400: Trans-Lancs Express
An appreciation and obituary (Page 3)
Contents:
Endword
The slow death of the 400 was a classic example of how to run down a popular service. Step one was to change the stops around to confuse the travelling public. The second one, reverse twenty-six years worth of work in making it one of the flagship services in Greater Manchester, through using standard rather than dedicated vehicles inadequate for its purpose.
A third one was withdrawing the link with Manchester Airport and its Sunday and Bank Holiday services. The beauty of the 400 before 1999 was being able to go from Denton to Rochdale without changing at Ashton seven days a week. The 400 was useful for Bank Holiday excursions, for example Bury Transport Museum, or Manchester Airport to wave family off enroute to Spain or their other desired destination.
Had the 400, and its cousins the 401 and 500 services had the same treatment as the X43 of 2005, we would be seeing these services competing with the M60, and filling in gaps where the same journey by rail would be impossible.
The last five years has seen an haemorrhaging of limited stop and express routes in Greater Manchester. Casualties have included the X3 from Manchester to Chester and the slow death of the X1 (Manchester - Macclesfield - Leek - Derby, formerly 201) Since April 2005, the 153 (Manchester - Mossley) and 230 (Manchester - Partington) have been withdrawn. Motorways, increased car ownership and improved rail frequencies exacerbated this decline, as have unsocial working hours, outside main bus operating hours and poor publicity of services.
Could greater control and regulation of Greater Manchester's buses have reversed this? Would a fairy godmother, in the form of government inspired quality bus contracts, be a driver for resurrecting the Trans-Lancs Express and similar lost limited stop services?
Further reading
Bibliography:
Greater Manchester Buses, Stewart J. Brown; Capital Transport (1995)
Stuart Vallantine,
Sunday 28 September 2008.
