dennis enviro 400 on route 36 parent firstgroup founded 1996 headquarters oldham locale north west england service area greater manchester some services overlap into other counties service type bus services hubs manchester bolton bury oldham rochdale salford depots 6 fleet 687 march 2016 website www.firstgroup.com manchester first greater manchester 1 is a bus operator in greater manchester . it is a subsidiary of firstgroup . contents 1 history 2 past fleet 3 depots 4 fleet 4.1 articulated buses 4.2 double deck buses 4.3 single deck buses 4.4 midibuses 4.5 minibuses 4.6 ancillary vehicles 5 services 5.1 metroshuttle 5.2 vantage 6 route branding 7 heritage liveries 8 overground link 9 nightbus 10 summer services 11 see also 12 references 13 external links history edit optare prisma bodied mercedes benz o405 on route 24 in manchester in july 2008 northern counties palatine bodied volvo olympian on route 93 in bury in may 2008 wright endurance bodied volvo b10b on route 510 in bury in june 2008 scania omnicity articulated on route 135 in bury in july 2007 optare versa on metroshuttle route 3 in may 2011 a timeline overview of public transport in manchester prior to 1993 is given here . before deregulation in 1986 buses in the greater manchester area were publicly funded and went under the name of greater manchester transport . in 1986 greater manchester transport became known as gm buses which was owned by the metropolitan borough and city councils of greater manchester but were at arms length from the local town halls . in december 1993 gm buses was split in two gm buses north 1 and gm buses south . 2 it was planned that the two companies would compete against one another but in reality they stuck to the sides of manchester as indicated by their names . in april 1994 gm buses north was sold to a management buyout . by this stage many competitors were operating gm buses routes following deregulation . in march 1996 gm buses north was sold to firstbus and rebranded first manchester . after a period of experimentation with the livery an orange livery was adopted . first manchester soon ended up managing two other firstbus subsidiaries first potteries and first pennine . that even included many gm standard leyland atlanteans making their way to those two fleets . eventually the first pennine and manchester subsidiaries were merged adding a number of routes in the tameside area to first manchester . a new management team was put in place and first manchester was relieved of its responsibility for the potteries subsidiary . various depots have been closed over the past 12 years including atherton 1998 bolton crook street 2004 replaced by a new depot at weston street knowsley 2008 rochdale 2004 and trafford park 2005 sites at lowton bolton and manchester piccadilly have also been used temporarily for either acquired fleet lowton bolton in 1998 or for the commonwealth games in 2002 manchester piccadilly . as of september 2010 first manchester has taken over the management of the cheshire and merseyside depots of first potteries with the staffordshire depots transferring to the management of the new first midlands division . the cheshire and merseyside depots fell to a first manchester licence . in february 2012 the company came under fire from department for transport north west s traffic commissioner after a performance survey found an average of 26 % of first manchester services were not running on time . 3 the company were fined 285 000 in march 2012 for their poor reliability . 4 in spring 2012 first manchester was rebranded as first greater manchester . in june 2012 it was announced that firstgroup were looking at selling off some of its operations which included first manchester s wigan depot . 5 on 2 december 2012 stagecoach manchester purchased the wigan operation . 6 7 the transaction saw 300 employees 120 vehicles although 20 were owned by transport for greater manchester and the wigan depot purchased by the former a mayne & son legal entity . 8 9 on 1 august 2013 firstgroup announced that subject to regulatory approval by the office of fair trading it had agreed to purchase the bus operations of south manchester based company finglands coachways . 10 the purchase included the lease of finglands s depot in rusholme south manchester routes and approximately 100 members of staff but no buses . 11 12 the deal was approved on 27 january 2014 13 with first taking over finglands services on 9 february 2014 . 14 past fleet edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message the fleet over the previous years has been of interest and initially consisted on first s takeover of dodge s56 mercedes benz 709d and 811d and iveco 59.12 minibuses dennis dart volvo b6 and a solitary volvo b6le midibus leyland national leyland national 2 leyland lynx and volvo b10b single deck vehicles and leyland fleetline leyland atlantean leyland olympian mcw metrobus and volvo citybus double deck vehicles . most of the double deckers were to the standard gmpte body design with northern counties coachwork . over the course of the early years the fleet had new vehicles introduced in the form of further dennis darts volvo b6 50s volvo b6les and new types consisting of the mercedes benz citaro o530 optare solo volvo b6ble volvo b10l volvo b10ble volvo b7l volvo b10la and scania l94ua . the policy was to swing away from buying any more new double deck vehicles at this stage however second hand vehicles came mainly from other firstgroup subsidiaries or via takeovers these consisted of further mercedes benz minibuses ; volvo b10b scania l113crl and l94ub volvo b10l volvo b10ble and mercedes benz o405 single deckers ; mcw metrobus mkii leyland olympian leyland olympian tri axle