The Bee Network is the reason we have Andy Burnham - but will it be worth the wait?

When Sir Richard Leese ran the city, the Manchester council leader would regularly remind Andy Burnham why the role of mayor was created. “The whole reason you exist is to do buses,” he would often tell Mr Burnham.

This may have seemed like a joke, but there was some truth to it. When council leaders in Greater Manchester negotiated the first devolution deal nearly a decade ago, gaining powers to take back control of buses was their biggest priority, while the then-Chancellor George Osborne wanted a mayor installed.

Local leaders like Sir Richard have been calling for buses to be ‘reregulated’ for years, arguing that services should be run as they are in London. Instead, they were left to watch the bus network decline dramatically during the four decades since Margaret Thatcher allowed private companies to take over.

Six years after he became the first elected mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham is finally fulfilling what was seen by some as his primary purpose. From Sunday, bus franchising will begin – and the rest of the country will be watching closely as some regions are planning to follow suit.

Buses in Wigan and Bolton, as well as some in Salford, Bury and Manchester, will be the first in the country to come under public control in nearly 40 years. The move means local officials will set fares, routes and timetables – and contracted operators whose services are not up to scratch will be punished.

The new integrated public transport system called the Bee Network promises to make travelling by bus and tram up to 20 pc cheaper. Local trains services are also set to be part of this London-style system, allowing passengers to pay by tapping in and out with a daily cap on costs for all three modes of transport.

By the time all buses in Greater Manchester are part of the new Bee Network in 2025, the system in which 830 services are run by 30 operators with 150 ticket types will have been radically reformed. But this change will be gradual.

The journey to get bus franchising to this point has been long. Mr Burnham has been criticised by some for not moving fast enough, but sources close to the mayor say he was legally obligated to consider all of the options on the table.

The alternative approach of ‘enhanced partnerships’ in which local leaders have an increased but limited influence over the bus network was discounted in 2021. But a series of legal challenges from bus operators soon followed.

Last March, a high court judge ruled in Mr Burnham’s favour. But by then, work to roll out the first franchised services the following year was already under way and a six months later a new simplified fare structure was introduced across the network 12 months early following a deal with all the bus firms.

Responding to the ruling, Grant Shapps, who was the transport secretary at the time, welcomed the decision and said the government wants the rest of England to follow Greater Manchester’s lead. But there are still some doubters.

Last year, Ben Houchen – Mr Burnham’s Conservative counterpart in the Tees Valley who was once said to be the most powerful Tory in the North – claimed that Greater Manchester could not afford to make the Bee Network a reality without government support. The city-region has received £94.8m of funding for buses from a national pot, most of which is being used to subsidise fares.

But what happens when this money runs out? Since last summer, the mayor has been asking the public to ‘Get On Board’ buses so fares can be kept low.

In the 12 months since the new fares were introduced, more people have been using buses in Greater Manchester. Transport bosses are hoping that, under the Bee Network, 50m more trips will be taken by bus every year by 2030.

Whether achieving this ‘ambitious’ target – which would see bus passenger numbers return to pre-pandemic levels – will be enough to balance the Bee Network’s books is unclear. But Mr Burnham won’t be taking any chances.

In a bid to secure government funding in the future, he will be telling the main political parties ahead of their annual conferences that the best way to clean the air in cities outside of London is to ‘back buses’. Some have suggested that introducing charges for road users could also help finance public transport.

But Mr Burnham says Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone which was paused after a huge public backlash last year would not have been enough because it only penalised the most polluting vehicles which would eventually be replaced. Other revenue-raising schemes could be considered in years to come, but for now, the mayor is focusing on the farebox while seeking government support.

Mr Burnham argues that running buses this way will be better value for public money. But as demands on the public purse are plentiful, finding the funding needed to make his Bee Network vision a reality may prove to be difficult.

The Greater Manchester mayor who will be seeking re-election next year has plenty of other ambitions for the city-region – not least the creation of a new technical education qualification as an alternative to the university route. He will also be gaining new powers under the latest devolution deal including having a single of pot of funding that gives him more financial freedom.

But there is no doubt among insiders that bringing buses under public control is the most important thing he has done during his time as mayor. “I consider it one of the more significant things that I have been involved with in my political career,” he said, “partly because it is personal.”

“I do feel personal pride in not just what I have done to bring it about,” he added, “but what everyone has done.

“Way before me there have been people campaigning for this… While I feel some pride, I recognise that I am only able to do this because of the arguments a lot of people before me pushed forward.”