Travellers are urging a bus firm to think again after it announced plans to scrap a town’s ‘lifeline’ service to the city centre. Heywood residents say that losing the 163 bus would cause them huge problems getting to work or college and university - as well as making it more difficult to visit family and friends.
Diamond Buses has confirmed it will be withdrawing the service - which connects Heywood, Langley and Middleton with Bury and Manchester - from April 16. Running every 12 minutes, the service is vital to many - especially as it runs through some areas with the lowest levels of car ownership in Greater Manchester.
Diamond says the ‘tough decision’ has been taken because of the ‘uncertainty’ around bus franchising - the taking of services under public control, which will be rolled out from September this year, starting in Wigan, Bolton and parts of Salford and Bury.
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But in Heywood - which has no rail or Metrolink services - it will come as a particularly hard blow to those who rely on public transport.
Among them is nurse Paul O’Neill, who regularly uses the 163 to travel to the city centre or visit his parents. A non-driver, he says travel services in Heywood are already ‘quite poor’ for those without a car.
“It’s a surprising choice to get rid of it,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
