Costing the buses: Is Burnham's Bee Network the best way forward or a wrong turning for public transport?

NOT perfect, but improving all the time, was how Andy Burnham described his publicly-controlled Bee Network of buses and trams during a public Q&A event in Rochdale.

- ROB PARSONS

“People say to me, ‘you've made no changes, you just painted the buses yellow,” the Greater Manchester mayor told the audience at Rochdale Central Library.

“No, actually, because the thing about public control is, we, you, me, all of us, we now control the fare box.”

In recent days Greater Manchester's move to run its own buses has come under attack from a Tory MP on cost grounds. But local officials hope that if things go well it will actually cost taxpayers less than the failing system it replaced.

Successfully bringing the privatised local bus network under public control, overcoming burdensome legislation and numerous legal challenges, is unquestionably Mr Burnham's biggest achievement since becoming mayor in 2017.

It has been hailed by Labour's government Ministers and fellow metro mayors, who are following Greater Manchester in the hope of reversing decades of falling bus passenger numbers since Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of the service in the 1980s.

Even Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, a critic of the idea in the past who still points to the hefty public subsidy it requires, recently told an event in Newcastle: “He's got there, he’s worked through it. So, good on him. He's been elected three times. That must be what the people of Greater Manchester want, so well done.”

The consensus among the North's Labour leaders is that taking responsibility for bus routes and fares away from private operators and into the hands of public authorities, is a good thing.

And Greater Manchester officials say their scheme has been delivered “on time and on budget”.

Leaders point to more affordable fares, improved punctuality, newer and greener buses and a steady increase in the number of journeys compared with the old privatised system.