Leigh Busway

On my final, day in Manchester, I went to visit my father’s grave in Bury cemetery and afterwards I took two local buses to Leigh via Bolton, in order to ride of the Leigh Busway or the Leigh-Salford-Manchester Bus Rapid Transit.  It’s not the only busway in the country, but it was certainly the most convenient one for me during my UK trip. 

A busway is a former railway line that has been redeveloped to be a dedicated bus route.  It is a great way to re-use existing infrastructure and using buses is much cheaper than re-activating the old train line with trains or tram.  And bus has the advantage of using normal roads 

To use it, I took the V1 bus route from Leigh, which terminates at Manchester Royal Infirmary, but I got off at Salford Crescent station.  The busway section runs for about six kilometres.  The stops on busway reminded me more of Manchester Metrolink tram stops than bus stops.  In a few places it is still possible to see the old railway cutting.  

The other good thing was that the fare is the same as a normal bus and I was able to use the day rover ticket that I bought earlier in Bury.  

One of the busway stops.