Bus passengers could soon be travelling across Greater Manchester for no more than £2 a ticket in a new era for public transport, it will be announced today.
Heralded by Mayor Andy Burnham as a ‘blueprint for city-regions’, the new charging system caps adult fares for a single journey at £2, while children pay no more than £1.
It means passengers could finally be freed from a ‘fragmented’ system involving more than 830 services run by 30 operators with 150 different ticket types.
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The scheme would bring pricing more in line with London's £1.65 'Hopper' fare, meaning passengers will no longer have to fork out, for example, up to £4.50 for a single 20-minute journey from Middleton to Manchester city centre.
Passengers in some parts of the conurbation should be on the road to cheaper fares by Autumn 2023, with Bolton, Wigan and parts of Salford and West Manchester the first to receive franchised services.
Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and areas of North Manchester will follow in Spring 2024, with Stockport, Trafford, Tameside, south Manchester and other parts of Salford to be up and running by the end of 2024.
From this date, customers will be able to take advantage of capped fares across the whole region on buses run by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
The £2 ticket will function as a 'hopper' fare - meaning the same ticket can be used for any change of bus within 60 minutes of the ticket being bought, regardless of how many times a person changes buses within that hour.
The M.E.N has asked officials about other types of fares - including return tickets - and understands these are still under consideration.
The fares commitment forms part of sweeping plans for a 'London-style transport revolution' made possible by an historic legal ruling last week.
This clears the way for a new franchising model which takes control over buses away from profit-focused operators, placing it instead in public hands.
It makes the region the first outside London to have this power in more than 30 years.
And it's the launchpad for a £1.2bn five-year programme of investment, including a fleet of electric buses with a uniform livery, new bus lanes and corridors, boosted connectivity and frequency between towns and cities and, finally, the high-tech ticketing and passenger information that Londoners have been enjoying for years.
In line with ambitions to clean up our air and achieve the region's 2038 carbon neutral target, longer-term goals include extensions to the Metrolink, tram-trains, more cycling and walking routes and joining up HS2 to the network.
Ahead of the announcement, Mayor Andy Burnham said Greater Manchester was ‘developing a blueprint’ for other city-regions to follow when it comes to connecting villages, towns and cities.
He added: "People need to be able to get to where they want to go without having to spend as much as £4 on a single trip.
"My ambition is that soon here in Greater Manchester it will be simpler, cheaper and more reliable to get around on public transport.
“We will make travelling by public transport more appealing, easier and, significantly, put our people before profits.
“Government has signalled its intention to support our ambitions many times over and we now need them to work in partnership with us, to help us turn our shared vision into a reality.”
The Question of Funding
But it all depends on funding.
The £135m needed to fund a transition to the new franchising model is secure thanks to a combination of sources including the precept and local authority contributions, while a council tax rise coming in April will also boost the franchising budget.
Local authorities, meanwhile, have raised £170m towards the longer-term vision.
However, the majority of the proposed changes, including capped fares, are dependent on the Government stumping up the £1.07bn which was promised in last year's spending review, as well as a share of Boris Johnson's £3bn 'Bus Back Better' money.
Greater Manchester has bid for £70m a year over three years from the Prime Minister's 'Bus Service Improvement' fund but is yet to hear if this has been successful.
It’s been five years since Greater Manchester was first handed the powers to take back buses as part of the devolution deal, but public consultations, assessments, Covid and legal wranglings with operators - who have now said they would work with the authority on its franchising plan - have delayed its roll-out.
In the meantime, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has contnued to subsidise the network, albeit with the help of Government bail-outs during the pandemic, funding those routes which would otherwise be axed by operators for not turning a profit.
These subsidies cost the taxpayer £30m a year, with around £8m going to school services and £22m to the routes which don't make money for the companies that run them.
Now that a judge has ruled against the operators who sought to block reform by arguing the decision-making process was flawed, the architects of change have sprung into action, devising an ‘accelerated’ plan - with cheaper fares placed firmly at the forefront.
Capped fares and bus reform are a key pillar in the ‘Bee Network’ - the vision for a public transport system that weaves together train, tram and bus services as well as walking and cycling to create a truly modern, sustainable, accessible model for the people of Greater Manchester.
The ethos behind the Bee Network is that connectivity into and between major centres in any city is key, for access to jobs, health care and loved ones.
It’s an argument supported by the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review, which found that better infrastructure that supports access to jobs in the city centre and local area will help parts of the region with lower productivity, pay and living standards.
The Mayor has repeatedly called on the government to work in partnership with Greater Manchester and provide a package of funding to support the transformation the Conservatives have promised.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News on Thursday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps responded saying he 'very much looked forward' to working with the Mayor to deliver bus reform.
Referencing the devolution of power in 2017, the Levelling Up White Paper and the 'record amounts' spent on buses, he said he was 'very supportive' of what the Mayor was trying to do.
However, the Government's level of commitment has been called into question after Boris Johnson's £3bn Bus Back Better fund was reportedly halved, while questions remain over how the bus network will be funded after the final tranche of emergency Covid money runs out.
Meanwhile, transport bosses are yet to receive a schedule on how they will receive the £1.07bn promised in the spending review as part of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement.
What Next?
If PM Boris Johnson stays true to his word and the Treasury finds the funds, £438m is earmarked to improve buses, routes and services.
Broken down, electric buses and infrastructure will cost £205m, while £202.5m will be spent on bus lanes, corridors and junctions and £30m will help move to a high tech passenger information system - and finally give us London-style fares and ticketing.
Andy Burnham, who is due to address an audience of business, political and civic leaders in Manchester city centre on Monday, will also announce the appointment of a new Transport Commissioner to take over from Chris Boardman and guide Greater Manchester through the key months ahead.
Described as a ‘great signing’ by Mr Burnham, Vernon Everitt, spent 14 years as a managing director at Transport for London, leading on the city’s integration of public transport through simple and intuitive fares, ticketing and customer information.
Leaders here will no doubt be interested to see if Mr Everitt receives the same level of co-operation from the Government he enjoyed in London - but he is optimisitc.
“It is a privilege to be given the responsibility to help write the next chapter of Greater Manchester’s ambitious and truly transformational transport story," he said.
“The Bee Network vision sets out a compelling plan for better transport and I will bring all my experience to the table to ensure we deliver it.
“Our integrated transport network will unlock access to opportunity and public services, and drive reduced carbon emissions and improved wellbeing, benefiting everyone who lives, works or visits here.
“I look forward to working with the mayor, councils, transport operators and people across Greater Manchester to deliver a world class public transport system.”
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