First Manchester 37297 (MX07 BUE) and 66831 (MX05 CFK) at Salford Shopping Centre - 24 May 2019 (P1010937)

Friday 24 May 2019 (1100) – First Manchester buses seen on Hankinson Way, Salford (Salford Shopping Centre).

Nearest the camera is 37297 (MX07 BUE), a Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TL new in July 2007, working service 100 from Manchester to Warrington.

From 2 June 2019 First Manchester sold its garage at Queens Road, North Manchester to the Go-Ahead Group which created a new subsidiary named Go North West. The services worked from Queens Road also passed to the new company including service 100. (Almost five years later in March 2024 that situation changed again with the creation of the franchised Bee Network when Queens Road garage and its services passed to Stagecoach Manchester).

In the background is 66831 (MX05 CFK), a Wright Eclipse Urban bodied Volvo B7RLE new in June 2005, on which I had just arrived from Salford Quays.