Before Burnham: deregulation
Outside London, buses were deregulated in the 1980s. Private operators chose routes, fares and service patterns. Public authorities were left to subsidise socially necessary routes and negotiate around a system they did not control. The result was fragmentation: different tickets, weak integration, uneven coverage and services shaped around shareholder incentives rather than the whole network.
The decision
The Bus Services Act 2017 gave mayoral combined authorities the power to franchise bus services. In March 2021, Burnham decided Greater Manchester would use that power. It was a major institutional choice: the public would set the network, operators would bid to run services, and Transport for Greater Manchester would regain strategic control.
Deregulation removed local public control over most English bus services outside London.
The Bus Services Act created a legal route for mayoral areas to franchise buses.
Burnham decided to introduce bus franchising across Greater Manchester.
The Bee Network launched first in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Bury and Salford.
All Greater Manchester buses moved into Bee Network control, covering 577 routes and around 1,600 buses.
The next test is rail integration: priority lines, stations, fares and ticketing under one local system.
What changed
Routes
The public authority can plan the network as a whole rather than treating profitable and non profitable routes as separate problems.
Fares
Greater Manchester kept a simple £2 bus cap for 2025, made possible by local control over the network.
Standards
Contracts can specify vehicles, branding, accessibility, service quality and performance requirements.
Integration
The point is one network: bus, tram, active travel and local rail, with simpler ticketing and clear accountability.
The future
The next phase is not just more yellow buses. It is rail integration, bus priority, real time information, contactless caps, better interchanges and a minimum standard of service across towns as well as the city centre.
Nationally, the programme takes the Bee Network model and applies it to every mayoral and county transport authority that wants it. The state does not have to own every depot on day one. It has to set the rules, control the routes, regulate fares, and make the network legible to passengers.
The programme position
Transport is a public service and a productive asset. The Bee Network proves public control can be practical, phased and cheaper than the chaos of deregulation. HS2 and rail nationalisation are the same argument at a larger scale.
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