London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Andy Burnham expands Greater Manchester’s Bee Network with franchised buses, night bus pilots, and service improvements, advancing public transport accessibility.
Andy Burnham administers major Bee Network updates with the next phase ready. The next stage of Greater Manchester’s Bee Network development has been announced. The Bee Network bus franchising is set to proceed across a wider area of the region at the end of March.
Phase two of the scheme will see franchised buses take to the streets of Oldham, Rochdale, and parts of Bury, Salford, and north Manchester. These will come under public control for the first time in almost 40 years.
This next phase will indicate that a total of 324 bus routes- combined from both phases- will be under the control of Transport for Greater Manchester. This is 50% of the region’s bus network.
This latest step for Greater Manchester’s public transport will be launched on Sunday, March 24. A range of developments have been announced as part of the next phase.
Verification of extended night bus routes in more areas of Greater Manchester has come as part of the phase two takeoff. The news is that a 24/7 night bus pilot is set to venture into phase one bus areas.
This includes buses in Bolton, Wigan, parts of Bury, Salford, and Manchester. Included in these services are expected to be the V1 and 36 routes, and services could run hourly to fill the gap that is currently between 1 am and 5 am.
It will comprise Immediate service improvements to boost services on key routes in Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Bury, Manchester, and Tameside, including more early and late services and better connections to first and last trams.
Reversing frequency reductions introduced last year – before they were part of the Bee Network – delivering more daytime and evening services.
They are developing plans with bus operators to improve the worst performing routes across phase two services, with extra buses on standby, timetable changes, and reviewing road junctions and signals to keep buses moving. A new journey planner will be added to the Bee Network app along with a live bus tracker by 24 March – so passengers can easily plan their journey, buy tickets, and see exactly where their bus is on the route.
30 additional TravelSafe Support and Enforcement Officers (TSEOs) patrolling franchised bus services, transport interchanges, and bus stations, boosting the size of the team to 60 dedicated officers will also be undertaken.
50 new Zero Emission Buses and 84 new Euro 6 Bee Network buses will be introduced into phase two areas over the coming months, with air conditioning, USB chargers, ramps, wheelchair bays, hearing induction loops, anti-slip flooring, and AV announcement systems
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, stated: “This next phase of bus franchising in Greater Manchester will not only mark another big step forward towards the complete delivery of the Bee Network, it also clearly demonstrates our commitment to improving public transport in the region.
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“When services in Oldham, Rochdale, and parts of Bury, Salford, and north Manchester become part of the Bee Network on 24 March, half of all the bus services in Greater Manchester will be back under local control and accountable to passengers.”