In July 2019, Boris Johnson stood in front of a 19th century steam train at Manchester’s Science and Industry museum to make an impassioned speech about improving transport links in the north of England.
A key element was the promise of a new high-speed rail link between Leeds and Manchester.
Less than two years later, in March 2021, Mr Johnson super-sized his promise to include buses, announcing a £3bn 'revolution'.
READ MORE: Huge concrete viaducts 'to blight east Manchester' in cut-price Piccadilly rail plans
'Bus Back Better' would bring simple flat fares, turn-up-and-go services on main routes and new services to reconnect communities. Finally, the whole country would benefit from 'London standards'.
Authorities across the land, including Greater Manchester, were encouraged to prepare ‘ambitious’ bids for the £3bn pot.
Yet today another key piece in the 'Levelling Up' agenda was losing steam as reports emerged that the central pot has been reduced by 'more than half'.
A letter sent to Local Transport Authority directors by the Department for Transport on January 11, seen by the Observer, was said to reveal that the budget for the 'transformation' of buses has shrunk to £1.4bn for the next three years.
If this funding is not restored, it jeopardises Mayor Andy Burnham's bold plan wo make services broader, more frequent and cheaper when they return to public control and a franchising model.
It also risks further isolating communities across Greater Manchester, limiting access for thousands of people to jobs, hospitals and key services.
When the Manchester Evening News asked the Department for Transport (DfT) to respond, they said it was 'incorrect' that funding had been cut from their original ambition.
They said the Government had committed more than £3bn 'over this parliament', including £1.2bn for improvements to fares, services and infrastructure and £355m for zero emission buses.
Meanwhile, a Greater Manchester official told the Manchester Evening News that they were encouraged to submit a 'very ambitious plan' on buses to the Government.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, it's claimed, then got back in touch just before Christmas asking them to 'reprioritise' due to a funding gap.
The Manchester Evening News put this to the DfT.
They responded to say that in fact some of the original funding had to be used to keep buses running during the pandemic.
They said Greater Manchester's bid was still under consideration.
It comes amid concerns that the Emergency Covid funding which has kept bus operators afloat during the pandemic may not be renewed when it expires in April.
And it follows the downgrading of another central piece of the levelling up jigsaw, the Northern Powerhouse Rail line from Manchester to Leeds, which was supposed to be built via Bradford.
This was swapped out last year for a new line from Warrington to Marsden, which comes in £18bn cheaper. The eastern leg of HS2 was also scrapped and a cut-price HS2 station at Piccadilly, it's warned, could 'blight' a whole section of the city.
November saw the demotion of Transport for the North, the body whose experts had painstakingly created the Northern Powerhouse Rail that would have benefited the region for decades to come.
With the much-anticipated - and delayed - levelling up white paper due to be published, it's not good timing.
Levelling up, it seems, has been radically levelled down.
To make bus reform happen here, the £135m 'transition' costs are covered through Greater Manchester's devolution agreement - with the rest coming from the mayoral precept and one-off funding from councils.
However, the amount of cash the city region will get for running bus services has yet to be confirmed by ministers.
Mr Burnham previously estimated that an ongoing subsidy of between £75m and £100m would be needed from the government in order to ensure services for isolated communities, greater frequency and lower fares.
But those three crucial elements will not be possible without the funding pot which had been promised, says the mayor.
"We believe we have a compelling plan for London-style buses and public transport in Greater Manchester that would make levelling up mean something in practice - more than anything else I can think of," said Mr Burnham on Sunday.
"If transport is improved in the way it should be and costs fall as we believe they should, it opens up opportunities for people that are currently not available.
"It's frustrating because so much work has gone into this, expectations were raised by the Government.
"We were led to believe the money would be forthcoming."
Mr Burnham said inadequate funding would make London transport prices challenging to achieve, adding: "A decent bus service is a basic thing that if you travel the world even poor communities have. Here it's like they are a luxury and it's a ridiculous state of affairs.
"Putting in place affordable bus services is an essential precursor to any notion of levelling up. People can't level themselves up if they can't afford to get to a job 15 miles away."
The Manchester Evening News reported this week how bus operators could be facing some difficult decisions in April when emergency Covid funding runs out.
Although passenger numbers had been going back up last year, Omicron caused them to plummet again.
And now it's emerged that emergency funding is draining the pot for long-term reform.
Andy Burnham adds: “I would again call on the Government to stick to its original promises and back Greater Manchester with the funding to deliver a London-style bus and public transport system with London-style fares.
“It feels to me that increasingly the Government is losing its way on its core mission.
“What’s the purpose of this government if they are going to lose credibility on levelling up. What else are they trying to achieve?
"The thing about buses is that people could feel the benefit within a matter of months.
"It's not like infrastructure that takes years to deliver, this could help the recovery from the pandemic if this investment comes now."
With Mr Johnson currently fighting fires on all sides, perhaps it is the humble bus - and a 'quick win' like the one proffered by Greater Manchester - that could save the day. He's just got to get the Treasury on board.
What the Department for Transport Say:
A DfT spokesperson said:
“It is incorrect to claim that funding has been cut from our original ambition. Over this Parliament, the Government has committed to making a step change investment of over £3bn into bus services.
“This includes £1.2bn in dedicated new funding to deliver improvements in fares, services and infrastructure, and a further £355m of new funding for zero emission buses.”
Background
- We are also investing £5.7 billion over five years for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements in 8 of the biggest city regions in England. Hundreds of millions of pounds of that funding will be used to enhance bus services.
- Overall funding for buses from 2020/21 to 2024/25 is expected to be over £5bn.
- Some of the £3bn investment into bus services is being invested nationally and is not going directly to Local Authorities.
- The pandemic happened after this funding was announced and out of necessity some of the new funding was put to emergency use keeping buses running. The Government has invested well over £3bn of new money which will be spent on buses this Parliament.
- Greater Manchester received over £1bn for transport through the City Regional Transport Settlement announced at the Spending Review. Much of this funding will be invested in buses. Potential additional funding to support Manchester’s Bus Service Improvement Plan is still being considered along with all plans, and there has been no decision.
