Motorway & Manchester Magic mini blpg (1)

Gyration Information

As promised, and to satisfy the curiosity of every single one of fbb's readers, above is the route of First's weird X6 as it travels from Rotherham to Sheffield. The plans of the service area proper (the "Amenity Building") have changed slightly, but the route is much the same.

In CYAN is the route from Rotherham to Junction 33 Welcome Break and in MAGENTA, the onwatd toddle to Sheffield.

The bus almost nearly gyrates TWICE round the roundabout. That will be great fun when peak time cloggage happens!

No More Manchester Magic

The news, that most of Stagecoach's operation in Manchester has been taken over by Metroline, has shocked the bus brigades of Cottonopolis to the core. BUT the changeover seems to have gone reasonably well much to the chagrin of bloggers who love a bit of chaos, and much to the surprise of Mancunians who had bad experiences at the Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 "events".

But what had gone with the going of Stagecoach is one of the unique features of the bus world.

Magic Bus is no longer.

RIP!

Magic Bus has a long, long history with Stagecoach, originating in the Glasgow bus wars post deregulation. Uncle Brian Souter bought loads of cheap clapped-out Routenasters from London and Northern. He adorned them with Stagecoach stripes and ran them between the city centre and the big housing "schemes" at Castlemilk and Easterhouse.

Some buses gained the magical name in Stagecoach lettering ...

... some were branded Stagecoach ...

... and some were just blank!

The buses gained a good Scottish reputation for breaking down!

Eventually a blue and yellow livery was adopted which became standard nationally.

This livery became normal for every occurrence of a "low cost" operation brought in to ease out unwelcome competition.

Newcastle had the disease briefly ...

... as did Aryshire.

Magic Bus even came to lowly Rotherham to compete against First Bus who had started a competitive service against Stagecoach. Daft isn't it? All parties lost loadsmoney, peace broke out and the Magic disappeared in a puff of blue and yellow smoke.

The one oddball "Magic" moment was in Corby where there was no competitive threat.

The Magic Minis ...

... used lettered routes in an attempt to cut costs and boost passengers. Neither happened very much and a later attempt was a little more successful.

But allocation of local Corby Star buses to the prestigious X4 from Northamptom to Peterborpigh (via Corby) spoiled the image of both services.

However, it was Manchester that held the prize of the most Magic c/o Stagecoach and it lasted till the end.

For the record, Stagecoach have retained one depot, in Stockport, but it was not the home to the smallest amount of blue and yellow Magic.

So tomorrow we go to the Wilmslow Road.

 Next Manchester Magic blog : Friday 24th Jan