Transport for Greater Manchester says 740,000 people will benefit from the changes. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianTransport for Greater Manchester says 740,000 people will benefit from the changes. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianNight buses will run to every Greater Manchester borough as Bee Network expandsChanges revealed by Andy Burnham to support night-time economy follow rapid growth in ridership
Night buses will run to every borough in Greater Manchester as the city region expands its publicly controlled Bee Network.
The mayor, Andy Burnham, announced a number of new services alongside figures showing rapid growth in ridership since buses were taken back under public control in 2023.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said 740,000 people – roughly one in four of Greater Manchester’s population – would benefit from the planned changes.
Burnham said: “We put the bee on the side of the buses to denote that public control. And now we’re acting visibly, tangibly in the interests of our residents with these changes that we’re bringing through.”
The changes, due to be implemented in the coming months, are designed to improve connections in the city region’s most deprived areas and provide more services for the night-time economy and key employment and visitor destinations.
The mayor said: “The one that is quite emblematic is the return of a night bus service to all 10 boroughs. It should be a basic for a city like ours – but it’s been some time since we’ve had that. Supporting that night-time economy means a great deal to people here, and reinforces where [the city] is at the moment, what it’s becoming.”
The Bee Network launched in late 2023 as the first integrated transport system outside London, with bus routes set and franchised by the mayor, and combined fares for trams.
Burnham said: “You lower the fares, you improve frequency, you put routes back, people will use it – and they are.”
The total distance covered by Greater Manchester buses grew 7% in the 2024-25 financial year to 82m kilometres – more than double the rate of growth of the rest of England, according to figures from TfGM. It said the network has brought a 14% increase in bus journeys in a year, and improved punctuality, while the changes announced on Thursday will add 2.5m kilometres a year.
The new night buses will reach currently unserved areas including Oldham, Stockport, Trafford and Tameside, meaning all 10 boroughs will now have buses round the clock – albeit some only from Thursday to Saturday nights each week.
More buses will also run to and from Greater Manchester’s key employment hubs, including business parks in Rochdale and Bolton, MediaCityUK in Salford, and to Manchester airport.
Burnham said improving transport services was one of the most impactful things leaders could do, and it could help to resist “a more poisonous form of politics”.
In 25 years as an elected politician, he said, “I’ve never known anything as impactful as the Bee Network. And it makes me wonder, why did Westminster just ignore buses for all of those years? Because this is something that is on every street, in every community, in the whole city region.
“When anyone goes on a bus here and taps on [they are] connecting with political decisions that have delivered a different transport system.”
Burnham, who is regarded as a rival to Keir Starmer, added: “If we’re to protect what we built here, we have to stop the march of that [poisonous] politics. You know, these are the people who applauded Maggie [Thatcher] when she forced us to break up GM buses in the mid 1980s.”
Other combined authorities and metro mayors in the north are hoping to emulate the Bee Network’s success. South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard this week announced a blueprint for a People’s Network, which will similarly rebrand and integrate the Sheffield-centred tram network and the region’s buses after they are taken back into public control next year.
Regional leaders will have further scope for growth ambitions after the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced plans on Tuesday to devolve control of a share of national taxes. Burnham said it was exciting and “possibly the most significant moment” since George Osborne first announced devolution plans.
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