Saddleworth residents are advised to check on how changes in local bus services will affect them next week.
First Manchester have announced a number of service changes including the withdrawal of the 82 Uppermill/Manchester morning and evening services, timetable and minor route changes to the 350 Ashton/Oldham service, as well as other alterations to the 180 and 184 services serving Diggle, Uppermill and Greenfield and the X84 express service between Delph and Manchester.
There will be no services operating from Uppermill or Delph via Huddersfield Road through to Manchester. All the changes take effect on Monday 28th October.
First have said they hope that timetable changes to the 350 will improve the reliability of the service which is notorious for poor time keeping. This route has also benefitted with newer vehicles in recent weeks which should reduce the number of breakdowns with the older fleet.
Full details of the service changes can be found at www.tfgm.com or by calling the customer information service on 0871 200 22 33.
There were due to be changes to the Diggle Buses along Sam Road, but I understand that they have changed their minds so we can keep our bus to Kilngreen!! Also, I believe that the bus is going to be retimed to arrive before the Manchester train leaves Greenfield - up until now its been arriving about 3 minutes after the train departs!
First have no interest in ‘providing a service’, profit is all they are interested in and show they have no consideration for the people living in our remote Saddleworth Villages by giving next to no notice of these changes!
Thank goodness for the ‘Local Link’ - an excellent door to door bus service that anyone can use, that covers the whole of Saddleworth between 7am and 10.30pm and only approx £3.00 return. Its an excellent service and I recommend people use it!
http://www.tfgm.com/Corporate/Documents/LocalLink/Saddleworth.pdf
how is it helping timekeeping on the 350 route by taking it down and up greenacres road? if i go to the doctors at spring street, then tesco, i have to get the 81A to stamford road, then get off,and wait..and wait.. for the 350 to take me and my shopping up to scouthead!!!i tried this on thursday and ended up walking that huge hill to get home.God help us when the snow comes having to wait around like that.i notice its always the people up here that have thier buses changed just before the winter kicks in.And first are more expensive than the others!!well wellies out, shopping halted, i aint waiting around stamford road to go 3 stops.congratulations first, you never cease to amaze me every year.
After two weeks of travelling to and from work with new bus routes and timetables I have to give it a big thumbs down. I calculate it’s added about 18% to my fares and around 3 hours additional time to my working week. The loss of the through bus to Manchester via Huddersfield Road (82 service) is a major blow to people living between Waterhead and Dobcross. I have no direct service from home to work anymore.
The route and timetable changes on the 350 route do seem to have improved the timekeeping of this service, but it was a popular route for pensioners wanting to shop at Tesco - but that section of Huddersfield road is now bypassed.
First put out a leaflet prior to the changes clearly saying there was no change to the 82 evening service - TOTAL LIE - it’s completely cancelled. How can they claim that isn’t a change.
Come on First - I’m sure you have had loads of letters of complaint. Review the changes, take on board what your customers are telling you.