Metro shuttle-bus launches in Town Centre

The Metroshuttle bus is low-floor and easy access and will serve a range of locations in the town centre – enabling passengers to hop on and off the bus as often as they wish.

The service – funded by Oldham Council and Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) – will undertake a circular 2.7-mile roundtrip at a frequency of twice an hour.

It will be free of charge to all passengers and will run seven days a week between 9.40am and 4pm.

The Metroshuttle route starts at Victoria Street – better known as the car parking and pick-up/drop off area adjacent to the new Metrolink stop at Oldham Mumps.

It then goes up Oldham Way (A62) and onto its first stop at King Street, via the roundabout. It next turns up West Street to visit Oldham Bus Station.

After exiting onto St Mary’s Way, the service will stop on Lord Street before making two further stops on Yorkshire Street on its return journey back to Mumps.

Councillor Shoab Akhtar, Cabinet Member for the Town Centre, said: “This is good news and a common-sense solution that will help Metrolink users get to a range of locations in and around Oldham town centre.”

“The new Metrolink stop at Mumps is only a temporary installation until the new town centre line (3B) gets up and running in 2014.

“But since opening the new line to Mumps it has become very clear from talking to residents, tram users and traders that there was a definite need for us to provide some kind of shuttle bus service that can help people get from and to the station and around key town centre sites.

“The service will be particularly useful for people unable to walk any great distance, for example, and it will also help new visitors to the town in getting around as they can hop on and hop off as often as they wish.

“We will monitor the usage of this service and look to make changes, if and when appropriate, based on demand and feedback from users of the bus.”

The Metroshuttle bus service is being provided by Manchester Community Transport.

To enable a quick launch, this operator will use its own vehicle from next week until mid-September when it will then be replaced by a fully-branded vehicle, supplied by Transport for Greater Manchester.