YOU can wait for a bus for ages and then three turn up at once or so they say.

When First Manchester launched their new high frequency service, they promised to eliminate the headache of long waits at bus stops for many passengers.

The scheme, guaranteeing a bus every ten minutes, started on June 11 and applies to nine major routes around Bury.

The Bury Times decided to put those claims to the test, and we were pleasantly surprised.

Choosing a stop on Bury's Manchester Road outside Holy Cross College, used by passengers heading for Prestwich, Manchester and Radcliffe, we tested the regularity of the 135 and 524 buses arriving there.

First we waited during the rush hour, between 8am and 9am and found, on average, there was a 135 bus every seven minutes and a 524 bus every ten.

Off peak, between 3pm and 4pm the results were even better, the 135 every seven minutes and a 524 every seven and a half minutes.

Despite this there were occasions when passengers had to wait for more than ten minutes, particularly on the morning 524 service, but only for an extra couple of minutes.

Bus users gave an overall thumbs up to the new frequency promise, although for one lady, it had come too late. Kath Wilson of Parkhills Road, was taking her children to school in Radcliffe. She said: "I'm having to move my children to a school nearer home after the summer because the buses are so irregular, even though I'd rather leave them where they are settled.

"Sometimes you are standing for half an hour. It has improved slightly with the ten minute thing, but I'll still be moving the kids."

Hopping off a bus was 17-year-old Joe MacKenzie, of Burnley Road, Walmersley, on his way to Holy Cross College.

He normally catches the 474 bus to Bury, another of the ten minute services, and was suitably impressed.

"They're not always every ten minutes but they are near enough. The main thing that puts people off using buses is that not all of them are as regular, and it's usually easier for them to just jump in a car."

Stepping off the 135 in the afternoon was pensioner Kath Leverington, of Ribchester Drive.

"Usually you get two together and then don't see them for ages. But perhaps they have been better this week, I must admit there's not been any hold ups," she said.

"It's been awful some weeks, especially in the rush hour for people going to work."

Bolton-bound Tony Davies (29), from Farnworth, was arriving at the stop just a couple of minutes before his 524 arrived. He said: "I use the bus everyday and it has improved a lot. It was okay before but it's even better now."

With regards to slight delays during the rush hour, a First Manchester spokesman said: "There are occasions when traffic can marginally slow things down at peak times but it is only marginal."

He added: "We would expect the service to run well because many of the high frequency services have actually been running since February.

"The 135 has been a great success and if there has been an interval delay, it will be because of the large number of people using that service."

The ten minute services are: 98 Bury-Manchester; 135 Bury-Manchester; 163 Bury-Manchester; 469 Tottington-Rochdale via Bury; 471 Rochdale-Bury; 471 Bury-Bolton; 472 Bury-Ramsbotom; 474 Bury-Ramsbottom and 524 Bolton-Bury via Radcliffe.