volvo olympian volvo citybus dennis dominator and scania n112drb and n113drb double deckers . many of these vehicles have subsequently moved away including all volvo b10ls most scania l94ubs all volvo citybuses all leyland olympians and tri axle leyland olympians all dennis dominators all scania double deckers some volvo b10bles some of these even came back again all volvo b7ls most of which had been purchased for use during the 2002 manchester commonwealth games and were never used in normal service and all mercedes benz minibuses . withdrawals of mercedes benz 0405s recently commenced as have withdrawals of volvo b10bs . all non low floor dennis dart and volvo b6 midis have also been withdrawn and scrapped . in 2005 a start was made on renewing the fleet . phase 1 involved the purchase of 256 wright eclipse urban bodied volvo b7rle saloons and 18 scania cn94ua omnicity articulated buses . these were delivered throughout 2005 and 2006 . in 2007 a fleet of 36 volvo b9tls with wright eclipse gemini bodywork followed . these were the first new double deckers for some years . in 2008 a new phase commenced of replacing volvo b7rles bought in 2005 and 2006 along with about 100 older saloons with 110 volvo b9tls with wright eclipse gemini bodywork over a two year period of 2008 and 2009 expected in 2011 2 are a fleet of 14 wright gemini 2 bodied hybrid vehicles for new cross city route 18 from rusholme manchester royal infirmary to langley . over the years several fleets have been taken over ; these have included timeline travel leigh north gm area bus operations pioneer rochdale bus operations coachmasters rochdale bus operations as well as the transfer of first pmt s dukinfield fleet to first manchester control . depots edit bolton bury manchester oldham rusholme tameside fleet edit as at march 2016 the fleet consisted of 687 buses and coaches . 15 over half are volvos . articulated buses edit first greater manchester followed the lead of travel west midlands in using low floor articulated buses with the delivery in 1998 99 of 15 wright fusion bodied volvo b10las . these were initially used on route 135 between manchester and bury these then transferred to bolton and have been used on route 8 bolton manchester and more recently on route 582 bolton atherton leigh . their introduction on the 582 was somewhat controversial with users claiming that the reliability and frequency of the service had suffered . in april 2009 these volvo artics were placed into storage with the possibility of them being cascaded within firstgroup . in 2005 18 scania omnicity articulated buses arrived to take over operation of route 135 . a single wright solar fusion bodied scania l94ua articulated is also owned and was again initially used at bury but has been used since on routes 8 and 582 from bolton . it is now reallocated back to bury . double deck buses edit the wright eclipse gemini is now the most numerous vehicle type in the fleet . the first 36 were delivered in 2007 followed by a further 110 of a similar type in 2008 09 . these are mainly used on routes 8 17 18 33 36 37 41 42 59 67 83 100 135 162 163 180 184 350 409 471 and x34 . first manchester also have 14 hybrid buses which mainly serve the red 17 and 18 overground routes between manchester and rochdale 17 and manchester and langley 18 via middleton . beginning in august 2012 first greater manchester took delivery of new alexander dennis enviro 400 vehicles which operate on routes 8 36 37 41 42 83 180 184 and 409 . previously when the company first started in 1996 the standard fleet for double deck buses where standard atlantean metrobuses from the early 1980s which were prominent in the manchester area before first manchester existed as well as the northern counties bodied metrobuses which gm buses had since 1986 and they would be a mainstay in the fleet . these buses were pulled out of service when they were becoming 20 years old . single deck buses edit wright eclipse bodied volvo b7rles delivered in 2005 06 form the majority single deck type although about 40 % of the original 256 have already been cascaded to other firstgroup fleets . other low floor types present in significant numbers include wright renown bodied volvo b10bles and mercedes benz citaros as well as a number of alexander dennis enviro 300s and wright streetlites . also operated are a fleet of vehixel bodied iveco scolabuses that are operated from dukinfield and ince depots on behalf of tfgm who also own these vehicles . midibuses edit these are primarily plaxton pointer or marshall bodied dennis dart slfs operated out of oldham and ashton depots . minibuses edit a small fleet of minibuses is operated on metroshuttle contracts and one or two other routes based on manchester oldham and dukinfield depots . the entire minibus fleet consists of optare solo integral models . ancillary vehicles edit the support fleet is quite a varied one and consists mostly of volvo b10b b10ble driver training buses with wright endurance renown bodies . a large fleet of vans and pick ups are operated these are usually vauxhall combos or corsas smaller vans or ford transits bigger vans and pick ups . also owned are various fork lift trucks and garage floor cleaning equipment known as floor scrubbers . services edit first greater manchester mainly run services in central manchester and the northern area of greater manchester including oldham rochdale bury bolton tameside and salford . first also operate services in the wigan area although following the sale of the wigan depot to stagecoach manchester in december 2012 first only serve astley atherton leigh and tyldesley which are served by routes 12 25 26 39 582 and x34 jointly operated with stagecoach from their bolton