For the second part of their tour around the towns that surround the city of Manchester*, MARTIN ARTHUR and HOWARD LUNN take themselves around the southern edge of the conurbation, beginning with a dilemma of whether to stray a little beyond the PTE boundary
Leigh was once known for cotton and coal, but now that economy has gone and the remaining collieries — Bickershaw and Parsonage, the last deep mines in Lancashire — closed in 1992.
Today the town appears to be more of a dormitory area. Its bus station is of the older multi-island pattern. We arrive at 12.49. There is plenty to see here, including an Optare Solo in Rotala’s Preston Bus livery working a local Diamond service, the immaculate two tone blue and white of Jim Stones who has been content to specialise on local services and at the time of publishing had put his business up for sale, and two of First’s Vantage-liveried Volvo B5LH hybrids which operate on the Leigh guided busway, opened in April 2016.
The busway starts at the course of an old railway on the outskirts of the town and runs as far as Ellenbrook, from which it follows bus lanes into Manchester. It has been so successful that additional buses were required.
Now there is another de…
