Experiencing a commute home on the V1 bus from Manchester to Leigh

It’s a service on the Leigh guided busway – the Greater Manchester transport system once dubbed the “misguided busway”, before becoming popular with commuters, shoppers and revellers, and businesses along the route.

It’s a demand you can gauge by the tut-tuts and tapping of feet I see and hear from passengers eager to get home.

The busway isn’t like any other route in Greater Manchester, as part of it – from Ellenbrook to East Bond Street in Leigh – sees buses ride on rails like trams.

Most of the buses on this First-operated route are Vantage vehicles, hence the “V", with the V1 running between Manchester Royal Infirmary and Leigh, and the V2 from the MRI to Atherton.

During the pandemic the V2 was put on a reduced service, which has controversially remained the same since.

I had heard from councillors that capacity problems on the V2 meant buses would “fly past full of people” during peak times. These complaints led to a petition being set up in September demanding improvements.

“One on, one off”

I was unsurprised to see the Bridge Street stop packed with people on a busy Thursday night. I could still feel the cold through three layers, hat and mittens, but I was hopeful there would be room for all of us.

My hopes were raised by a V2 coming towards me and dozens of other impatient souls.

However the joy quickly vanished when I saw inside the bus.

Passengers were huddled around the driver like cattle. The bus did stop, but the driver proclaimed: “It’s one off, one on now”.

The golden ticket holder at the front of the queue got on and the V2 departed. Another 15 minutes went by before a V1 arrived.

Bridge Street is the last bus stop in Manchester before crossing the River Irwell into Salford, so many city centre commuters have already got on buses at previous stops.

Myself and a few frozen commuters entered the bus and paid their fee or flashed a pass.

Most had to stand as far as Pendleton.

Time for a direct route?

You will hear Leythers half-joke about “making the route direct from the city centre to the guided busway section without stopping”.

It’s a symptom of the competition for places that some would like to cut out the stops along the way.

But from what I saw, it wouldn’t only be Salfordians heading home who would lose out, but Leigh-bound passengers getting on at these stops.

It all left me mystified as to why there aren’t more services on the route.

When the V2 was cut, from running from early morning to midnight to just peak travel times, it was never brought back. The reason given by Transport for Greater Manchester was low demand.

This point is contested by objectors in Atherton and politicians in Wigan Council, who are seeking to bring back the V2 to its former run time.

TfGM announced in October more buses had been added to the fleet to deal with capacity issues – but the following month they decided not to bring the V2 back to a full service.

Meanwhile TfGM conducted surveys on a replacement shuttle bus (taking passengers from Atherton to Tyldesley to get a V1) and found "there was low demand”.

Then in November, experts concluded it was the belief there was limited capacity – rather than actual capacity – that was a problem.

On my route home, I saw passengers swapping between whichever of the two services offered the best hope of getting back to Wigan borough – even if the end destination of that bus wasn’t where they were bound.

So when the V1 caught up to the V2 that had eluded me earlier, some got off the V2 before it rolled on to Tyldesley, darting backwards to get on the V1 to Leigh.

Basically, commuters take the first bus they can – out of fear of several others flying past full.

“The only way we’ll find out if it’s well served is to bring it back to full service”

This service is nicknamed the “rocket” by locals for a reason – it is quick.

The bus made the journey from the city centre to Leigh in just under 40 minutes – justifying the satirical comparison to the V1 and V2 missiles used by the Germans in the Second World War.

The vision former Leigh MP turned GM mayor Andy Burnham sold this service on was that it could get from Leigh to Manchester in 40 minutes – and in my experience it has lived up to that promise.

Coun Stuart Gerrard, a bus driver by trade, has gathered cross-party support to bring back the full V2 service for Atherton.

“From my experience if the service isn’t frequent and unreliable then people will use the car,” he said. “The issue is the V2 replaced four direct services to Manchester with no need to change buses.

“This has forced more users to use their own car which adds to congestion. Before Covid the service was well used, in fact we were asking TfGM for a dedicated park and ride as so many were using the shopper’s car park for the V2.

“The only way we will find out if the service is still well used is to bring it back to full service as per the contract both TfGM and first have. If First can’t deliver that, then a different operator who can run the service at full capacity should be found.”

A spokesperson for First Manchester said: “Our passenger data shows services arriving at the Bridge Street stop at this time of day on Thursday, December 8 were extremely busy but capacity was still available. We added a service from Princess Street to support the 4.05pm from the MRI, which we know is a popular service and are monitoring this daily to see if we can put in extra capacity.

“The Vantage buses can carry a maximum of 91 people safely and we encourage customers to assist divers by moving down the aisles to enable as many customers to board as possible when capacity has reached standing only.

“We appreciate that waiting to board is frustrating and can be uncomfortable due to the recent cold weather. Our operations team is providing regular feedback on capacity to Transport for Greater Manchester to see how fluctuations in demand can be managed with the driver resources available.”