There can surely be little surprise that franchising is Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s preferred option for the future of bus services in the city region.
He has hinted as much several times since he was elected in 2017 and Transport for Greater Manchester was advocating much the same before that. His political instinct and convictions favour such a move, which he believes will reverse the downsides of 33 years of deregulation.
He will seek — and likely secure — reelection next year on a manifesto that will include his 10-year vision of an integrated public transport and active travel network called Our Network. One that will bring together buses, Metrolink trams, bike hire and — if he can wrench them out of central government control — local heavy rail services. One in which there will be more trams on more new lines.
Burnham’s sales pitch is that this will be a ‘London-style transport system’.
In his eyes, that means ‘integrated, simple and convenient’ with easy interchanges between modes, ‘affordable’ ticketing and a daily cap on fares paid for by contactless cards and mobile phones. Many people imagine the same when thinking of a Londonstyle system.
But not OneBus, the partnership of most c…
