Andy Burnham brings Greater Manchester buses back under public control
Bee Network buses began running under public control in September 2023, with a £2 adult fare cap and a court fight already won.
Greater Manchester’s first franchised Bee Network bus services began on 24 September 2023 in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Salford and Bury, bringing the region’s buses back under public control. The launch made the city-region the first place in England outside London to use bus franchising, after the High Court ruled the scheme lawful in March 2022 and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision in July 2022.
Andy Burnham was first elected mayor in May 2017 and went on to win re-election in May 2021 and May 2024. He has argued that bus reform should be judged in fares, frequency, punctuality and whether routes actually connect people to work, school and health care.
Fare control has sat at the center of that case. Greater Manchester introduced a £2 adult and £1 child single-fare cap in September 2022, before franchised buses started running. The mayor has committed to keeping that cap through the end of 2025, subject to a mid-year review. Burnham also announced cheaper and simpler Bee Bus tickets in 2023, including 7-day and 28-day products and combined bus-and-tram tickets.
The franchising programme was delivered on time and on budget, with fares revenue above forecast and operating costs lower than if the authority had continued intervening in the deregulated market. In a late-March 2024 punctuality snapshot, 73% of Bee Network buses were on time, and more Bee Network buses were running on time than non-Bee Network services over the same period. By mid-2024, passenger numbers on the first tranche of franchised services had risen 5% over six months.
Buses account for around 75% of all public transport trips in Greater Manchester, in a region where 27% of households do not have access to a private car. The Bee Network links buses, trams, bikes and, in later phases, local rail as an integrated, low-cost, high-frequency system. Metrolink is the UK’s largest light rail network with eight lines, 99 stops and nearly 64 miles of route.
By late 2024, the Bee Network had logged more than 58 million journeys since launch, with nearly seven million additional trips after the initial growth period.
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