Stagecoach in Manchester
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| Slogan | Moving Greater Manchester Forward |
|---|---|
| Parent | Stagecoach |
| Founded | February 1996 |
| Headquarters | |
| Service area | Greater Manchester (some services overlap into other counties) |
| Service type | Bus services |
| Hubs |
Manchester Tameside Trafford Wigan |
| Depots | 6 |
| Fleet | 950 (January 2017) |
| Daily ridership | 265,753 (December 2012) |
| Fuel type | Diesel |
| Operator | Magic bus |
| Website | www.stagecoachbus.com/manchester |
Stagecoach Manchester is a bus operator in Greater Manchester, England. It is the largest UK bus subsidiary of Stagecoach Group, carrying 98 million passengers in 2012.
In December 1993, GM Buses was split in two, GM Buses North and GM Buses South. It was planned that the two companies would compete against one another, but in reality they stuck to the sides of Manchester as indicated by their names.
In April 1994, GM Buses South was sold to a management buyout. It faced an uphill struggle as over 40 competitors were operating GM Buses routes following deregulation, although most of those competed with GM Buses (North). However Bee Line and MTL Manchester did go south, and 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, and thus Daimler Fleetlines and Leyland Atlanteans - the newest by then 15 years old - had to soldier on. Competitors were expanding and GMBS could not make the investment needed.
Stagecoach set up Stagecoach Manchester as a Ribble Motor Services subsidiary, to compete on GMBS's main route 192 with brand new Volvo B6 buses that were far more appealing than GMBS's rundown fleet.
In response to increasing competition by Merseyside Transport, GMBS set up Birkenhead & District in Liverpool, running Daimler Fleetlines in Birkenhead Corporation livery.
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