Changes to 23 Bus service

No. 23 Bus – Change of route to not include Oldham Town Centre

I have now received a reply regarding the no. 23 bus changes a number of people have raised with me.

Below is the reply which explains why the bus service has been changed and what controls if any the Council through Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) have over these matters.

I understand that this may not be the reply people are looking for and neither was I.

Rest assured I will at every opportunity continue to raise this issue as I do appreciate how important this service is to those of you who live in this part of Shaw who depend upon public transport.

No 23 Bus – TfGM response

As you will be aware, since de-regulation of bus services around 80% of services in Greater Manchester are operated commercially by a number of privately owned companies. Operators run services on a commercial basis in areas and at times where they consider there are sufficient passenger numbers to enable services to be profitable. The remaining 20% of journeys are funded by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

Service 23, which you make reference to, is operated commercially by First Manchester and was introduced in September 2014. This replaced the 428 service which was operated on a commercial basis by First Manchester and provided an hourly off-peak service on Monday to Friday and operated from Buckstones to Oldham, via Shaw, Thornham and Royton. The new 23 service operates into Manchester via Chadderton rather than into Oldham as per the route of service 428. However, service 408 continues to provide a direct link into Oldham town centre for the majority of passengers. Unfortunately, the service change introduced by First Manchester has led to some residents in the Thornham and Buckstones areas losing their direct daytime links with Oldham town centre.

TfGM Officers have contacted First Manchester on the points raised. As this is a new service, the operator has advised us that it is under constant review and your comments will be taken into consideration.

I hope the above information explains TfGM’s position in relation to the service 23. If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me or our Customer Relations team on customer.relations@tfgm.com or by telephone on 0161 244 1000.

Alternatively, should you wish to contact First Manchester directly regarding this issue, they can be contacted directly at Manchester.West@firstgroup.com.

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