Created 14-Mar-13
Modified 8-Mar-24
From 30th September 1996 certain journeys on the 427 (see the 427 and 429 Diggle collection) were diverted into Greenfield and given the number 429. The new 429 completely replaced the 180 on Sundays and in the evening.
The daytime weekday service only ran to Hollinwood, but in the evening it continued to Manchester Piccadilly and, from October 14th, made a rather circuitous tour of the City Centre to end up at Victoria Station. On Sundays all journeys terminated at Piccadilly Gardens. The extension to Manchester Victoria was curtailed from 23rd June 1997.
The Summer Sunday extensions of the 180 to Holmfirth and Huddersfield continued as the 429 every summer until (and including) 2000 - the fuller story of these is given in the 10 and 180 history.
The story of the 429 matches closely that of the 427. From 25th October 1999 the terminal point in Manchester changed from Piccadilly Garden to Cannon Street. At the same time daytime journeys started running through to the City again. However, the situation reversed again from 3rd September 2000.
A big increase in the number of 429s came about with timetable changes of 25th February 2001 with no less than three 429s an hour serving Greenfield. Combined with the 180 that gave four buses an hour into Oldham, a peak which was only otherwise seen on Saturdays in the immediate pre-war period. This high frequency service didn’t last long and the 429 was back to one an hour from 23rd September 2001.
The final change to the 429 was from 24th February 2002, when Sunday evening services were cut back from Manchester to Hollinwood, meaning at that time of the week Saddleworth had no through bus links to Manchester. The 429 was withdrawn as part of the major Saddleworth service reorganisation of 30th October 2004. It was replaced by withdrawing the Limited Stop status from the 180.
The service was only ever worked by First Manchester.
© David Beilby
