The 5th of January 2026 marks one year since all ten Greater Manchester local authorities joined the Bee Network. While there have been a number of interesting ideas, innovations and improvements, there is still a lot of work to be done if TfGM and GMCA genuinely want to encourage people to use the buses, and to give bus users a decent experience.
Here are some thoughts on how it's been going over the past 12 months. Firstly, the bad news...
There is a sense of complacency at big companies who have kept most of the routes they were running, pre Bee Network:
Many routes are still being run by companies who were running them pre-Bee Network, and they often weren't running them that well. This has continued into the Bee Network era with companies such as Stagecoach returning to bad habits like pulling buses that are running late and stranding passengers at bus stops. Passengers only find out this has happened when the bus they are waiting for never turns up and disappears off the app without any explanation.
The binning buses phenomenon is often tied to traffic congestion (which I'll talk about in a bit) but it really doesn't help to encourage bus use because, if it happens on a regular basis on the same route (the 383 for example) then it just puts you off using that route.
Capacity and overcrowding
Capacity has been reduced across the smallest sized buses (ie the yellow Tiny Buses) as they are smaller than their pre-Bee Network alternatives. This is having an impact on overcrowding at peak times (during the morning and afternoon school runs and rush hours) which, even without the impact of smaller buses, is no better than previously, in fact it's sometimes worse.
More judicious use of the tiny buses (ie not using them at times when routes are guaranteed to be at their busiest) and expanded timetables to include extra buses at peak times on busy routes, would help to alleviate both problems. I type this as someone who has had the 385 drive past them during the evening rush hour because the bus was too small to accommodate the number of of passengers needing to get on, meaning it was full before it had completed even a third of its route.
Reliability
Some buses are less reliable than previously, for example the 385, which changed provider from D&G to Diamond under the Bee Network. This went from a pretty solid, friendly, reliable service under D&G to a thoroughly unreliable one under Diamond. I suspect that there will be other examples of this.
Scrapped routes
As I wrote at the time, I thoroughly understand and support TfGM's decision to bin off the 375 given that it was basically a ghost bus that the operator was milking for the subsidy, but... That doesn't mean that Marple and Bosden Farm don't need transport links to Hazel Grove and Stepping Hill Hospital. At the moment both communities are almost entirely cut off from their neighbouring borough and local hospital. Which is insane.
A solution would be to design a new route that takes in Marple, Bosden Farm, Hazel Grove, Stepping Hill and possibly Bramhall (which is not well served for buses). It would also need to be a more frequent service than the 375, which wouldn't be hard as the 375 was only every 2 hours most of the time and, sometimes, it was only every 4 hours. Similarly, it would need to be reliable and actually turn up which was also a problem with the 375. It would also be useful if the timetable fitted in with visiting times at Stepping Hill Hospital.
High Frequency Buses
High frequency buses are a joke and don't exist for the majority of travellers in Greater Manchester. In fact, there is a direct correlation between those routes which are high frequency buses and those which were the biggest cash cows for bus companies, pre Bee Network. A classic example of this would be the 192, which had at least three bus wars fought over it during the 1990s and 2000's, a series of wars that only ended when Stagecoach's rivals, UK North, were stripped of a licence to operate. High frequency buses need to be designed and determined based on need, not on what happened after deregulation in 1986.
The Bee Network app
While the Bee Network app is useful and includes real time travel information, it's best used in situations where you're travelling home using a route you aren't familiar with and where you just want to quickly see when the next bus is due.
It isn't reliable enough to be used to make complex decisions about which bus to get.
If it's a choice between deciding which bus to catch at which stop based on the app, or walking a longer distance to get to a stop that all the local buses stop at, you're much better off taking the longer walk to the stop all the local buses stop at.
Road congestion
There are some problems that TfGM, GMCA and the Bee Network cannot change. Needless to say, at peak times, it can often be quicker and easier to walk long distances than to wait for buses that clearly are not coming.
There might be things that can be done to alleviate this in the grander sense. For example, Stockport Council have an ongoing consultation about one of the more epic pinch points on Marple Road and how they might make things a bit better, but without good leadership and genuinely helpful and workable policy at a national government and local government level then it's unlikely that our roads will get any better any time soon.
