Manchester Guides: Public Transport

Buses

For most of the university areas the main mode of public transport is the bus. One question which often pops up is what bus pass to buy. This depends where you live and how much you intend to travel in Manchester. If you never venture of Oxford/Wilmslow Road I would say get a UK North/Finglands/R Bollucks/MagicBus weekly as they tend to be cheap. However you will be limited to buses operated by that company, UK North and MagicBus are the most frequent.

If you intend to travel across all of Manchester then a GMPTE System 7 pass is worth buying but they cost about £10 a week, they do allow you to get on any bus in Greater Manchester regardless of the bus company though.

Some links to bus company sites which operate in the university areas. You should have an idea which areas they go to by the areas I have put in brackets the areas they tend to operate in.

http://www.stagecoachbus.com/manchester/ [South and East Manchester,- Wilsmlow Road, Stockport, Chorlton, Trafford Centre, Stretford, Old Trafford, Northenden, Wythenshawe etc[

http://www.bullockscoaches.net/ [Oxford Road, Fallowfield, Withington, East Didsbury, Cheadle]]

http://www.finglands.co.uk/ [Oxford Road, Fallowfield, Withington, East Didsbury]

http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/northwest/manchester/home/index.php [Salford and North Manchester - University of Salford, Swinton, Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale etc]

http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/ [South Manchester – Stretford, Sale, Altrincham, Cheadle, Macclesfield, Wythenshawe]

www.gmpte.gov.uk – This is the main government body which controls transport in Greater Manchester, this has a great route planner if you are unsure which bus to get. There is also information about GMPTE travel passes.

Which bus? Manchester is a huge place so this guide will concentrate on some of the more major routes.

MMU and Manchester University from Piccadilly Bus Station (PBS) – 15, 42, 43,45, 85*, 86*, 142, 143, 145

Fallowfield, Withington, Didsbury, East Didsbury from PBS – 42, 142, 45

Fallowfield, Withington, Northenden from PSB – 43, 143

Chorlton Cum Hardy from PSB – 85 from the east of Chorlton, 86 from the North, the 86 covers more of the centre of Chorlton

Trafford Centre – 23, 23A Stagecoach) from Didsbury or Chorlton, 250 from Oxford Road or Booth Street West(not Rushulme, Fallowfield etc run by Stagecoach and UK North), 100 (Firstbus) from Cross Street (will be the new interexchange at Victoria station from Jan 2006)

Stockport – 23, 23A from Chorlton or Didsbury, 42 from Oxford/Wilmslow Road or 192 from Piccadilly.

*RNCM and MMU only

Trains

Most Manchester trains depart from Victoria or Piccadilly but if you're unsure Piccadilly is the safer option. Some trains stop at Oxford Road, e.g the Liverpool, Southport and Blackpool ones.

Some trains also stop at Salford Crescent but if you're going to Salford University from Manchester city centre its easier to get the bus.

All London, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Southern England services depart from Piccadilly.

Please see www.gmpte.gov.uk for information on local trains and www.trainline.co.uk for intercity services.

Trams

Manchester has an extensive tram system, however it dosn't operate in the main university areas. This map shows where it currently operates, beware only the green lines currently exist, the rest is planned for the future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/travel/images/tram_network.gif

The trams are great if traveling from some where like Bury or Altrincham. The Tram is also ideal for Salford Quays. Its expensive however.

Reply 40

Purple

18

My accommodation is on grafton street, is the city centre in walking distance? If not, how much does a bus cost to get to it?

Reply 41

samba

6

kirstinx

My accommodation is on grafton street, is the city centre in walking distance? If not, how much does a bus cost to get to it?

Yep, its an easy 20 min walk to the centre straight up oxford rd, or bus's are 70p. You never have to wait more than a few seconds for a bus on oxford rd!

You're almost right next to manchester uni students union; mmu is 10 mins up the road! You're also only 15 mins from rusholme and curry central!

Reply 42

samba

6

Rivaldo_23

Hi.I'd like to ask which bus companies can service me so as to go daily from Oak House,Sycamore Court to the University of Manchester and in various places of the city of Manchester.Which companies have the lowest prices in tickets?I saw something about an offer from Stagecoach for students.About 150 pounds for 1 whole academic year??Is it a good offer?Are Stagecoach buses convenient for the transportation from Oak House to Manchester?

Stagecoach will go pretty much everywhere yes! I'm not *too* well versed on buses and such, but I think 150/year would be a pretty amazing deal! Thats under a quid a day.

