{"id":217493,"date":"2025-06-27T02:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/217493\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:47:11","slug":"50000-in-greater-manchester-have-no-buses-now-itll-take-years-to-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/217493\/","title":{"rendered":"50,000 in Greater Manchester have no buses – now it’ll take years to fix"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report also revealed 388,000 – more than the population of Wigan – do not have easy access to a bus that runs every half-hourPassengers waiting for a bus at the Bee Network station in Oldham(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

More than 50,000 people in Greater Manchester have no access to daytime bus or tram service \u2014 but it\u2019s set to take years to fix.<\/p>\n

Every bus in Greater Manchester was taken into the Bee Network on January 5, a major step in Andy Burnham<\/a>\u2019s mission to create an integrated \u2018London-style\u2019 public transport system.<\/p>\n

But daytime Bee Network buses, Metrolink<\/a> trams, and \u2018demand-responsive transport\u2019 such as ring and ride buses fail to stop within 400-metres of 51,309 people in the city, a new report has revealed.<\/p>\n

That means the Bee Network\u2019s \u2018minimum baseline connectivity level\u2019 is not met in 148 places.<\/p>\n

Another 388,525 people \u2014 more than the population of Wigan<\/a> \u2014 have no access to a bus service that runs at least every half-hour, the report added.<\/p>\n

One proposed benefit of taking buses into public control was the ability to change services based on residents\u2019 needs, which the mayor promised would take place with regular \u2018network reviews\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, the same report revealed it will take up to three years to implement the changes recommended by network reviews, with Trafford<\/a> and parts of Manchester only seeing alterations in summer 2028.<\/p>\n

The areas getting ‘early intervention’, with west Trafford and Horrocks Fold not seeing a bus every hour at least(Image: TfGM)<\/p>\n

The first boroughs to get Bee Network buses, Wigan and Bolton<\/a> in September 2023, will be first to see modifications, in autumn 2026.<\/p>\n

Alison Chew, the Bee Network\u2019s deputy director of bus, said it will take time because bosses \u2018looked back at connectivity assessment to get a baseline picture of Greater Manchester\u2019.<\/p>\n

Although a huge proportion of buses have only been in public control for several months, some councillors were incensed by how long it will take to carry out the network review.<\/p>\n

Phil Burke said: \u201cWe have been led up the garden path. It was supposed to happen after tranche one, and after tranche two, and there was supposed to be something at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have clearly been led astray by the bus team. The bus services we have in Rochdale<\/a> are really bad. We need to address them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, \u2018early intervention\u2019 is being considered to improve services in two areas where buses do not arrive every hour, namely Horrocks Fold in Bolton and West Trafford. The other areas to get bus improvements sooner include Rusholme<\/a>, Whalley Range<\/a>, and Blackley<\/a> New Road in Manchester; Ordsall Lane in Salford<\/a>; and Alexandra Park in Oldham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the need for improvements in some areas, the report said buses were getting more popular, with a 14pc increase in bus usage in the first areas to get the Bee Network.<\/p>\n

Three-quarters of Bee Network services were on-time in March 2025, compared to roughly two-thirds when they were run privately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report also revealed 388,000 – more than the population of Wigan – do not have easy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[8916,15333,748,393,4884,2465,285,8825,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-217493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-bee-network","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-transport-for-greater-manchester","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114753047401587626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}