Bus stops are frequently inaccessible thanks to car drivers
While the implementation of accessible buses with drop floors (except on the Tiny Buses alas, where the driver still has to get out of their seat and flip the ramp down), greater space for wheelchairs (again, except on the Tiny Buses) and visual and audio stop display information mark a distinct improvement for those with disabilities, there have been problems.
Specifically, a lack of road markings at bus stops and a tendency for local residents to use these stops as car parks coupled with the sense that any bus stop next to a shop is also fair game for drivers, often leads to buses being unable to stop at the bus stop and instead having to stop just down from it or, worse case scenario (and this does happen), simply open their doors in the middle of the road. To say this undermines accessible access would be an understatement.
The bus stops on Nangreave Road on the 385 route, the bus stop next to Lentils & Lather on Marple Road in Marple, and the bus stop next to Premier on Dialstone Lane in Offerton are all notoriously bad for being clogged up and inaccessible thanks to cars.
Bus shelters, where they exist, are often in a poor state of repair
I am thinking of the one at the junction of Lisburne Lane and Marple Road, heading towards Marple, which had a massive hole in the roof just before Christmas. Using that bus stop in torrential rain was not fun. In a related note, there are a number of bus stops I've used that have lights fitted which aren't working. Which is similarly fun when it's dark.
Cross boundary travel related issues
Cross boundary routes appear to be equally if not more vulnerable under the Bee Network: For example, there is now no bus at all between Stockport and Macclesfield and commuters between the two towns are left entirely at the mercy of Northern Trains: Not a happy prospect. The only other way to get to Macclesfield from Stockport would be to get in a car and join the daily gridlock along the A6 and Silk Road, then the bun fight for a parking space in Macclesfield itself. Good luck with that.
Concessionary travel issues
While it's great to see the Bee Network and TfGM scrapping the 9:30am start for the retired persons bus pass, there remain issues around other types of concessionary travel.
Some of these issues are national issues, but some have a local aspect to them, and as we have seen with the scrapping of the 9:30am rule, just because it's a local issue doesn't mean something can't be done locally.
There has been a number of local campaigns throughout the UK for children under 16 to receive free bus travel, which they currently don't get. Many are not even guaranteed free bus travel to school. There's a much undersigned petition demanding free bus travel for under 16's, which you might want to consider signing.
Less known about are issues faced by those aged 16-19 who are travelling to sixth form college within Greater Manchester but from outside of the Greater Manchester area. This will be a trickier issue to resolve than the other two issues, but it is one that is worth looking at if only because the current system has, accidentally, led to some howling inequalities for a small number of college students.
I suspect that money will be the main barrier to change in each of these areas, but I remain hopeful nonetheless.
Good stuff
As well as the incoming scrapping of the 9:30am start for retired persons bus pass, meaning that pensioners (from March 2026) will no longer have to pay to travel before 9:30am and will be able to attend medical and hospital appointments without having to worry about being able to afford the travel costs, we have also seen the very welcome return of the annual any bus pass. This is a really good thing because it means that you can save money on your cost of travel across the year by buying your ticket at the start of the year. By buying your ticket at the start of the year you also have the satisfaction of knowing you're covered for 12 months and don't have to buy a new ticket every month. There's also the new option of buying the (admittedly very expensive) annual ticket in instalments via a credit union. A nice innovation and a good idea.
In other good news, new contracts for drivers now mean that a driver from one company can move to a different company operating within the Bee Network without having to start again at the new company on the basic salary.
I am also, personally, very pleased about the wider introduction of audio and visual stop announcements which, while provided for accessibility reasons, are essential when travelling in the dark.
While the introduction of the Bee Network across Greater Manchester is rightly being hailed as a triumph, there are still improvements to be made.
At a basic level, there should be a baseline standard of training for drivers that all operators operating under the Bee Network sign up to and stick to. This would hopefully avoid drivers being sent out on buses who are woefully ill equipped in terms of knowing the route and how to operate equipment. It would also hopefully reduce the risk of drivers getting lost or having to ask for directions from passengers when driving their routes.
There should also be a baseline standard of service that all operators operating under the Bee Network sign up to and stick to in terms of providing a credible, reliable and prompt service using vehicles that are fit for purpose. This would hopefully reduce the risk of services running more than 10 minutes late on a regular basis (I am looking at you 385...) and drivers turning up in vehicles that look like converted ambulances (admittedly, this has only happened once...).
I had thought that both of these things would be happening anyway but bitter experience over the past 12 months suggests it's not always the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment