Buses in Manchester are an essential component of the student experience, but that isn’t to say that they are always that simple to use, even after the introduction of the Bee Network. For example, if your bus has turned right before Oxford Road station then it’s likely you’ve found yourself on the 147 – the only service on the university corridor serving the main railway station at Manchester Piccadilly. Often incoveniencing students who need Piccadilly Gardens instead and haven’t read the destination.
A strange but convenient service running from early morning to mid-evening Mondays to Friday and free for students between City Centre accommodations and the University, it is clearly a viable and well loved service.
With students packing onto buses at 8:40 in the morning to the dreaded 9am lectures and study sessions, and pilling back on in the afternoons to get home for dinner. A day won’t go by without people from Fallowfield and Rusholme also taking the bus and disembarking at Piccadilly to travel to distant destinations unknown.
We should not forget that the bus goes past The Christie and Manchester Royal Infirmary, making it a viable service for people visiting sick loved ones from out of town. Or, as it travels along the ever busy Curry Mile, I can’t help but wonder how many more people would pay a visit to this culinary celebration of cultures worldwide if they knew it was a £2 bus from the station.
Bizarrely, despite the usefulness to students, staff and residents of Rusholme and Fallowfield needing to travel from the station, the 147 as aforementioned only runs on weekdays, forcing would-be travellers on weekends to trudge through rain and crowds from the Gardens to the station adding time and stress to their journey as well as huge difficulties for those with baggage or accessibility needs.
Indeed, Rome to Rio tells me that to walk this distance would take 7 minutes. Minutes that could easily be the difference between catching your train home for a well earned rest or waiting around the busy station for an extra hour and that of course is with the assumption that walking is a viable option with the limits I mentioned earlier. This of course is without mentioning a Metrolink transfer which could easily cost £2.70 – exceeding the £2 fare of a direct bus journey.
But dear author isn’t there still Oxford Road station? Well not for much longer if the Evening News is to be trusted! An entire two years without a convenient train station for students. Fortunate then that the University isn’t expected to undergo expansion in this time you tell me? Again not if reports are to be believed.
So it is essential that good quality Bee Network buses are available all week to ferry people from station to their homes, and more essential than ever that the 147 – the underdog of the Bee Network – is given it’s day in the limelight.
With Student Union elections just around the corner – the biggest opportunity for students to have their voice heard – it is more important than ever to beat the drum for good quality, accessible public transport and turning the 147 into a useful week round service would be an excellent way to start!
So, I implore you if you have found this article has taught you something new about Manchester buses and you agree with my view to engage with the Bee Network Network Review which is starting in the Summer of 2025 and will decide how to change services in South Manchester, including through the University. What are you waiting for?
