Greater Manchester bus route 216

Bus route in Manchester, England

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216
Stagecoach Manchester route 216 Enviro 400 at Piccadilly Gardens in August 2024
Overview
Operator	Stagecoach Manchester
Garage	Ashton
Vehicle	Alexander Dennis Enviro400 Alexander Dennis Enviro400MMC
Route
Start	Piccadilly Gardens
Via	Etihad Stadium VeloPark Droylsden Ashton Moss Ashton-under-Lyne
End	Stalybridge
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	8-20 mins

Greater Manchester bus route 216 is a bus route runs between Piccadilly Gardens in the Manchester city centre and Stalybridge. Despite it shares the same termini with route 219 and they are operated by Stagecoach Manchester, areas served are more similar to routes 230 and 231.

History

The history of route 216 dates back to the days of trolleybus in the 1950s. The route was launched with an express service, the 216x, which operates at rush hours.^[1] Both were operated by Greater Manchester buses. The trolleybuses lived until the 1980s, services are replaced by conventional buses till now. In February 1996, GM South Buses was bought by Stagecoach and rebranded as Stagecoach Manchester.^[2] In the 2000s, the express 216x service was withdrawn.

Services

Full route

The route begins at Piccadilly Gardens, operate via Etihad Stadium, VeloPark, Droylsden, Ashton Moss and Ashton-under-Lyne before terminating at Stalybridge. Full route only operates half hourly on non-bank holiday weekdays between 6:33 and 7:30 from Stalybridge and 18:00 and 18:22 from Piccadilly Gardens. The full route does not operate on weekends and bank holidays.

Part route

Outside the full route operation hours, part route services are provided between Piccadilly Gardens and Ashton-under-Lyne every 8–20 minutes.

Current route

The 216 serves the following primary locations:^[3]

Etihad Stadium
VeloPark
Droylsden
Ashton Moss
Ashton-under-Lyne

References

^ "Manchester Trolleybus Routes".
^ Tooher, Patrick (26 February 1996). "Pensioners lead protest at £41m Stagecoach takeover". The Independent.
^ "216 Piccadilly Gardens - Ashton-under-Lyne - Stalybridge". Transport for Greater Manchester. Retrieved 26 August 2024.

Transport in Greater Manchester

Air

Map of England showing Greater Manchester

Bus

Operators	Arriva North West Bluebird Bullocks Diamond North West Finglands Coachways First Greater Manchester GM Buses Go North West Jim Stones Coaches JPT Magic Bus Manchester Community Transport Mayne Coaches Maytree Travel Rosso Stagecoach Manchester UK North Warrington's Own Buses
Routes	8 11 17 18 (BNSC) 36 37 42 43 58 59 100 103 135 163 192 199 203 216 330 368 471 CAT5 Cheshire Cat X41 Red Express X43 Witch Way X50 X57 Snake free bus route 1 free bus route 2 V1 V2 V4

Stations	List of open railway stations List of closed railway stations
Lines	Buxton Calder Valley Crewe–Manchester Glossop Hope Valley Liverpool–Manchester Manchester–Preston Manchester–Southport Stafford–Manchester Stockport–Stalybridge Styal
Operators	British Rail (1948–1997) Regional Railways (1982–1996) Network NorthWest (1989–c.1992) First North Western (1997–2004) Northern Rail (2004–2016) Arriva Rail North (2016–2020) Northern Trains (2020-)