THE BODY in charge of the area’s buses has promised to make changes after confusion reigned on one service covering Shaw.
A councillor was prompted to intervene after receiving complaints from passengers of the 403 circular, which serves Shaw, Crompton and High Crompton.
Councillor Louie Hamblett said the bus is not adequately displaying if it’s travelling towards High Crompton or Oldham.
This has led to confusion on multiple occasions for passengers boarding from the Market Street shop in Shaw in particular, where the bus uses the same stop for both directions.
“It is very confusing, especially for elderly and disabled residents,” commented Cllr Hamblett, who represents the Crompton ward on Oldham Council.
“I have used this service many times and witnessed passengers asking the bus driver which direction they were heading, either towards High Crompton or Oldham.
“This is really poor, especially for a now wholly publicly owned service.”
Oldham is now part of the Bee Network, Greater Manchester’s integrated London-style transport system, which means buses in the area are back under local control.
The Liberal Democrat councillor wrote to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), which operates the network.
TfGM accepted the confusion caused, apologised for the passengers’ experience and confirmed that improvements to the journey are being explored – which Cllr Hamblett has welcomed.
“As the service from Oldham reaches Shaw, it operates in a loop through Shaw, Rushcroft, High Crompton and returns via Shaw before continuing to Oldham,” TfGM explained in a statement.
“Consequently, the service vehicle generally displays ‘Oldham Circular’ as its destination, irrespective of where the bus is in terms of the circular loop.
“I can appreciate that the display, and the fact that the service serves Market Street and High Street using stops in the northbound direction for journeys travelling into as well as out of Oldham, would lead to confusion for passengers.
“I’m sorry for the experience that they’ve been having on the network as a result. We have been reviewing service 403 in light of this feedback and are currently looking into improvements we can make to the journey.”
They continued: “The goal is to ensure that the Market Street stop is served on opposite sides of the road, depending on the direction of the journey, as this is where much of the confusion comes from.
“We’re also looking into the possibility of changing the destination display at a halfway point on the route to potentially clear up this confusion too.”