Greater Manchester has been ranked as the bottom city in Europe of 42 surveyed for a new study assessing cleaner green transport.
Transport chiefs here, however, have questioned the methodology behind the report and raised a series of points in terms of its findings, saying they don't believe 'Greater Manchester is lagging behind everywhere else' and Metrolink, the largest light rail system in the UK, wasn't considered at all.
The Clean Cities Campaign, a European coalition of more than 80 organisations campaigning for zero-emission travel, compared 42 selected cities in Europe on a range of modes of transport - shared bikes and e-scooters, shared electric cars and zero-emission buses. The quantity and quality of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure currently available to the public was also considered.
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The study compared the proportion of zero-emission buses on the roads compared to a city's total fleet, as well as the number of shared electric vehicles and EV charging points and the number of shared e-scooters and bikes available. For each indicator, a city received a score between 0 - worst - and up to 10 - best - depending on their performance in the categories.
Greater Manchester, according to the report, has 0.7 shared bikes or e-scooters per 1,000 people - ranking it second bottom of the 42 behind Edinburgh, which the study said had none.
It didn't rank at all in terms of the number of shared electric cars per 1,000 of the population and has 35 electric or hydrogen-powered buses out of a total available of 2,141, although the report did stress the huge changes on the horizon in terms of green buses under the Bee Network.
From September, bus services in Greater Manchester are being brought back under local control, with 'significant numbers' of electric buses being purchased. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), which said it didn't agree with the study's findings, revealed 270 electric buses are on order and operators have committed to providing around 200 more.
Compared to the other cities assessed, the study also found Greater Manchester has far less EV charging infrastructure.
As a result, Clean Cities ranked Greater Manchester at the bottom of the table of the 42 cities, although it referenced expected change with the onset of more cleaner buses and the current legalities surrounding e-scooters and pilot areas.
Copenhagen in Denmark was ranked in first place, followed by Oslo in Norway, Paris, Amsterdam and Hamburg. Greater London fared slightly better, in 24th place.
Sarah Rowe from the Clean Cities Campaign, who produced the report, said there were only a handful of electric cars available as part of car clubs across Greater Manchester whereas table leaders, Copenhagen, have 1.76 shared electric cars per 1,000 of the population.
She said: "Greater Manchester is undergoing a huge change in its public transport system right now as the authority takes more control, and we applaud the work that is happening to clean up the bus fleet. But our report highlights that there are lots of quick and easy ways that Greater Manchester can move to a cleaner transport system, such as expanding electric car clubs. The UK government has not helped matters by delaying crucial legislation that would support a rollout of e-scooters, which have proven to be very popular in Salford.
"If this change can be unlocked then there is a clear opportunity here for the city region to seize the moment and to give people the support they need to ditch their polluting cars."
But there was little reference at all in the report to Greater Manchester's pioneering Bee Network scheme - a vision for an integrated, London-style transport system joining up buses, trams, cycling and walking, and rail travel.
Lower bus fares led to around 1.5 million extra journeys being made on buses across Greater Manchester in the first three months since the £2 and £5 caps were introduced in September last year, according to analysis by transport bosses.
Under the new franchised system, Greater Manchester authorities will be in the driver's seat when it comes to bus planning, with services running under contract by private operators. All buses in Greater Manchester will be under public control by January 5, 2025 with the first two boroughs to benefit, Wigan and Bolton, by September this year.
The Manchester Evening News told last week that the city region's Bee Bikes scheme, launched in November 2021, had been hit by a 'significant rise' in vandalism, with figures to late June showing there were 379 bikes out on the network and 564 awaiting repairs or maintenance - meaning more than half of all the Bee Bikes were out of action.
But TFGM revealed a 'major milestone' has now been reached as total distance travelled on them has passed the one million kilometre mark. A growth in popularity was also evidenced, with 62,563 active users currently, up from less than 40,000 at the start of the year.
The area considered in the report corresponds to the Greater Manchester metropolitan county and of the 42, Greater Manchester is second to London in terms of the size of its total area.
Greater Manchester is also the fourth highest of the 42 in terms of population, with only Greater London, Berlin and Madrid having more people. It means the city region here has been compared to denser, smaller cities.
In terms of Metrolink, latest figures show patronage - the number of passengers - was continuing to rise post-Covid and last year, the network had its busiest ever weekend in terms of passengers. There's also been huge investment in walking routes and paths, and TfGM said it was 'working with government and charge point operators' on a £25m programme to boost the growth of EV charging.
Ms Rowe added: "We know that low carbon transport is absolutely essential in helping us to meet our goals as a city to be cleaner and greener. Shared solutions are key to making those options available to everyone and reducing the number of journeys made by car. As Greater Manchester gets more powers over transport, delivering more shared bikes and shared electric cars to fit in with the public transport network is a key part of that greener future."
A TfGM spokesperson told the M.E.N: "We know public transport in Greater Manchester, including shared and zero-emission mobility, is not as good as it can or should be – but it is something we are addressing through the transformational Bee Network.
"That said, comparing cities with an entire city-region is not a like-for-like comparison.
"Clean Cities has also failed to account for Metrolink – the UK's largest light rail system, which is net zero at street level, powered entirely by electricity produced from modern, cleaner, greener energy sources and transports tens of thousands of people each and every day – and that is why we do not agree that Greater Manchester is lagging behind everywhere else.
"In addition to the 270 electric buses that we have on order, operators running the first two phases of franchising have committed to providing around 200 more. These will be coming onto our streets over the next two years, with funding secured for even more still. We are working with government and charge point operators on a £25m programme which will accelerate the growth of EV charging infrastructure across Greater Manchester.
"Our cycle hire scheme has also proven very popular and recently surpassed a million ridden kilometres. We have a very good story to tell, and with firm plans to deliver the Bee Network over the coming years, the future of transport across the city region is bright."
