the largest within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester by passenger numbers, carrying up to 96.2 million passengers in 2019/20.

History

GM Buses South

In December 1993, GM Buses was split into two companies: ''GM Buses North'' and ''GM Buses South''. It was planned that the two companies would compete against one another but, in practice, they stuck to the sides of Manchester as indicated by their names. In April 1994, GM Buses South was sold in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. It faced an uphill struggle as over 40 competitors were operating GM Buses routes following

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

, although most of those competed with GM Buses North. However, Bee Line and MTL Manchester did go south; Finglands Coachways, Mayne and Walls were established competitors on lucrative south Manchester routes. GMBS suffered from operating an elderly fleet. As a stand-alone (nil subsidy) arms-length company, GM Buses had not been able to buy new buses; thus

Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...

s and

Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...

s - the newest by then 15 years old - had to soldier on. Competitors were expanding and GMBS could not make the investment needed. In response to increasing competition by Merseyside Transport, GMBS set up Birkenhead & District in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, running Daimler Fleetlines in Birkenhead Corporation livery.

Stagecoach Ribble competition

Stagecoach Holdings initially set up Stagecoach Manchester as a Ribble Motor Services subsidiary, in order to compete on GM Buses South's route 192, operating the route mainly using a new fleet of Alexander Dash bodied Volvo B6 buses. Throughout 1994, GMBS bought a large number of second hand buses, mainly Atlanteans and

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Com ...

s. Stagecoach responded with more new buses in the shape of new

Alexander PS The Alexander PS-type was a High-floor, step-entrance single-deck bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders in Falkirk, Scotland and was produced from 1988 to the late 1990s on the Dennis Lance, Mercedes-Benz O405, Scania N113 and Volvo ...

bodied Volvo B10M-55s. GMBS used its Charterplan coach fleet to compete with Stagecoach Ribble's route X43 to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

. By the end of 1994, everything turned peaceful; Stagecoach agreed to no further competition on route 192 and hired 20 Alexander Dash bodied Volvo B6s to GMBS, eventually selling the Stagecoach Manchester operation, as well as the 13 buses based at its

Bredbury Bredbury is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, east of Stockport and south-west of Hyde, Greater Manchester, Hyde. The Bredbury and Woodley, Greater Manchester, Woodley buil ...

depot, to EYMS Group subsidiary Finglands Coachways in November 1995.

Stagecoach ownership

On 25 February 1996, GM Buses South was sold to Stagecoach for £40.7 million (), despite criticism from the Labour Party and protests from pensioners outside the

Free Trade Hall The Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, England, was constructed in 1853–56 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It is now a Radisson Hotels, Radisson hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn ...

. GM Buses South was rebranded as Stagecoach Manchester shortly after the sale, despite Stagecoach claiming that the GM Buses South brand would be retained, with new vehicles in the group's corporate livery delivered the following March. The existing Charterplan Travel coaching arm and commercial driver training company GMS Training remained unaffected by the rebranding, however Charterplan was later sold to the EYMS Group the following May, being integrated into the operator's East Yorkshire Travel coaching arm. On 21 January 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased the bus operations of A Mayne & Son, with 38 buses all transferred to Hyde Road garage. On 10 August 2008, Stagecoach Manchester purchased the bus operations of Bullocks Coaches. Bullocks retained their coach hire business and route 147 ''Oxford Road Link'' operated as a subsidised university and hospital link. Bullocks' services included route 157, between Woodford and Manchester, which has since been renumbered X57 and made limited stop between East Didsbury and Manchester. In March 2011, Stagecoach started running the Stockport

Metroshuttle Free bus is a Free public transport, zero-fare bus system that operates in Greater Manchester. The system was first introduced in Manchester city centre in 2002, with three routes linking the city's major thoroughfares and stations with its ma ...

service. On 2 December 2012, Stagecoach Manchester purchased First Greater Manchester's

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

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

) and the Wigan garage purchased by the former Mayne legal entity. The business was rebranded ''Stagecoach in Wigan'' although it is managed by Stagecoach Manchester. On 3 March 2013, Stagecoach purchased Bluebird with 40 buses, 80 staff and its garage lease at Greengate.Anticipated acquisition by Greater Manchester Buses (South) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stagecoach plc, of Bluebird Bus & Coach
Office of Fair Trading 27 February 2013 On 26 April 2014, Stagecoach took over the business of JPT Bus Company with 41 buses. The first autonomous bus trial in the United Kingdom commenced in mid-2019, using a modified Alexander Dennis Enviro200MMC single-decker bus equipped with autonomous software from Fusion Processing able to operate in driverless mode within Stagecoach Manchester's Sharston bus garage, performing tasks such as driving to the washing station, refuelling point and then parking up at a dedicated parking space in the depot.

