50,000 without a bus

More than 50,000 people in Greater Manchester have no access to daytime bus or tram service — but it’s set to take years to fix.

Every bus in Greater Manchester was taken into the Bee Network on January 5, a major step in Andy Burnham’s mission to create an integrated ‘London-style’ public transport system.

But daytime Bee Network buses, Metrolink trams, and ‘demand-responsive transport’ such as ring and ride buses fail to stop within 400-metres of 51,309 people in the city, a new report has revealed.

That means the Bee Network’s ‘minimum baseline connectivity level’ is not met in 148 places. 

Another 388,525 people — more than the population of Wigan — have no access to a bus service that runs at least every half-hour, the report added.

One proposed benefit of taking buses into public control was the ability to change services based on residents’ needs, which the mayor promised would take place with regular ‘network reviews’.

However, the same report revealed it will take up to three years to implement the changes recommended by network reviews, with Trafford and parts of Manchester only seeing alterations in summer 2028.

The first boroughs to get Bee Network buses, Wigan and Bolton in September 2023, will be first to see modifications, in autumn 2026.

Alison Chew, the Bee Network’s deputy director of bus, said it will take time because bosses ‘looked back at connectivity assessment to get a baseline picture of Greater Manchester’.

Although a huge proportion of buses have only been in public control for several months, some councillors were incensed by how long it will take to carry out the network review.

Phil Burke said: “We have been led up the garden path. It was supposed to happen after tranche one, and after tranche two, and there was supposed to be something at the end of last year.

“We have clearly been led astray by the bus team. The bus services we have in Rochdale are really bad. We need to address them.”

However, ‘early intervention’ is being considered to improve services in two areas where buses do not arrive every hour, namely Horrocks Fold in Bolton and West Trafford. The other areas to get bus improvements sooner include Rusholme, Whalley Range, and Blackley New Road in Manchester; Ordsall Lane in Salford; and Alexandra Park in Oldham.

Despite the need for improvements in some areas, the report said buses were getting more popular, with a 14pc increase in bus usage in the first areas to get the Bee Network.

Three-quarters of Bee Network services were on-time in March 2025, compared to roughly two-thirds when they were run privately.