The revolution, when it came, was thankfully on time. The first bus in England to be brought back into public control since the 1980s steered out of its depot near Bolton at 4.30am sharp, beginning what one passenger (the mayor, Andy Burnham) hailed as “a new dawn” for public transport.
The service – a 521 from Farnworth to Westhoughton – marked a “coming-of-age moment for English devolution” and a “revolution” for buses, said Burnham, before a bright yellow fleet of electric doubledeckers fanned out across Greater Manchester on Monday.
