GO NORTH WEST'S 2029, A BYD E400 CITY IN BEE NETWORK LIVERY
Bolton is a large town in the north of Greater Manchester. In September 2023, it became part of the first area outside of London to operate franchised bus services.
From the early 1900s until 1969, bus services in the local area were provided by Bolton Corporation. In 1969, it became one of 11 corporations to be taken over by a newly-formed SELNEC, a joint authority of the various local councils across south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire, in order to comply with the Transport Act 1968. In 1974, the county of Greater Manchester was created and the new authority replaced SELNEC with GMPTE. In the 1980s, to prepare for deregulation and privatisation of bus services, GMPTE's bus operations were transferred to a new company called GM Buses. This company was later split into two separate companies in 1993 to make it easier to sell, GMB North and GMB South. GMB North, which operated in Bolton, was later sold to FirstGroup.
In 2005, a local bus operator in Bolton, Blue Bus, was acquired by Arriva North West, which led to them operating several services in the area.
In August 2019, Diamond Bus bought First's depot in Bolton. After 4 years operating at that depot, it was transferred to Go North West in the 'Bolton Large' franchise, part of the first round of bus franchising in Greater Manchester. Diamond did, however, win 7 of the 9 small franchises available in the first round, for which they acquired the former Arriva depot, which was no longer required by them as they did not win any of the franchises.
Go North West, part of the Go-Ahead Group, now operate the majority of bus services in Bolton as part of the Bee Network.
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Vehicle Variety |  A lot of the vehicles used by both the main operators in Bolton (GNW and Diamond) are Wrightbus products, usually StreetLites and StreetDecks. However, there are now an increasing amount of BYD Enviro 400 Citys in use by Go North West, as well as older Mercedes-Benz Citaros and ex-London Volvos. Stagecoach, Vision Bus and Transdev all use mostly ADL vehicles on their Bolton services. |
| Operator Variety | Bus services in Bolton are now operated under public control due to franchising, which has led to Go North West operating the majority of services in the area. Diamond operate some of the small franchises and also have a presence. Some non-franchised bus services also operate into Bolton from other areas, which sees Stagecoach, Vision Bus and Transdev all serve the town frequently. |
| Quantity of Buses |  Bolton has a high quantity of buses. A lot of the routes run at a high frequency and there are buses constantly flowing in and out of the Interchange, which has 25 stands. |
| Photograph Opportunities | Bolton Town Centre is very popular with bus spotters and is the ideal place for taking photos of buses. The Interchange is also surrounded by a one-way system, which makes it easy to take photos without other traffic being in the way. |
Vision Bus' BJ11 DTV, a Volvo B9TL Wright Gemini 2, approaches Bolton Interchange to operate a 537 service, followed by Arriva North West's 3131, a VDL Pulsar 2
Stagecoach's 15228, a Scania ADL Enviro 400 with Gold branding, arrives into Bolton, entering the Interchange completing a 125 service from Preston.
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