The History of the 346
From Tram to Stagecoach [Manchester] (Page 3)
Contents:
Competition and Contraction
For the most part of the 1980s, the 346's frequency between Ashton and Hyde was unchanged throughout the daytime. The most significant changes were cutbacks to evening services and some peak hour journeys. By April 1990, this was set to change.
With King Street, Dukinfield and Yew Tree Lane seeing competition between the Bee Line Buzz Company, Stuart's Bus and Coach and GM Buses, the Albion Hotel was untapped territory for opportunist competitors. This was to change in April 1990 with the formation of Pennine Blue.
Owned by former Ashton Corporation employees, the company set up their first depot in Prince Edward Avenue, Denton before moving to the former Great Central carriage works off Astley Street in Dukinfield. Its buses wore a distinctive blue and cream livery, with the bulk of its fleet being Bristol RE single deckers, former Chesterfield and former Grimsby and Cleethorpes Daimler Fleetline double deckers.
Their first route was the 348, which operated between Haughton Green and Mossley (Hey Farm), via Huddersfield Road and Stamford Street, avoiding Park Road. Soon after, they set their sights on the 346. GM Buses reacted to this with the short lived A4 minibus route, which was not only competing with Pennine Blue, but another local company Pine Coaches.
Pine Coaches also held the distinction of being the first bus company to operate a regular service into Dukinfield's Morrisons store, operating the P1 service from Hyde to Ashton via a circuitous route including King Street, Armadale Road and Lyne Edge Road. GM Buses' response to this was the 1 minibus - also serving Morrisons. This offered a more direct route to Ashton from the Albion Hotel, following part of the 221 route up to Astley Street.
In 1991, Pine Coaches extended its P1 service to Oldham, adding another link to Oldham from Dukinfield - via Crowhill estate, Waterloo and part of GM Buses' existing 409 route to Oldham town centre. This was short lived, as the focus turned to Stamford Street, the domain of Pennine Blue's 348. Using former Stagecoach Ribble minibuses, they launched the 50p Budget Bus, a low rent attempt at recreating the Wilmslow Road corridor with step entrance Mercedes minibuses. The same concept was wheeled out for the P1 route in 1992.
By 1991 - 1992, the 346 between Ashton and Hyde saw 6 buses an hour, three of which Pennine Blue's. There was also the P1 and the 1 service, and the 339/340 Dukinfield Circular routes. The result: 11 buses an hour during the daytime and four different companies. Adding to the mix was an early morning journey operated by Red Rider, Stockport, which would later become part of the Badgerline Group, who took over Pennine Blue in 1993.
By 1993, the mighty buffet was down to its last two vol-au-vents, two dozen slices of Black Forest Gateau and a fully operational chocolate fountain. The result of this was GM Buses closing their Tameside depot. One knock-on effect of this was reduced frequencies on their 346 route. Having already seen their Bank Holiday services put to tender (Stuart's Bus and Coach having won), their daytime frequency was reduced to every half hour.
Making further inroads was Pennine Blue. Their 346 service too was revised to every half hour, this time with one of their journeys per hour extended to Stockport. This replaced the withdrawn Saturdays only 334 route. Also leaving early from the buffet was Pine Coaches, whose P1 service was deregistered. Another company took over the former P1 route, Dennis's Coaches. Instead of being an autonomous route, Dennis's merged these with their 216 and 219 routes - adding another direct route to Manchester from Dukinfield.
The end of 1993 also saw Pennine Blue's cream and blue livery give way to the yellow and red of Potteries Motor Traction. Pennine's spell as an independent company was over as Badgerline took over operations. Instead of being ran from Dukinfield, affairs were controlled from PMT's offices in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The founders of Pennine Blue continued to run buses, under the alias of South Manchester. This time, they chose the Wilmslow Road corridor, running former Merseyside PTE Leyland Atlanteans.
By 1994, GM Buses' involvement in the 346 lay in the Monday - Sunday daytime journeys. Following its split into three companies (GMN Buses, GM Buses South and Charterplan), evening services became Pennine's responsibility.
Consolidation
In 1994, the Badgerline owned Pennine made further inroads into the Tameside area. Most of Pennine Blue's buses were replaced by Eastern Coach Works bodied Leyland Olympians, and a mix of Plaxton Pointer and Marshall bodied Dennis Dart single deckers. A new weekly ticket, the Tripper 7 was introduced for use on Pennine routes only, and extensive revisions were made to their routes in the Mossley area.
First,the Haughton Green link with the 348 was discontinued and absorbed by GM Buses South's 347 route. This formed part of new circular routes 32 - 35. The 33 and 35 went via Park Road, whereas the 32 and 34 went via Stamford Street. The circular route included Huddersfield Road and Mossley Road, where it competed with Mayne of Manchester's 232 - 235 services, and GMN Buses' 343 route.
In Dukinfield, Pennine took over GM Buses South's 1 route, and introduced a further (though short lived) route, the 1A, which took in the Bradley Green area of Newton before terminating at Hyde via Bennett Street.
By 1996, both GMN Buses and GM Buses South ceased to be employee owned businesses. The latter company was acquired by Stagecoach in March 1996, trading as Stagecoach Manchester. A month after, GMN Buses was taken over by FirstBus, formed a year earlier after a merger of the GRT (Grampian Regional Transport) Group and Badgerline. Business carried on as usual, but the competition was far from over.
The dominance of the big bus owning groups saw little change to existing frequencies, apart from the lack of Bank Holiday services from 2000 to 2007 and rationalisation to journeys before 0700 hours. By 1996, the Stockport link was withdrawn. Two years later, evening journeys on the 346 were extended to Gee Cross, compensating for the loss of the 210 route.
The Albion Hotel stage saw a fillup in the form of the 33 and 35 routes. With Park Road no longer viable to Pennine, the 33 and 35 followed the 343 route from Mossley Brookbottom up to the Albion Hotel, then followed the 346 route up to Ashton Bus Station before continuing to Mossley via the 350 route. By September of 1999, the 33 and 35 was renumbered 349, with its sister Stamford Street route renumbered 348. They also ceased to be circular routes, leaving the 350 as the sole Pennine route between Tameside Hospital and Mossley. The result of this was Stalybridge Monday - Saturday daytime frequencies being 4 per hour from the Albion Hotel - the best since the mid 1970s.
By September 2000, Pennine became part of First Manchester, this time operated from Oldham rather than Newcastle-under-Lyme. Buses moved from the former carriage works to a new depot at Rothesay Garage, originally owned by Stuart's Bus and Coach. The yellow and red of Hobson Street was slowly replaced by the 'Tomato Soup' of Wallshaw Street.
By the start of 2001, Dennis's 216 and 219 services ceased to serve Dukinfield, leaving Mayne of Manchester as the sole locally owned operator on the Manchester route. This left the 346 and the 349 as the main routes into Morrisons. Also discontinued was its stopping place outside the store's entrance.
