There’s excitement after one of Greater Manchester’s new yellow buses were spotted ‘in the wild’.
A fleet of yellow buses were rolled out last week ahead of the new Bee Network — the city-region’s new transport system that will integrate buses, trams, and bikes for hire. It will launch in September.
The first route to get the yellow buses, which are run under public controlled but operated by private firms like Go North West and Diamond, was the number 8 service. It goes from Manchester City Centre to Bolton, via Farnworth and Salford.
READ MORE: The tap-in and tap-out transport system that will transform how people get around Greater Manchester
And a bus in the luminous livery has been spotted in Salford — but it’s not a no. 8. Twitter user James snapped a pic of a yellow no. 36 bus on Chapel Street in the city this morning (March 29).
“Way too excited to have spotted my first yellow Manchester bus in the wild,” he said, posting a photo taken from an upper-floor window. The 36 service runs from Piccadilly Gardens to Bolton, going through Salford, Peel, and Great Lever on the way.
Bus services in Bolton and Wigan are the first to be brought under public control, with the Bee Network ‘going live’ in those boroughs in September this year. In 12 months time, the second element of franchising begins.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said he wishes the change could come quicker, but explained, "everything takes long in transport". He said: "We're moving from a very different system - the old system that we've got now - which has got multiple buses, colours, you name it, on the streets.
"To move from that to a standardised public transport system can't be done in a matter of weeks, months, it does take a few years to get there. But we're really motoring there now.
"There are hundreds of buses on orders for Greater Manchester, many of them zero emission buses. So the change is going to come thick and fast.
"When we get to September, the majority of the buses on the road serving Wigan and Bolton will be either new buses or modern buses that are being rebranded. The majority of the fleet will look to the right standard on day one."
However, that is not the end of the new system. Along with the existing Metrolink tram network, and Bee Bikes for hire, train services are going to be brought under public control.
It’s hoped 20 percent of rail services will be included in the scheme by 2025, with the remainder to follow by 2030.
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