BOOM & BUS

As a new era of public transport begins today in Greater Manchester, the M.E.N looks back at its 200-year history 

- PAUL BRITTON

TODAY marks a new dawn in the history of bus services in Greater Manchester another chapter in a story dating back almost 200 years.

At times it's been a wild ride, with decades of boom then bust, socalled 'pirate' bus firms and bus 'wars' sparked by Margaret Thatcher's privatisation model of the 1980s.

And it all began in 1824 - with a horse-drawn carriage slowly winding its way into the city from Salford.

Political changes and social conscience have altered the landscape in terms of buses as much as advances in transport technology have, with the launch of franchising this weekend marking the biggest shake-up in almost 40 years.

Private operators now have no say over routes, fares, frequencies, timetables and overall standards, giving power back to the paying public and paving the way for the Bee Network - a vision of integrated bus, tram and eventually train travel in our city region.

It's perhaps a little known fact that the UK's first ever bus route was in Greater Manchester. In 1824, John Greenwood's first horse-drawn omnibus service ran between Pendleton in Salford and Manchester five years before the more famous Shillibeer bus started in London.

It cost passengers 6d a pop, or around £4.20 in today's money.

Greenwood's company flourished and by the middle of the 19th century he was running hundreds of horse-buses in Manchester.

Then in the 1870s, came tramways, powered by horses. Manchester City Council effectively franchised the operation of the trams they had built to Greenwood's, whose business was renamed 'Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company.

By the Edwardian era, all local authorities had taken over their tramways, using compulsory purchase powers. In this city, for example, there was Manchester Corporation Tramways.

By 1914, Greater Manchester was part of the most extensive electric tramway network in the world.