Bee Network franchising

In 2019, it was announced that the

Greater Manchester Combined Authority The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is a combined authority for Greater Manchester, England. It was established on 1 April 2011 and consists of 11 members: 10 indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one ...

(GMCA) were looking into improving the public transport network in Greater Manchester with bus franchising as the preferred option by both itself and

(TfGM), ultimately becoming part of the Bee Network

integrated transport network The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. The ...

. This announcement concerned a consortium of bus operators including Stagecoach, who as part of the OneBus group, criticised the franchising proposals as "frightening", claiming passengers would face fare increases and tax rises as a result of franchising. OneBus proposed operators could instead work with the GMCA and TfGM to make private sector investments into the local bus network. The Stagecoach Group, alongside Rotala, launched a

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...

in March 2021 at the

Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...

of a GMCA public consultation that recommended council leaders and

Mayor of Greater Manchester The mayor of Greater Manchester is the directly elected metro mayor, mayor of Greater Manchester, responsible for strategic governance in the region that includes health, transport, housing, strategic planning, waste management, policing, the G ...

Andy Burnham Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election, 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Brown ministry, Cabinet as Chief Secretary to th ...

approve plans to adopt bus franchising, with both parties criticising the consultation as "unlawful" and "flawed" for having not taken into account modal shifts in transport use brought about by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. However, it was ruled on 9 March 2022 that the GMCA consultation bus network was lawful, with an appeal against the ruling rejected in July 2022. Trenche 1 of the Bee Network commenced on 24 September 2023, with Stagecoach not awarded any services and losing their Wigan depot and operations to Go North West as part of the first tranche of franchised bus services. On 23 June 2023, Stagecoach Manchester was announced to have been awarded Tranche 2 franchises from TfGM to run a total of 87 Bee Network franchised bus services in North Manchester from 24 March 2024. These services are operated from Stagecoach's Middleton, First Greater Manchester's Oldham and Go North West's Queen's Road bus depots, the latter two and their 947 staff being acquired from their respective operators. Following an initial postponement, it was announced on 28 March 2024 that under Tranche 3 of the Bee Network, commenced on 5 January 2025, Stagecoach Manchester handed over its

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 48,604 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, Greater Manchester, ...

, Hyde Road (

Ardwick Ardwick is an area of Manchester, England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 19,250. Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from being a village into a pleasant and wealt ...

) and Sharston depots to Metroline Manchester, who will operate from the three garages. However, Stagecoach is to maintain a significantly reduced presence in south Manchester with the awarding of the franchise for Bee Network services in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Garages

* Middleton ( Greengate) - Bluebird operations taken over 3 March 2013 (Used for franchised Bee Network operations from 24 March 2024) *

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

(Queens Road) - taken over from Go North West for Bee Network franchising *

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

(Walshaw Street) - taken over from First Manchester for Bee Network franchising *

Little Hulton Little Hulton is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, south of Bolton, northwest of Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, and northwest of Manchester. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, histo ...

(for Bee Network School Services) *

(Daw Bank) (Used for franchised Bee Network operations from 5 January 2025)

Services

Stagecoach Manchester operates the largest number of services of any bus operator in Greater Manchester. It is primarily dominant in northern areas of the county.

Stagecoach in Manchester

''Stagecoach in Manchester'' mainly runs services in the northern areas of

, serving Bury, Oldham, Salford,

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of in . It covers and includes the area of Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Urmston, Partington and Sa ...

Tameside Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through it, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Greater Manchester, Denton, D ...

and central

. From March 2013, Stagecoach moved further into north Manchester by purchasing Bluebird. Since 23 July 2017, the 22 route (

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

– Stockport) that Stagecoach Manchester shared with First Greater Manchester has been separated into two routes. The new 22 route operates between Bolton and the

Trafford Centre The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and entertainment complex in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1998 and is third largest in the United Kingdom by retail space. Originally developed by the Peel Grou ...

