It’s not very often you can get excited about a bus. Sure, they do well at getting us from A to B but the big vehicles are a pretty mundane part of daily life for most of us. Brace yourselves, though – the new buses in Greater Manchester are actually a pretty big deal.
Known collectively as the Bee Network, the swanky new vehicles mark the first time that deregulation has been reversed in England.
Let’s break that down a bit: deregulation happened back in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher. It meant that buses were transferred to private companies, and that many local authorities outside of London lost control over their bus services.
Apparently since the legislation, passenger numbers in Greater Manchester dwindled from 355 million per year in 1986/7 to 182 million in 2019. For comparison, London, which didn’t see such deregulation, saw numbers double.
The Bee Network, however, is locally controlled and mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham hopes it will result in cheaper fares and more efficient and reliable services. He called the launch of the fleet ‘a coming-of-age moment for English devolution’.
Around 100 yellow buses and 50 electric buses will begin operating in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Salford and Bury. The rest are due to be rolled out by 2025. It is hoped that around 500 buses will be in use as part of the Bee Network by 2027.
According to Transport for Greater Manchester, the electric vehicles will cut carbon emissions by a whopping 1.1 million tonnes and see a zero-emission bus fleet by 2032.
ICYMI: Manchester’s version of the High Line is about to get even more spectacular.
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