Manchester from Dukinfield by Bus
A history of 21/21A and its successors (Page 3)
Contents:
Storm Clouds Brewing
The latter part of the 1990s would see the 220 and 221 services changed beyond recognition. If the earlier changes were radical, the next set would be even more so, though not for the better.
From 1997 onwards, the peak hour service would see
continued contraction. Firstly, most of the peak hour
journeys were better served by an upgraded 219 service,
more so since the 220/221 services lost limited stop
status in 1982. Initially, some 219s were extended to
Stalybridge. Evening peak hour 221s from Dukinfield were
subsequently withdrawn. 1998 also saw Universal Buses test
the water by running a return 220 journey to serve
schoolchildren. Shortly after, they took over the 0755
journey from Mayne with a further post-school journey
leaving Ashton-under-Lyne via Stalybridge for Manchester.
Additional journeys at 1455 and 1605 were gained from
Manchester to Tameside Hospital.
The daytime service of the 221 was renumbered 222 in
February 1999. Following the route of the 220 to
Stalybridge, it continued to Ashton-under-Lyne via Park
Road, Dukinfield. This bridged a gap left by the rerouting
of First Pennine's 33 and 35 service (opting for the
Albion Hotel over the Brunswick). This proved to be short
lived as January 2001 saw the service withdrawn, reverting
to being the 221. The Tame Valley area of Dukinfield would
become the first part of Tameside to be served by a Demand
Responsive Transport service. The shared taxi service
remains in operation and has expanded to serve Stalyhill
and the Hydes areas of Stalybridge.
In 2001, peak hour evening journeys to Manchester from Stalybridge were withdrawn with morning peak journeys heading opposite suffering the same fate. On a slightly happier note, evening journeys were increased from every 90 to every 60 minutes from Stalybridge. This was promptly changed with the terminus moving to Dukinfield (Boyd's Walk). The operator also changed to First Pennine.
2002 saw the withdrawal of Mayne's 221 route, with Dukinfield's link with Manchester being once hourly with a few peak hour extras. The following year saw slight changes to the peak hour schedule with subsequent revisions focused on retiming journeys and improving reliability. Boarding a 346 to Ashton and catching the train to Manchester Victoria became more attractive, seats permitting, and more so after 2004.
In the Eye of the Storm
July 2004 saw Monday to Saturday daytime 220 journeys
discontinued. In its place was the 218. Unlike the former
trolleybus route, it served Droylsden and Clayton rather
than Audenshaw and Openshaw. It was co-worked with another
route which was struggling, the 217, maintaining a link
with Tameside Hospital. It followed the route of its
predecessor from Tameside Hospital up to Audenshaw
(Trough), then reached Droylsden and Manchester, via
Greenside Lane, Edge Lane, Clayton and Ancoats. Serving
Greenside Lane and Ridge Hill estate proved to be a
nightmare with the Greenside Lane and Ridge Hill links
discontinued the following year. The former was well
served by fellow Mayne services 232 - 235 with the latter
covered by the 238 and 389 routes.
Prior to 2008, this would remain the core route of the
218. Though the journey was a good 15 minutes longer than
the 220, it offered Dukinfield, Audenshaw and Droylsden
based football fans of a sky blue persuasion a direct link
to the City of Manchester Stadium.
Elsewhere, the 220 was shrinking again. May 2005 saw the loss of its evening Bank Holiday service. This was replaced by Bank Holiday journeys of the 219 route (which from 2002 - 2005 had no such service) up to Ashton. JP Travel took over the Sunday evening service which was withdrawn by January 2009, without a replacement shared taxi service. 2008 saw First Pioneer take over the 0755 and 1455 journeys from Stagecoach Manchester (who inherited it from taking over Universal's services from Chadderton). 2009 saw further tender changes with the 1455 journey withdrawn. By then, there was a 3 hour gap between the last 218 of the day and the first 220 of the evening from Dukinfield Town Hall (walking to Manchester would have been quicker).
Thankfully, this gap was bridged in October 2008 with a boost to the timetable. February 2008's acquisition of Mayne's bus operations by Stagecoach Manchester saw Tameside's peripheral Manchester routes reviewed. The 218 would become a circular route in an anticlockwise direction from Manchester to Dukinfield, Stalybridge and Mossley. The 217 would be its clockwise counterpart. This allowed for a half hourly route between Audenshaw (Trough), Droylsden, Clayton, Bradford and Manchester, using the old 217 route. The last bus to Manchester from Stalybridge via Dukinfield would be 1723 - gap cut to 2 hours. However, there would be no Stalybridge bound bus till 1010 (Albion Hotel) - a similar gap inconveniencing potential passengers wishing to catch a Transpennine Express.
What Could Have Been
For transport fanatics of a Mancunian nature, 2008 was dominated by the hubbub of the Transport Investment Fund proposals. The carrot was improved buses, trains and an expanded Metrolink system. Its stick was a peak hour congestion charge (using the inside of the M60 motorway) where motorists would pay to enter Manchester in the morning and leave the city in the evening.
Among the proposals was an upgrade to the existing 220 route. Had Greater Manchester voted in favour of the package, the 220/221 route would have been renumbered X20. The service would have been limited stop with a 20 minute frequency. Instead, Greater Manchester unanimously voted 'no' on a 50% turnout consigning a much needed boost to the 220 to the dustbin along with the Picc-Vic project and other Mancunian Transportation Themed Pipe Dreams.
Present Day Developments
The early part of 2009 saw the 217/218 rerouted to serve
Butler Street. This proved to be short-lived,
discontinuing in July 2010 (much to the alacrity of local
postmen using the service for Oldham Road sorting office).
The Sunday service of the 220 was also discontinued,
replaced by short journeys of the 217/218 routes. The
section between Stalybridge Bus Station and Tameside
Hospital (via Mossley) was omitted. First Pioneer's 0755
and 1530 220 journeys were taken over by Checkmate
Coaches, with the latter now retimed to pass the Albion
Hotel at 1518.
July 2010 also saw its terminus move from Piccadilly Gardens to Shudehill Interchange - a few yards closer to the 220s terminus at Victoria station during the 1980s. The last Manchester bound 217 from Dukinfield would become the 1629 (Albion Hotel) with its later journey terminating at its town hall.
All was quiet till May 2011. The uneasy peace was disturbed by revisions to the peak hour 220 and 221 journeys operated by Stagecoach Manchester. With the morning peak journeys from Stalybridge to Manchester covered by the 217, peak hour services from Dukinfield to Manchester on the 220 and 221 were halved. The peak hour Monday to Friday 220 service was slashed to a single journey leaving Manchester at 0655. The 221 replaced all other withdrawn 220 journeys which were hitherto close to 221 journeys.
From Manchester, the 1604 220 journey inherited from Universal was withdrawn with all Dukinfield bound journeys covered by three 221s between 1655 and 1812. A short walk to Church Street or a tram to Shudehill Interchange sees a similar number of 218s between 1630 and 1830.
Even the night time 217 didn't escape the changes as JP
Travel took over First's evening journeys.
Today, the 220 and 221 services have been relegated from full time service to residual peak hour and evening service in the space of a decade. There are now five journeys to Manchester with six in the opposite direction. The bulk of these are First Manchester's Monday to Saturday evening service.
Instead, the 217/218 is the dominant Manchester route
from Dukinfield. Though slower, it also offers the town a
direct link with Droylsden and Sportcity. In future it may
offer Dukinfield people connections with the Metrolink in
2013. Only time will tell.