, currently operated by Go North West. The 25 route operates between Stockport and the Trafford Centre, and is operated by Stagecoach Manchester. As of May 2025, they also operate four routes routes leading out of

, of which the first two were acquired from Go North West and First Halifax, Calder Valley and Huddersfield: *100 Shudehill Interchange - Warrington Interchange *184

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

via Marsden *358/360

New Mills New Mills is a small town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, south-east of Stockport and from Manchester at the confluence of the River Goyt and River Sett, Sett. It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a ...

/ Hayfield via Marple/ Hazel Grove

Stagecoach in Wigan

Since December 2012, Stagecoach has operated services in the

area under the brandname ''Stagecoach in Wigan'', following the purchase of First Greater Manchester's Wigan operation. Services from Wigan depot mainly run in the Wigan and

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, Staffor ...

areas, whilst also serving Manchester and Salford on routes 33 and 34/X34 (the former being shared with First Greater Manchester), while route 7 (formally 540) runs to

, which is also served by Stagecoach Lancashire route 125. Route 113 is operated from Stagecoach Lancashire's

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth ca ...

depot. Since the start of Tranche 1 of Bee Network from 24 September 2023, the Wigan depot was acquired by Go Ahead Group and is currently operated under Go North West.

Magic Bus

The '' Magic Bus'' brand was introduced by Stagecoach Manchester to the Wilmslow Road bus corridor to compete against other cheaper bus brands. It offered lower fares than on regular Stagecoach liveried services by using older bus type fleets. Prior to its withdrawal on 5 January 2025 following the transfer of Magic Bus services 142, 143 and 147 to Metroline Manchester, the fleet consisted of older Alexander Dennis Enviro 400Hs transferred from the regular fleet branded in a blue and white livery featuring yellow star graphics.

Nightbus

Stagecoach Manchester offers several night bus services in Manchester and Wigan every Friday and Saturday night. The services run every 30 minutes or every hour from 00:00 until 03:00 and the routes are mainly the same as the normal routes with some exceptions. Stagecoach also operates night bus services in Wigan. The network is largely based on the main Wigan services with some running an amended route to its normal routes. Wigan's Nightbus network runs on Friday nights/Saturday mornings and Saturday nights/Sunday mornings. The services also operate on New Year's Eve with additional journeys during the evening between 19:00 and 23:00, along with journeys on Arriva North West's route 352 to Orrell and 362 to Standish and on Wigan Buses/ Maytree Travel route 612 to Wrightington Hospital. 53 and 88 are examples even though at daytime they are First Greater Manchester buses.

Fleet

Stagecoach Manchester currently operates a fleet of 596 buses which includes one of the largest fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-decker buses for any bus operator in the UK. These also include a range of Hybrid variants: *85 Zero emission, electric double-decker buses *83 Euro 6 Hybrid buses *511 Euro 6 buses (as of June 2025). Most Stagecoach Manchester vehicles are branded in yellow Bee Network livery. Prior to the rollout of that, most of them were in ''Beachball'' design corporate livery, originally launched in 2000. The livery consists of vehicles painted white, with a blue skirt, and red and orange swoops. The new

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

livery was launched in January 2020, and features three different liveries, based on the type of service operated: local, long-distance and specialist. These new designs began to be applied in the latter half of 2020. In 2024, some buses received a plain black experimental livery. Unlike examples in Stagecoach Yorkshire, they did not come with the current Stagecoach logo at the rear. Stagecoach Manchester is to receive 170 MCV-bodied Volvo BZL

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. Battery electric buses offer the potential for z ...

es in 2025, 150 of these being

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

es and the remaining 20 being single-deck buses, which are to be delivered to Stockport depot to replace diesel buses based at the garage. This order, funded by the

's successful application to the UK government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme, represents the largest zero-emissions bus fleet purchase so far by the Stagecoach Group as of April 2023. However, severe delays relating to the construction of a new Stockport depot saw the fleet's delivery reallocated to Stagecoach's Middleton and Metroline Manchester's Ashton and Hyde Road depots.

Publications

*''Celebrating 100 Years of Princess Road'' Manchester: Stagecoach April 2010

References

External links

* {{Transport in Greater Manchester Bus operators in Greater Manchester Stagecoach Group bus operators in England Transport companies established in 1996 Transport in Manchester 1996 establishments in England