{"id":626870,"date":"2025-12-11T19:29:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626870\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T19:29:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:29:25","slug":"andy-burnham-unveils-first-bee-network-train-at-manchester-piccadilly-in-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626870\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham unveils first Bee Network train at Manchester Piccadilly in ‘new era’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greater Manchester Mayor has promised a ‘new era’ of Bee Network Rail – and a 24\/7 Airport trainGreater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham at Piccadilly(Image: Jason Roberts \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham unveiled his bright, yellow vision for Greater Manchester\u2019s railways today \u2014 promising \u2018a new era\u2019 for passengers.<\/p>\n

The mayor beamed as he posed for photos by a yellow Bee Network-branded train at Manchester Piccadilly on Thursday (December 11), designed to promote the first of eight commuter lines coming into his control<\/a> in just over a year. He is already making some changes, shaking-up ticketing last weekend and promising \u2018through-the-night\u2019 city centre to Manchester Airport<\/a> services.<\/p>\n

The first two Bee Network Rail lines will be Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge<\/a>, and Manchester Piccadilly and Glossop, beginning operation on December 13, 2026. A year later, Piccadilly to Manchester Airport, Alderley Edge and Buxton via Stockport<\/a> join the system, and by the end of 2028, services from town to Rochdale<\/a>, Wigan<\/a> via Atherton, Wigan via Bolton<\/a> (onward to Southport) and Wigan via Golborne will enter Bee Network Rail.<\/p>\n

‘It’s pretty striking, isn’t it?'(Image: Jason Roberts \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

It means that by 2028, Greater Manchester should have a transport system where passengers can use one bank card to simply tap-and-go on buses, trams, and trains, much like London. More punctual services, new rolling stock, and cheaper tickets are also being promised by the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty striking, isn\u2019t it?,\u201d he remarked to reporters. \u201cWhat a huge symbol of another new era that\u2019s opening up for Greater Manchester. Bee Network Rail, just one year out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there is \u2018alignment\u2019 between his office, the government, and rail companies to make the plan happen. However, the launch of Bee Network rail began with Mr Burnham trying to smooth over differences with ministers.<\/p>\n

He wants Greater Manchester\u2019s trains to be painted yellow, in line with Bee Network buses and Metrolink<\/a> trams, but a recently unveiled livery of Great British Rail, set to replace many operators in the coming years, has a Union Jack motif.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m going to make it really clear. I want to see all of our commuter trains in Bee Network yellow livery. I think it helps rail passengers if there\u2019s a clear livery in the city-region so they know what\u2019s a Greater Manchester service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Burnham speaks to members of the press(Image: Jason Roberts \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The difference in opinion illustrates how many different organisations need to work together to make Bee Network rail a success. Transport commissioner Vernon Everitt explained: \u201cWe are presenting the public an integrated system, but behind the scenes there are still clear roles and accountabilities for people. For things like delay-repay, that would still fall to the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing happy families also must come at a time when Greater Manchester\u2019s infrastructure is in dire need of investment \u2014 meaning tough choices on which services will be prioritised on ageing tracks, Mr Burnham admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be those tensions, but\u2026 Network Rail has signed up to the plan with us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of lots of arguments about what\u2019s going right and wrong in the rail industry, finally, we\u2019re all getting on the same page together and saying, \u2018look, let\u2019s just get on the journey of improvement, put differences behind us and make the trains work better for people in Greater Manchester\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company operating the majority of Bee Network Rail services will be Northern. Its managing director Tricia Williams is under no illusions she needs her company to uphold its end of the bargain.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI don\u2019t think we would be having this event today, if we hadn\u2019t proved over the last year we could deliver that stability. We are now all partners in delivering a more connected transport system in Greater Manchester, so he will hold me to account, as he does, but equally, I want to make sure that we can deliver as part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Greater Manchester Mayor has promised a ‘new era’ of Bee Network Rail – and a 24\/7 Airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[8916,15333,748,393,4884,2465,1836,20082,8825,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-626870","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-network-rail","15":"tag-northern","16":"tag-transport-for-greater-manchester","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115702596701689896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626870","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=626870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}