Reply 43

Nick-2

Hi i live in urmston and will be travelling to Oxford road/ manchester uni.

I have missed trains and busses this week and am unsure what would be the best option. I really would like to drive.

I have got the train to oxford road and the 15 to right outside my lectures. but these are very dear tickets on a daily basis

Reply 44

AT82

OP

Buy a Megarider for £9.50 a week then get the 15 from Urmston.

These are bought on Stagecoach buses. That will be your cheapest option.

You can buy weekly train passes too but in your circumstances I doubt its worth it.

Reply 45

beno25

hi all
just in case anyone is looking at this (as I was) this year. If you want to check out a journey planner for manchester public transport go to
http://www.gmpte.com/content.cfm?category_id=102782
find out the postcode for your halls/home and your uni, select your prefered mode of transport and it'll tell you how long and where to go. (on occassion it does get slightly confused depending on your postcode and tells you to get 2 buses when if you walk for a bit you only need to get one, so if your journey seems outrageous try it from a different start point) but usually it works fine
x

Reply 46

Ava_Rice

Rivaldo_23

Hi.I'd like to ask which bus companies can service me so as to go daily from Oak House,Sycamore Court to the University of Manchester and in various places of the city of Manchester.Which companies have the lowest prices in tickets?I saw something about an offer from Stagecoach for students.About 150 pounds for 1 whole academic year??Is it a good offer?Are Stagecoach buses convenient for the transportation from Oak House to Manchester?

I had the £150 Stagecoach pass last year and it was great. You can use it on any Stagecoach or Magic Bus in Manchester, which I preferred to the Finglands ones as they're more frequent. Although you can get a Magic Bus only pass for £5 a week (I think), but they're quite busy on a morning esp from Fallowfield, whereas the Stagecoach ones are quieter so if you have the full pass it's a tiny bit more convenient.

Wait until you get there though, you'll see how easy it is to get a bus from Fallowfield to the main campus, it's ridiculous.

Reply 47

Ava_Rice

Can I just ask if anyone knows about the bus services that run down Upper Brook Street/Anson Road? I lived right on Oxford Road last year so I never went over that side of Victoria Park, are there many buses on that route? The gmpte website is just advising me to walk all the way across to Oxford Road so I'm a bit worried....

Reply 48

Lapis lazuli

2

50 and 130. What journey are you talking abouyt, northcampus to victoria park?
50s are like every 10 minutes or so in the day. 130s come whenever they feel like it.

Reply 49

just_tha_bboy

6

Might be old news but Stagecoach have put up their fares on their Magic buses 20p so a single fare up to Fallowfield is now £1. Everything with them just goes up up up up up

Finglands is still way cheaper at only 70p to Fallowfield

oh and i seen the crazy magic bus lady 2 times today on the bus :woo:

Reply 50

Ava_Rice

Lapis lazuli

50 and 130. What journey are you talking abouyt, northcampus to victoria park?
50s are like every 10 minutes or so in the day. 130s come whenever they feel like it.

Yea I'm living near the corner of Dickenson and Anson Road, need to get up to top end of north campus. I've only been over there once for the viewing so I wasn't sure how frequent the buses are. Are these services just Stagecoach or Finglands too? (not that it really matters, I'm just wondering seeing as Stagecoach have put their prices up...)

Reply 51

Lapis lazuli

2

Ava_Rice

Yea I'm living near the corner of Dickenson and Anson Road, need to get up to top end of north campus. I've only been over there once for the viewing so I wasn't sure how frequent the buses are. Are these services just Stagecoach or Finglands too? (not that it really matters, I'm just wondering seeing as Stagecoach have put their prices up...)

50 is only stagecoach will cost about £1.20 or so from there. Turns onto oxofrd road at the top of upper brook street though. They come about every 10-15 minutes or so in the day. It can very in the morning they got into a habit of having none for 30mins then 4 at once.

Might be easier just to walk to wilmslow road tbh.

Reply 52

Ramryan

A random point that some may find useful, I have found that despite my stagecoach unirider clearly saying "Manchester" I have found that it seems to work quite nicely on my home buses services 250 miles away in Hampshire... which is great because a return to town here normally costs £4.80! And a year pass here costs £500.... so woo, hope your local operator is stagecoach. :biggrin:

Reply 53

Beckieee

1

Get a smartrider rather than a magicrider, a pound more but the added luxury of getting on a stagecoach when the magic buses are full to the brim :biggrin:

Reply 54