Details of the first buses to be brought under public control in Greater Manchester next year have been revealed by Mayor Andy Burnham. Wigan and Bolton will have the first new fully franchised buses in the country since all services were deregulated everywhere outside of London in 1986.
All buses in Greater Manchester will be under public control by January 5, 2025 with the first two boroughs to benefit from September 24, 2023. From that date, all buses in Wigan and Bolton will be run by Go North West and Diamond, who are the first to win contracts under the new franchising system.
This includes the Leigh Guided Busway which will no longer be run by Vantage. Some services in Salford and Bury will also be run by the two operators including services which go through Little Hulton, Walkden and Swinton.
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All of these buses will be yellow and at least 50 will be new electric vehicles with improved disability access, audio-visual announcements and the full branding of the Bee Network – the name of the new public transport system. There will be no changes to bus routes at first to avoid the 'chaos' that would come with sudden changes, but services could be altered later down the line.
By 2025, when all services across the city-region are under public control, buses, trams and rental bikes will use the same ticket system with a daily cap. Bus fares across Greater Manchester have already been capped at £2 for single journeys and £5 for day tickets with weeklies to cost £21 in January.
However, these caps will be reviewed in the summer which means that fares could increase by the time the first franchised buses are rolled out next year. Mr Burnham also announced Greater Manchester's plans to bring some parts of the railway network under local control in two stages starting from 2025.
As part of the latest devolution talks, Mr Burnham has asked for powers to integrate six key routes into the Bee Network including Wigan to Victoria, Southport to Stalybridge and four lines connected to Manchester Piccadilly. If granted, a pilot of pay-as-you-go fares similar to the Metrolink's touch in / touch out system could be trialed on up to one in five local train services.
However, Mr Burnham said Greater Manchester wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of the rail industry by drawing up better bus franchising contracts. The seven-year contracts include financial penalities based on performance – which includes complaints made by passengers through the Bee Network app.
This means that if buses do not turn up on time - or at all - or if public feedback about services is poor, the operators could lose up to 25 pc of their payments. Speaking at a press conference on Friday (December 23), Mr Burnham said this means the public of Greater Manchester are 'the bosses' of the buses.
He said: "At the moment, if you're standing at a wet bus stop anywhere today in Greater Manchester and it doesn't turn up or it's late, there's very little that you can do and there's actually very little that we can do. That is what it means to have a deregulated system.
"In the new world, people will be able to do something and have a direct impact on the operators. Finally, the tables have been turned.
"That's why Greater Manchester has fought so hard for this day to come. The public should be in control of their bus system and finally they will be."
All staff working for bus operators who will no longer run services in Bolton and Wigan will be offered jobs at the companies awarded the new contracts. As part of its bid for the main contract in each borough, Go North West agreed to sign up to the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter within a year.
The company has also committed to paying all of its staff the real living wage. Diamond, which has been awarded seven smaller contracts as part of the first tranche of franchising, has also committed to the Good Employment Charter.
It comes after Rotala, the company which owns Diamond, mounted two legal challenges to the decision to bring buses under public control in the courts. Managing director Bob Dunn said Diamond will continue to play a key role in the significant improvements taking place to the local public transport offer.
Go North West's managing director Nigel Featham added: "We are extremely proud and excited to have been selected to run the first franchised bus services in Greater Manchester and to be able to play our part in delivering the Bee Network. We are absolutely committed to providing the best possible service to the people of Bolton and Wigan and can’t wait to get started.
"This new era of public transport will not only represent major change for bus passengers, but the thousands of people working to provide these vital services."
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