Farnworth Bus Station

This post is part of Multimodal Manchester.

This second instalment of “Multimodal Manchester” will be quite a contrast from the first. We’ll be going to one of the largest interchanges in Manchester to one of the smallest. As such, this article will be rather shorter than the previous one.

Farnworth bus station is located, as the name suggests, in Farnworth, which is a suburb between Bolton and Manchester. Online information about its history is rather scarce, but I my best guess is that it was built, as many such things were, by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE). The GMPTE was later absorbed into the Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authority, adopting the name “Transport for Greater Manchester” (TfGM), and what we do know for certain is that the bus station we see today is the result of an extensive redevelopment by TfGM (in conjunction with Bolton Council) in 2018.

There are four bus stands. Stands A and B are located within the bus station itself and share a long, enclosed glass shelter:

Stand C is a bus stop on King Street just outside the bus station, used by route 501:

Stand D is another bus stop on King Street, which is used for “match day buses only”:

The main routes serving the bus station are 501, 512, 513, 521 and 553. They are operated under the Bee Network with a fleet of brand new Enviro200 buses built by Alexander Dennis:

None of these services connect to Manchester city centre, but there is also route X39, which runs a grand total of twice daily on weekdays only towards Manchester (with no service away from Manchester). At other times, routes 8 and 37 run along nearby Market Street into Manchester.

My main criticism of Farnworth bus station is its lack of passenger amenities. There are no toilets and nowhere to buy food or drink, though as the bus station seems to be here predominantly to serve as a convenient terminus for Farnworth local services, rather than as a major interchange, that can probably be forgiven. (For the record, if you do want either of those things, your best bet is quite probably the Asda a few minutes’ walk down the road.) More disappointing is the absence of any live information displays - for something built as recently as 2018, you’d expect those to come as standard.

That said, it may not be much, but what is there is nicely presented. It feels clean and well cared for, each stop has clear and up-to-date timetable information, and that combined with the modern bus fleet and frequent service does manage present a positive, if humble, image of public transport.