Bus Franchising
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Greater Manchester has changed the way buses are run.
We’ve made history as the first area outside London to bring all local bus services under local control in almost 40 years.
On 5 January 2025, the final local bus services were ‘franchised’, with all decisions about local Bee Network bus services now made locally. Services are now accountable to the people, businesses and communities of Greater Manchester.
- Introduced in three phases since September 2023, franchising has seen some 577 routes, 1,600 buses carrying more than 160 million trips per year come under local control.
- As a result, we’re already starting to reverse decades-long decline to deliver improved services, better, cleaner buses and more affordable fares: with a 5% increase in passengers over a 12-month period.
Bus franchising has been delivered on time and on budget. Fares revenue is above forecast and the cost of running franchised services is reduced by a third (compared to having to intervene in the private deregulated bus market).
Greater Manchester is setting the blueprint for others to follow.
What is franchising?
Franchising means that we can now:
- Plan the bus network to make sure it links up with other transport, so you can quickly and easily change between services.
- Choose bus operators and decide where buses run, how often and at what times, setting targets for buses to be reliable, run on time, and meet high standards.
- Make paying for travel simpler, with a range of low cost, value for money tickets, and daily and weekly price caps on bus and tram fares.
- Offer a one-stop-shop for travel information and customer support through the Bee Network app, website and Information and Ticket offices.
- Roll out the Bee Network’s attractive, easy to recognise brand across our services.
Keeping fares low and driving passenger growth
Greater Manchester was the first place outside London to limit the cost of travel, with the introduction of the £2 ‘cap’ for a single adult journey (£1 for a child) in September 2022.
Introduced to help people with the rising cost of living, it reduced the average cost of travel for bus users by almost 20% and resulted in a 5% growth in patronage.
A national £2 fare cap scheme was subsequently introduced, and while that rose to £3 in January 2025, Greater Manchester has kept the £2 cap for 2025 – subject to a mid-year review – due to the decisions it has been able to take around its bus network.
The journey to franchised bus services
Greater Manchester has a long history of campaigning for better bus services. Following direct pressure from Greater Manchester, the Bus Services Act 2017 was introduced.
This gave Mayors of city-regions the power to introduce a bus franchising scheme in their local areas.
Greater Manchester undertook a major assessment of the existing bus network – and a 20-week long public consultation showing a high level of public support for the proposals.
In March 2021, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham decided to introduce a franchised network as the best way to improve local bus services in Greater Manchester.
- On 23 September 2023, the first Bee Network buses began running in Bolton and Wigan, and parts of Bury, Salford and Manchester.
- On 24 March 2024, Bee Network bus services were introduced in Oldham, Rochdale, and parts of Bury, Salford and north Manchester.
- On 5 January 2025 the remaining bus services in Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and parts of Manchester and Salford joined the Bee Network.