24-hour services and flat £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares included in new Greater Manchester bus plans
A new five-year plan being discussed tomorrow iincludes new £1.50 'hopper' fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, and more evening and Sunday services.
The mayor and council bosses have submitted new plans to Westminster to help make bus travel cheaper for thousands of people in Greater Manchester.
The £1 billion bid for cheaper fares sees a long-term goal to overhaul bus travel in the region take another step forward after the mayor confirmed plans to bring buses back into public control.
The five-year plan, due to be discussed by leaders on Friday morning, features new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares, 70 new 10-minute service routes, 2,000 more accessible bus stops and more evening and Sunday services – not to mention redesigned and rebuilt transport interchanges.
This would mean be there would be 70 new bus routes, with regular ten-minute services making it much easier to just turn up and go – rather than having to hang around in the bus station for half an hour (or longer) waiting for your next ride.
The bid also promises to include 20 new outes with ‘24 hour services’ and ‘three or four’ express bus routes for places not served by the Metrolink, although it is not clear as to where specifically these will be.
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Whilst there is currently no list of where these high-frequency services would run, there is a map to gie some indication – showing them spreading throughout the region.
Credit: GMCA / TfGM
Andy Burnham has previously made a lot of noise about bringing a London-style travel network to Manchester. These new plans are the first step in that direction.
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By simplifying the range of different bus fairs across Greater Manchester into flat £1.50 rates that can be used to hop on and off services, daily fares for travellers across the region will be reduced by around 25%.
Plans to make travel cheaper and simple across the ten boroughs also include ‘attractively priced one day and one-week travelcards’ as well as the new £1.50 ‘hopper’ fares.
But of course, improvement costs money – hence why the mayor and council bosses have submitted their bid to the government’s ‘Bus Services Improvement Plan’ fund.
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According to the calculations made in the report, a rising subsidy of between £10m and £60m (by 2030) would be required from central government in order to keep fares at these cheap levels for passengers – notwithstanding dropping passenger levels caused by Covid.
Whilst suggesting a range of different bus corridors, for the fastest routes inspiration has been drawn from the Leigh Guided Busway.
Credit: GMCA / TfGM
Plans would involve the segregation of large swathes of highway, and come as part of a longer-term solution.
In the short term, the authority also wants to upgrade eight current key routes – notably Salford Crescent to Media City, Wigan to Bolton, Rochdale-Oldham-Ashton, Bury Rochdale and Ashton-Stockport -adding more accessible bus stops, as well as more signs, gates and signal priorities.
Routes between Altrincham to Carrington and Sale West to Broadheath are also included in the upgrade plans.
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There is also plans to make the majority of the bus fleet electric, with two-thirds of buses in the plans would be electric, whilst the rest would be remodelled existing vehicles in the network.
Council bosses will discuss the plans on Friday 29, October.
Feature image – Commons Wikimedia
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Micah Richards reveals dad ‘unexpectedly’ died shortly before going on air for England v Argentina last night
Emily Sergeant
Micah Richards has revealed that his dad died shortly before he went on air for the World Cup semi final last night.
The former right back – who most-notably played for Manchester City for a decade from 2005-2015, and for the England national team from 2006-2012 – was one of the BBC’s pundits providing on-air analysis last night as England faced Argentina in a highly anticipated semi final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup last night.
The two teams faced off in Atlanta, and while goals came from both sides, it was ultimately Argentina that reigned supreme – securing a 2-1 win over the Three Lions.
But while much of the country is grieving the fact that football won’t be ‘coming home’ (well, for another two years at least), Richards is grieving on a deeper level.
He took to Instagram after the loss last night to share with his 1.4m followers that shortly before he went on air, his father Lincoln passed away ‘unexpectedly’ – calling him the ‘proudest parent possible’ in a touching tribute.
“He has left us all too soon,” Richards began in his tribute.
“Hwas my greatest fan. He barely missed a game my entire life. He would take me wherever I needed to go when I was a kid and he was the proudest parent possible during my professional career. It was so rare for him to not be by my side.
“I know how much watching England World Cup games means to everyone at home, and how the experience bonds families together across the generations, like nothing else.
“I know, particularly as a proud old-school Yorkshireman, dad would’ve wanted the show to go on this evening. And so it did.”
Argentina facing disciplinary action for controversial banner after beating England
Danny Jones
In the aftermath of England crashing out of the 2026 World Cup following their defeat in the semi-final, their opponents Argentina look set to face disciplinary action for a controversial flag held up in the wake of beating their old enemies.
For anyone who quickly turned off the telly after the Three Lions‘ 2-1 defeat and might have missed it, the Argentinian national squad waved a makeshift sign which read: “Las Malvinas son Argentinas.”
In English, this translates to “The Falklands are Argentine.”
Referring to the historic conflict between the two countries, which took place more than four decades ago, the statement has been described as inflammatory by some, with No. 10 Downing Street having issued an official response as the team now reportedly risks punishment by FIFA.
Multiple major outlets now believe that a financial penalty at the very least is expected to be passed down for the divisive political message.
As noted by the BBC above, this is by no means the first time this has happened, and perceived ‘tragedy chanting’ among other problematic behaviour from both fan bases has been a recurring issue whenever the two sides have played since.
To put things into context, the Falklands War, which lasted for 74 days, led to the deaths of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen, with three civilians on the islands also losing their lives.
As such, there is still plenty of bad blood between the South American country and Great Britain, with members of the nation’s leading party even weighing in with provocative and rather public posts on social media ahead of the game.
Vice President Victoria Villarruel has been among the most vocal online.
Jogadores argentinos mostram bandeira com a frase “As Malvinas são nossas”.
The reaction from the UK government was direct, too, with business secretary Peter Kyle telling Sky News: “I had left and gone to bed before the banner came onto the pitch, but I saw the images this morning, and of course, it’s entirely inappropriate.
“Politics should stay away from football. That is a very clear principle of the World Cup, but any consequences that come from that are now a decision for FIFA.”
Speaking to the BBC, he went on to add: “We expect FIFA to undertake an investigation into this. I think it was certain to happen because it was such an egregious violation of the rules of not having political activity as part of football.”
It’s also worth noting that Argentina have prior form for this kind of display.
Will Argentina be punished for holding up the Falklands banner?
After winning 2-1 over England, the players took a banner from their supporters, which said in Spanish: "The Falkland Islands are Argentinian."
The predicted outcome looks more than likely, with FIFA having previously fined £20,000 for a similar stunt before a friendly against Slovenia back in 2014.
‘La Albiceleste’ and their fellow compatriots won’t care one bit, of course, as they’re now into another World Cup final and could join Brazil, Italy and France in becoming back-to-back global champions.
Meanwhile, plenty have criticised Thomas Tuchel‘s change in tactics and substitutions as England went more defensive after going a goal up, and the post-mortem from his first run as manager will no doubt continue in the coming days; whether he makes it consecutive tournaments or not, we’ll wait and see.
If you can bring yourself to watch it back, you can watch the highlights along with the extended post-match reaction in full down below.
Georgina Pellant -
28th October 2021 
